How the Farmer's Dog won the big game thanks to its Emmy-nominated commercial
For the staff at The Farmer's Dog, the goal of their first Super Bowl ad was simple: make people cry.
"There was a sentence in [the brief] that was essentially like, if we don't make the audience cry, then we've failed," says filmmaker Goh Iromoto, who brought The Farmer's Dog now-iconic (and Emmy-nominated!) ad "Forever" to life. "I'll never forget that line. It was an enormous driving force, creatively, in my case."
We wanted to know more about the spot Staff-Picked -- which was the top-rated ad of the 2023 Super Bowl and has been nominated for the Emmy nomination (!) We talked to Goh and the creative team of The Farmer's Dog to find out more about their fantastic collaborative process, their super-detailed outline, and the dog that helped inspire the ad campaign. Check out the show's major takeaways. Or, you can watch the entire conversation below.
| Project name | "Forever" The Farmer's Dog |
| Stakeholders |
Teressa Iezzi, Director of Creative and Content
Sophie Forman, Director of Brand Design |
| Objectives of the campaign |
Teressa and Sophie were looking to develop an advertisement that represented their company rallying cry, "Long Live Dogs."
Historically, the company had focused its advertising on the nitty-gritty aspects of its products. But Teressa and Sophie were aware that the Q1 campaign should be more clear in its approach to bring its mission that is to assist dogs live longer and happier and healthier lives into focus in a unique manner. |
| Goals |
* Bring to life The Farmer's Dog purpose and rallying cry in an artful, impactful method
* Tell an emotional story that extends beyond the details of the product. |
| Timeline |
The entire campaign took about four months from start to finish to execute, with the breakdown of production looking something like this:
October | Brief stage November | Goh shares his pitch with the team December | Shoot January | Post-production February Live! |
| Resources | The Farmer's Dog team worked incredibly closely with Goh in the creation of the final product. Goh served as creative mastermind as well as the director of the project as well as Teressa and Sophie served as key stakeholders in shaping the project. The three worked in close collaboration on the project from start to end. |
| Principal to takeaways |
* Put money into your short
* Focus on the story and not on the products * Great work deserves great promotion |