GBD develops children's book to promote animal health product

In an enterprising departure from traditional marketing tools, Central Coast advertising agency, GBD, have developed a children’s book for an international veterinary pharmaceutical company and their new scheduled drug, which treats canine ear infection.

The challenge was to come up with a concept to promote a product that can’t actually be mentioned, as it is prescription-only. The solution is as clever as it is fun.

The concept for a book was born from a single cartoon dog. Sally McPherson, a national marketing consultant, fell in love with the canine character designed for the advertising campaign. “She loved it so much, she developed and wrote a children’s book!” said GBD Chief Executive Officer, Jeff McGarn. “The challenge for us was to illustrate it and develop more characters to the supplied story line,” he said, which they duly did.

Thanks to modern computer technology, cartoonists now work with a completely different set of tools. Gone are the paint brushes and air brushing that you would imagine a Disney cartoonist using. Instead, a black and white outline of each character is initially drawn by hand. From there, the rest of the process – filling in the detail and colour – is all done digitally.

The result is a high gloss, eight-page book which will be distributed to selected veterinary clinics stocking the scheduled drug throughout Australia. “The story is titled Max goes to the Vet and focuses on a small boy, Mo, and his dog, Max, who is feeling a bit miserable with an ear infection. Mo takes him to see Doctor Dash, the local veterinarian who gives Max a course of the drug and Max is soon right as rain!” said Mr McGarn.

“It’s a cute way to get across – to not only kids, but the parents that read them the story – that this is a great product for treating ear infections in dogs, and it only has to be used once a day. This makes it so much easier for people to treat their dogs,” he added.

In addition to the books, GBD have developed a print campaign also featuring Max, along with a host of innovative campaign materials from brochures and point of sale banners to gift boxes and coffee cup holders. If you are interested in the book illustration process, GBD have recorded all the stages and these can be seen online at www.gbd.com.au

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