Influence, Backed by Data
How a data-driven influencer strategy delivered 136% ROI for Mars Petcare
+136% ROI
for Pedigree influencer-led content across three markets
+35% higher NSV
for influencer-led content versus standard social media campaigns in 2024
2x TikTok Awards
with one winning greatest impact
About Company
Mars Petcare is one of the world's leading pet food producers, operating a portfolio of well-known sub-brands across Europe.
Company size
Enterprise
Industry
Consumer Goods & FMCG
Brainlabs featured services
Influencer Marketing
Data Strategy
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Speak to a BrainlabberThe challenge
Mars Petcare's influencer activity wasn't keeping pace with how pet parents were actually consuming content.
With over 350 million live data signals available in the petcare category annually, the intent and consumption data being used to drive Search and SEO strategy was going entirely untapped in social and influencer. Mars' existing approach was reactive, siloed and short-term, making it impossible to build the kind of consistent, portfolio-wide presence needed to grow share of market and share of wallet.
Key friction points:
- Reactive influencer selection driven by whichever brand was first to brief, with no strategic rationale across the portfolio
- A finite pool of high-quality pet creators being fought over internally, leading to audience overlap and cannibalisation
- Siloed social campaigns disconnected from broader media strategy, missing the convergence of social and search
- An over-reliance on direct ROAS creating a narrow quarterly focus that limited creative execution and long-term talent relationships
Our approach
1. Shifting from reactive campaigns to an always-on portfolio strategy
We moved Mars away from quarterly reactive campaigns toward a proactive annual portfolio view, securing top-tier talent on longer-term retainers. This prevented competitors from snapping up the best creators, ensured consistent content quality, and gave each brand the space to build genuine, long-term audience relationships.
2. Building brand swimlanes and expanding the creator pool
We established distinct strategic territories and brand swimlanes, defining clear audience boundaries for each Mars brand to eliminate internal competition and audience overlap. By expanding creator selection beyond traditional pet verticals into aligned categories like travel and wellness, we dramatically broadened the available talent pool and opened Mars up to culturally relevant conversations where they previously had no presence.
3. Integrating influencer into the full media strategy
We built the entire strategy on top of Mars' Pet Parent Journey framework, aligning influencer campaigns to the moments and needs that mattered most to pet owners. By connecting influencer content with wider media planning and establishing a three-tier holistic measurement framework, we could prove meaningful ROI beyond direct ROAS and demonstrate social's contribution to broader business outcomes.
We moved Mars away from quarterly reactive campaigns toward a proactive annual portfolio view, securing top-tier talent on longer-term retainers. This prevented competitors from snapping up the best creators, ensured consistent content quality, and gave each brand the space to build genuine, long-term audience relationships.
2. Building brand swimlanes and expanding the creator pool
We established distinct strategic territories and brand swimlanes, defining clear audience boundaries for each Mars brand to eliminate internal competition and audience overlap. By expanding creator selection beyond traditional pet verticals into aligned categories like travel and wellness, we dramatically broadened the available talent pool and opened Mars up to culturally relevant conversations where they previously had no presence.
3. Integrating influencer into the full media strategy
We built the entire strategy on top of Mars' Pet Parent Journey framework, aligning influencer campaigns to the moments and needs that mattered most to pet owners. By connecting influencer content with wider media planning and establishing a three-tier holistic measurement framework, we could prove meaningful ROI beyond direct ROAS and demonstrate social's contribution to broader business outcomes.
The results
The strategy didn't just deliver results for Mars, it set a blueprint that has since been adopted as a template for other Brainlabs clients.
Since working with Brainlabs:
Since working with Brainlabs:
- 136% ROI for Pedigree influencer-led content across three markets
- 35% higher NSV for influencer-led content versus standard social media campaigns in 2024
- Dreamies positive sentiment increased from 61% to 85%, driven by always-on creator partnerships
- 2x TikTok Awards, with one winning greatest impact
- The audience framework and portfolio approach is now used as a template across other Brainlabs clients, proving its value beyond Mars
+136% ROI
for Pedigree influencer-led content across three markets
+35% higher NSV
for influencer-led content versus standard social media campaigns in 2024
2x TikTok Awards
with one winning greatest impact
