How The Farmer's Dog took the lead thanks to its Emmy-nominated commercial
For the staff at The Farmer's Dog, the objective of their debut Super Bowl ad was simple to make people cry.
"There was a phrase in the brief which was essentially like, if you don't get the viewers to cry that's a failure," says filmmaker Goh Iromoto who adapted The Farmer's Dog now-iconic (and Emmy-nominated!) advertisement "Forever" to life. "I'll never forget that quote. This was an extremely important motivational factor, both creatively and in my case."
We wanted to know more about the spot Staff-Picked -- which was the most rated commercial from the 2023 Super Bowl and has been nominated for an Emmy nomination (!) -- so we met with Goh as well as the team of creatives of The Farmer's Dog to find out more about their fantastic collaborative process, their super-detailed brief, and the dogs which helped inspire the campaign. Find out more about the episode's most important takeaways or watch the full conversation above.
| Name of the project | "Forever" The Farmer's Dog |
| Stakeholders |
Teressa Iezzi Director of Creative and Content
Sophie Forman, Director of Brand Design |
| Goals of the campaign |
Teressa and Sophie wanted to create ads that would embody the company's rallying call, "Long Live Dogs."
In the past, the company been focusing its ads to the in-depth details of its product. But Teressa and Sophie were aware that the Q1 campaign had to clearly bring its mission -- of helping dogs live longer, happier, healthier lives -- to life in a different manner. |
| Goals |
• Recreate The Farmer's Dog mission and rallying cry with a powerful, artistic manner
• Tell an emotional tale that extends beyond the details of the product. |
| Timeline |
The entire campaign took four months from beginning to end to run, with the structure of the campaign looking similar to this:
October | Brief stage November | Goh pitches with the team December | Shoot January | Post-production February Live! |
| Resources | The Farmer's Dog team worked incredibly closely with Goh to generate the final result. Goh served as creative mastermind and project director, while Teressa and Sophie played a key role on the development of the idea. They worked together on the project from start to finish. |
| Key lessons |
* Invest in your brief
* Focus on the story and not on the products * Great work deserves great promotion |