AdMiration feature: The Farmer's Dog “The Jump”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to The Farmer’s Dog “The Jump” ad, which promotes the brand's line of fresh, personalized dog food.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a golden retriever joyfully running through the woods to the start of Tal Bachman’s “She’s So High” with the The Farmer’s Dog logo across the screen. 

The dog, running in great strides, reaches a dock and keeps going, with close ups of their paws across the boards. As the song reaches the peak of the first chorus, there’s various shots of the dog preparing to make the jump into the water, perfectly launching off to the lyrics “Cause she’s so high, high above me, she’s so lovely.” Which continues as the dog hits the water with a large splash. 

The epic scene cuts to the dog back on the dock, with their family of humans, who scream as the dog shakes the water off at them. The dog then turns to a bowl of Farmer’s Dog food that’s been prepared for them and as they begin to eat, the narrator says, “At The Farmer’s Dog, our fresh food plants keep dogs moving and shaking.”

The ad closes with a zoomed out shot of the dock, with the dog and family jumping back in the water and screaming as the words “The Farmer’s Dog” appear on screen.

3 facts

• This was an exceptionally strong ad from The Farmer’s Dog, landing in the top 5% of ads in potential to drive short-term sales (Sales Impact: 97) and brand equity over the longer term (Brand Impact: 94).

• The spot was strong across all 3 R’s: reach, resonance and response! This can be seen in how distinctive viewers found the ad to be, driving great reach allowing it to be noticed and remembered (Distinctiveness: 4.3 vs. 3.7 norm, Claimed Attention: 4.5 vs. 3.9,) how much the ad resonated with them with over half of the viewers choosing love as their dominant emotion (53% versus 27% norm) and a great response with viewers more likely to consider the brand (Purchase Uplift: 36% vs. 22% norm) after watching and differentiating the brand from others (Brand Distinctiveness 4.2 vs 3.7). 

• The ad does a great job at implicitly communicating the key benefits of the product, with 64% of viewers agreeing that The Farmer’s Dog food is healthy, Good for my pet (57%) and Fresh (48%). On top of that, viewers found the key message “The Farmer’s Dog delivers real nutrition made for active, happy dogs” to be seen as clear (Clarity: 4.5 vs. 4.2 norm) and believable (Believability: 4.4 vs. 4.1 norm).

2 learnings

• It's possible to create an ad that people love from start to finish by getting all the executional elements and key moments just right. In this case, the whole idea for the ad is lovable (Love: 53% vs 27% norm) and the storytelling is exceptional. From setting the scene with the dog running free and the music, to a major peak of love as the dog leaps into the water, showing his joy — which shifts to amusement as the dog shakes himself — and ending with another peak of love when one of the kids copies the leap, the ad does a fantastic job at telling the story of the beautiful connection between dog and owner.

• Music does a fantastic job at setting the emotional tone of an ad. In this case, the music was a key factor for the spot, with the song taking up the majority of the sound bites. In fact, the only words that are spoken occur within the last few seconds! This song choice from The Farmer’s Dog provided an excellent hit of nostalgia and did a fantastic job at tying into the storyline of the ad, with the big chorus lead up aligning perfectly with the dog’s big jump and landing a much higher than average musical appeal score (Musical appeal: 4.5 vs. 3.8). 

1 reflection

Is there a common theme among your ads your brand can be known for? A style that can easily signal your brand? In this case, The Farmer’s Dog has become known for the emotional pull in their advertising — particularly in the way they consistently show the connection between dogs and their owners. The Farmer’s Dog shows the power of fresh consistency by maintaining their theme of love and connection between owner and pet, but with a fresh twist. Instead of solely pulling at the heartstrings through viewer’s tear ducts, like in their Super Bowl hit “Forever,” the brand shows that same love and connection in a way that makes viewers smile and feel the joy of pets. By keeping with their theme in a fresh way, the brand unsurprisingly generated lots of love from viewers — with love performing significantly above the norm (Love: 53% vs. 27% norm) — as well as enjoyment (4.5 vs. 3.9 norm), with some viewers sharing, “I like the dog in the ad, he seems so happy and excited” and “I liked that it showed a happy dog doing what he loves.” 

The Farmer’s Dog's latest campaign features three ads (all with epic slo-mo moments) that highlight the benefits of their products and continues their effort to connect to owners and their pets through emotion. 

