Merial celebrates successful pet parasite campaign

Merial’s Pet Parasite Action campaign concluded at the end of July and has been hailed as a success. Lynda Maris, NexGard™ Spectra and Broadline® product manager, says the campaign has created over 50 million ‘opportunities to see’. An online survey shows that those who experienced the campaign are more likely to visit their vet practice for advice on parasite control and more likely to treat their pets more regularly. The post-campaign survey was carried out at the end of July 2017 and promoted to fans and friends of fans of the campaign’s Facebook page, with 266 responses. The survey captured an audience that experienced the campaign in one form or another. It found that 69 percent of respondents bought parasite control products from their vet before the campaign but 75 percent intended to buy from their vet after experiencing the campaign. 65 percent said they will treat more regularly than before as a result of the campaign, while 79 percent feel better informed about parasites. The majority (92 percent) thought the campaign was informative and 89 percent rated their experience as positive or very positive. It seems as if the message to act was well understood too, as 79 percent said they felt more confident about protecting their pets and their families against parasites. The campaign could be experienced on radio, in national and regional newspapers and online – including social media, blogs and the campaign website. There were over 7000 competition entries on social media in July alone, showing that there is an appetite to engage with fun, educational content centred around pet healthcare. Lynda Maris noted that the message that practices could help was well understood, “Across all of our communication we felt that this one message in particular came across clearly and consistently. "There is still much to do in raising awareness of the health risks from parasites. For instance, while 82 percent of dog owners are able to correctly identify that lungworm could be fatal to their pets, 43 percent said they thought dog lungworm was the parasite that posed the greatest risk to human health and only 7 percent realised that roundworm could be a threat to human health. "Just 48 percent were aware that ticks could cause fatalities in pets because of the diseases they can transmit and 3 percent thought that ticks didn’t make their pet ill at all*. "It certainly shows that pet owners need an expert recommendation based on the risk factors in order to help protect their pets and their families.” The campaign website (www.petparasiteaction.co.uk) and social media pages (Facebook @petparasiteaction and Twitter @petparasiteact) are still online and practices can continue to share educational content from these locations. * Pet Buzz survey of 1056 dog owners carried out in February 2017.