• by Les Luchter , March 18, 2025

Dutch, a four-year-old telehealth service for pets, has launched its first TV campaign, with a dozen different commercials centered on connected TV services.

The spots, created by the New Engen agency, tout different advantages of using Dutch, such as this one touting ease of use and  this one stressing affordability of prescriptions, which the firm’s Founder/CEO Joe Spector tells Marketing Daily has been performing particularly well. (Dutch uses InnovidXP as a measurement tool.)

“Dutch offers a whole lot of things, so there’s different value props for different groups that we resonate with,” Spector explains. “The beauty of connected TV is that we can run one creative on Cartoon Network and a different creative on the Golf Channel, based on the audiences of those channels.”

Spector brings years of human telehealth experience to pet telehealth, having been a co-founder of Hims & Hers in 2017.  Spector left the latter after it went public in early 2021 and, having a new “pandemic puppy,” experienced firsthand how “crazy expensive veterinary costs are, and how long it takes to see a veterinarian.” So, he says, he decided to “take the inspiration and lots of lessons learned from Hims and apply it to pet care.”

Spector had wanted to name his puppy “Dutch” but had been “vetoed by my kids.” So he gave the moniker to his company, “where I’m boss.”

The TV campaign follows previous Dutch advertising via such media as Google, Meta, direct mail, podcasts and streaming audio.

The new ads are running on such services as Hulu, Disney+, Roku and Comcast-owned properties like Peacock.

And Dutch isn’t stopping with a dozen commercials, as Spector says the campaign is continually evolving. Up next: creative specifically geared to flea-and-tick season, which Spector calls the pet world’s equivalent of Christmas sales in ecommerce and traditional retail.”

Dutch users to date have over-indexed on women vs. men, dog owners versus cat owners, and multiple-pets versus single-pet households,  Spector says. “In geolocation, we do best in areas of urban sprawl, where it can can take an hour just driving back and forth” to the vet.

Age-wise, he says, “this isn’t a Gen Z service, we see 25% of our customer base over 55, but notes that, “at the macro level, we know that Gen Z consumers spend a lot more on their pets.”

The campaign’s overall goal, per Spector, is to drive annual subscriptions vs. monthly ones, which for consumers takes the price down from $35/month to $11/month. The current breakdown between annual and monthly subscribers is 50/50, he says.

“Since we’ve launched, we’ve had over 500,000 customers,” Spector  notes, and “90% of the time, we’re able to take care of the issue without the pet needing to be seen in person.: For that other 10%, though, he reveals that Dutch is starting to send referrals to Petco’s Vetco Clinics.

And what if your pet, particularly cats, won’t sit still for a camera?

Take the camera to them.  Some 90% of Dutch visits happen via mobile, Spector says, allowing the cat “to behave normally. They’re a completely different self at a vet’s office.  With your phone camera, the cat especially is a lot more comfortable seeing a vet through digital because they're in their natural environment.”

Another reason for the campaign, Spector says, is to show pet owners that “this thing you didn’t even know existed is here. And it’s going to make your like a whole lot easier if you ever need to see a veterinarian.”