Vitalin, one of the UK’s oldest pet food brands, has celebrated a seven-figure brand investment with the launch of its first TV campaign.

The 30-second TV ad, and accompanying online campaign: ‘That’s a Vitalin Dog’, will run across ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky, plus online display and social channels from today (Thursday, March 28th).

The ad was created by Studio Yes, the creative and production firm behind campaigns for Sacla, Belvoir Farm, Cuvva, and Costa.

The commercial alludes to Vitalin’s heritage as a 71-year-old British brand, while bringing it up to date for modern dog owners. The ‘That’s a Vitalin Dog’ campaign forms part of a brand platform that Vitalin will extend across all areas of marketing.

The ad was shot entirely in the UK (complete with British winter weather) and aims to create instant brand recognition for Vitalin whilst also sharing the brand's farm to the tail proposition through the use of British ingredients and added supplements such as paraprobiotics, prebiotics, dental support, and joint care to help give dogs a zest for life.

The ad also references the locally sourced ingredients - an unusual offering in the space - and embeds the brand firmly in the British countryside, where it was founded 71 years ago.

To shoot the ad, Studio Yes worked with director Katie Bell, who has many years of experience working on commercials with children and animals for some of the UK’s biggest brands. In an unusual twist, Sam Ojari, Managing Director at Studio Yes also provides the ad’s voiceover.

The campaign follows a full redesign of the Vitalin brand from B&B studio, the design firm who’ve worked on premium brands such as Belazu, Fever Tree, and Pip & Nut.

The new positioning and packaging brings the Vitalin brand up to date, whilst retaining the ethos of this heritage brand.

Vitalin is owned by Cranswick Plc, one of the UK’s largest food manufacturers, and owners of brands including Ramona’s and Cypressa.

The brand work and ad are Cranswick’s first brand investment in the pet category and represents a significant investment from them in Vitalin.

Jerry Lowe, head of marketing, at Vitalin said: “We have ambitious plans for the growth of Vitalin - and ultimately, we want to become market leaders in what is a very crowded category.

“The Vitalin brand has stood for British pet food, made with love since 1953 and we’re carrying on that tradition to this day. As part of Cranswick PLC our farming roots remain, as such we’re backing British farming and only using British meat in all of our recipes. 67% of our recipes are sourced within 100 miles of our home at Lodge Farm and our packaging is recyclable too.

“The investment in TV, online ads, large creative, media investment and redesign will help us bring Vitalin to the next generation of dog lovers as ‘That’s a Vitalin dog’ brings our Farm to Tail philosophy to life.”