• by Les Luchter , April 12, 2023

Pharma giant Merck has gone to the dogs!

Or, at least, its Merck Animal Health business.

A new twist on the company’s two-year-old “Bravo, Bravecto!” ad campaign provides a dog’s perspective on Bravecto Chews, a prescription flea-and-tick protection brand.

Bravecto’s selling point is that, while other brands only protect dogs for a month, Bravecto lasts 12 weeks.

So, a new :30 spot offers a side-by-side comparison of two dogs: one, labelled “other chews,” holds a bone in their mouth; the other, labelled Bravecto (but actually a labradoodle), holds a similar bone, which then grows in size until it’s “nearly three times longer.” Turns out that the Bravecto dog also has a much longer backyard and doghouse compared with that of the other dog.

Merck had launched the “Bravo, Bravecto!” campaign in 2021 with a spotfeaturing John Michael Higgins, one of the stars of the 2000 dog show mockumentary “Best in Show,” as the judge of a different kind of competition: one that directly pitted a canine using Bravecto against one using Boehringer Ingelheim’s NexGuard.

The new spot, which also includes :15 and :06 versions, was created by Concentric with media planning by Initiative. It’s running on broadcast, streaming, and other media, including networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, A&E, Bravo, USA, TBS, TNT and Animal Planet; shows like the “Today Show” and“Good Morning America"; OTT/online video services like YouTube, Roku, Hulu and Tubi; and social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The campaign, which is directed primarily to dog owners but also to the veterinarian community, began April 3 and will run through Nov. 17^.

Bravecto, launched in 2014, recently received Food and Drug Administration approval as the only product labeled to protect against Asian longhorned ticks. Merck also notes that, when paired with its Sentinel Spectrum Chews for heartworm disease prevention, dogs also get reduced risk of intestinal parasitic burdens like tapeworm.

Merck Animal Health had $5.5 billion in sales during 2022, or about 10% of parent Merck & Co.’s $59.3 billion, which was a 6% increase over 2021 sales.

The global flea, tick, and heartworm products market, meanwhile, grew from $2.58 billion in 2022 to $2.85 billion in 2023, according to a recent report by The Business Research Company. The industry is expected to grow 9.2% annually, reaching $4.06 billion in 2027, the researcher said.