Created by the brand’s in-house creative team and directed by Cannes Lions winner Tucker Bliss, the series includes “The Jump,” “Young Again,” and “Great Hair,” all of which highlight different dogs showing off their best assets, each paired with a soundtrack that fits their personalities.

Jonathan Regev, The Farmer’s Dog cofounder and CEO, shares, “At The Farmer’s Dog, we’ve always believed in the power of authentic storytelling and celebrating dogs. Our new campaign pushes that even further. We’re highlighting those profoundly relatable, often humorous moments that define the bond we share with our pets, all while showcasing the life-changing benefits that come from feeding real, minimally processed food.”

This latest campaign follows the brand's Emmy-nominated Forever — doubling down on what the brand does best: emotionally resonant storytelling that finds joy and humor in dogs' most authentic moments.

People loved this heartwarming and joyful spot from The Farmer’s Dog, which landed in the top 5% of ads in potential to drive short-term sales (Sales Impact: 97) and brand equity over the longer term (Brand Impact: 94).

Viewers found the spot to be highly distinctive, driving great reach, which allows it to be noticed (Distinctiveness: 4.3 vs. 3.7 norm, Claimed Attention: 4.5 vs. 3.9,) and remembered by all!

The brand is also at the heart of this distinctive ad, playing the role of the hero for the dog’s health and hence viewers are able to remember exactly who the ad was for (Unaided Brand Recall: 76% vs. 70% norm). And not only that, viewers also remember the key associations the ad conveys about the brand (New Information: 4.1 vs. 3.7 norm) and found the key message “The Farmer’s Dog delivers real nutrition made for active, happy dogs” clear (Clarity: 4.5 vs. 4.2 norm) and believable (Believability: 4.4 vs. 4.1 norm). 

What’s more, over a third of viewers talk about the health benefits and they also agreed with the messaging that The Farmer’s Dog food is healthy (64%), Good for my pet (57%) and Fresh (48%). 

This spot also resonates exceptionally with audiences, who really enjoy it (Enjoyment: 4.5 vs. 3.9 norm), find it relevant (Relevance: 4.2 vs. 3.7 norm) and extremely emotive (Overall Emotion: 77 vs. 57 norm). And, after watching the ad, they believe that The Farmer’s Dog delivers what they need from a dog food brand (Brand Meets Needs: 4.5 vs. 4.1 norm).

Diving deeper into the emotional resonance, love is the highest emotion in this ad (Love: 53% vs. 27% norm). 

There’s a mixture of love and like throughout the beginning of the ad as the music plays and the dog is seen running. Love far surpasses like when we get to the chorus of the song and the dog is seen jumping through the air in slow motion. Then there’s a big spike of laughter when the scene cuts to the dog shaking water all over the family. It ends with another mixture of love and like as the narrator says “At The Farmer’s Dog, our fresh food plans keep dogs moving and shaking” and one final spike of love as the boy jumps into the water after the dog. 

People really like the people and characters — specifically the dog (15%), the emotional appeal of the story — people thinking it’s cute and making them smile and of course the music choice (9%) which also resulted in a higher than average Musical appeal score (Musical appeal: 4.5 vs. 3.8). 

Here’s what some had to say: 

• "I loved the dog running and seeming very happy especially when they jump really high into the lake. I loved how the dog shook off water on the people and then jumped back in the lake. The dog was agile, healthy and happy."

• "I like the fact that it is fresh made dog food. I know I can feel good about feeding my dog for his health and wellness. It's made fresh for your dog's specific needs."

• "I like the dog in the ad, he seems so happy and excited. I like seeing him jumping into the water and enjoying himself then jumping out and shaking off all over the people."

• "I liked that it showed a happy dog doing what he loves. Also some good relatable humor when he shakes off on everyone. The music is great and the silence is well-timed."

• "I loved the imagery of the ad, the beautiful dog, and the music!! I haven’t heard that song in forever"

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning the great response the ad receives from viewers. After watching the ad, viewers were much more likely to consider the brand the next time they are buying dog food (Purchase Uplift: 36% vs. 22% norm) — a true win for The Farmer’s Dog overall! 

This was another emotionally charged spot from The Farmer’s Dog, this time pulling at viewers’ funny bones! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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