In the Bayer study into cat behaviour, webcams were fitted around the necks of nine cats around the country to follow their activities.  Bayer Animal Health has announced that following the success of its educational TV advertising campaign, which ran earlier this year and promoted the need to worm cats, a second advertising campaign will now run in September.

Bayer (makers of Profender Spot-on solution) says its first campaign, which ran in May, had the principal aim of driving pet owners to their vet to ask about spot-on worming for their cats.

As part of the same campaign, research was conducted on cat behaviour by interviewing cat owners and attaching 'cat cams' and 'cat navs' to nine cats around the country. The results were analysed by cat behaviour expert Roger Tabor and can be found on the website www.spotonwormer4cats.com/, both as a short video documentary and a 24-page report, entitled 'The Secret Lives of Cats'.

A consumer PR campaign was also run in parallel with the TV advertising, which Bayer says was very successful in attracting entrants to a competition to find the cat with the biggest personality. Winners of the Cats with Cat-titude competition have now been announced and profiled on www.spotonwormer4cats.com.

Dan White, Profender product manager, said: "Post campaign market research revealed there was a 5% increase in the awareness of spot-on cat worming.

"The second phase of TV advertising - using the same advert but without the online competition - will start on 4th September and will build on the success of the previous advertising. And over the following three weeks, it will be broadcast on ITV1, ITV2, Channels 4 and 5, and Sky One, and is expected to reach 7 million of our core target audience."

Veterinary practices can obtain a subtitled version of 'The Secret Lives of Cats' documentary to play in their waiting rooms, and a wide selection of support materials, by contacting their Bayer Territory Manager.

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