The advertising proposition was:
“Restore your pet’s digestive system
to perfect balance”
The problem is most often caused by owners
who forget their pets are animals
and over-feed them with treats
whilst denying them proper exercise.
Protexin’s range of probiotic medications
are prescribed by vets
to alleviate digestive ailments
in dogs, cats and rabbits.
Suffice to say that treating gut problems
is and frequent and unpleasant.
(I’ll spare you the details.)
The pets suffer and the vets suffer.
The client had been first to market.
Their product range was well respected
and proven to be effective.
Now the objective was to build their brand
and protect their market share from imitators.

Above is one of
Protexin’s advertisements for the launch of their probiotic treatments
prior to the appointment
of Brandgarden.
Why answering the brief is not enough
These concept visuals convey the ‘balance’ proposition in an attractive way.
They answer the brief precisely and would look great on the page.
But do they inspire an emotional engagement with the brand?

The client jumped at something different
Owners became most concerned when their beloved pet
became lethargic and appeared to have lost its spirit.
This is a prominent symptom of gut problems and provided
the emotional hook for a different creative approach.
These two iStock images of sky-diver plane and jumping dog provided a dramatic solution.
Because animals have guts…
Animal lovers know that the behaviour of their pets is driven by natural instinct.
Dogs and cats have a lust for life and often appear completely fearless.
Restoring a pet to perfect balance is about restoring their spirit.
These the concept visual established the essence of the brand message.
These advertisements were voted a favourite with readers
The client had a very specific requirements in terms of choice of animals.
Most important was to find the perfect the dog.
By combining original photography of the animals with library images of the backgrounds
it was possible to create these digital composite images.
The guts theme proved extremely campaignable
The initial concept provided a rich source of creative and design solutions for press advertising, marketing collateral,
product launches, promotions and exhibition stands. It established true synergy for the brand across all channels.
After four seasons Freddie the cocker spaniel
was established as the symbol of the brand
The challenge was to find a way to extend the concept of a dog doing amazing stunts.
To keep cost down this set of visuals was presented to the client to explain the idea. The circus theme was approved
on the proviso that the images were genuinely believable.
The first part of the task was to create the background environment of a circus big top.
Using structural plans for a real circus tent and the client’s packaging graphics a flat artwork
was created. This was then applied to a digital 3d model. The computer then rendered
the background image to the required viewpoint for the foreground figure.
Multiple digital techniques combine to produce one pose
It is impractical to think in terms of getting one perfect shot. Based on past experience we knew that
the best approach was to shoot for one element at a time; head, legs, ears, tail etc.
The photography session yielded 700 images from which four complex poses were digitally composed.


Master montages were created at high resolution
to be used in large format applications
This was the largest exhibition stand the client had ever commissioned.
The structure of the stand was designed to make the most powerful use of the
circus images. It won the award for best in its category.