Petbarn has stopped treating social media as a shop window. The Australian pet retailer, with agency Howatson+Company, deleted its entire Instagram feed and relaunched it as branded entertainment.
The first post from Petey—an over-enthusiastic dog who ‘accidentally’ wiped the account—pulled in more than 3,600 likes and 6 million organic reach, according to Greencross Vets chief customer officer Kate Blythe.
Why a pet brand burned its own feed
The move is the first major shift under Blythe, whose previous roles include CMO at Mecca, Matches Fashion and Net-a-Porter. Her framing is simple: “Brands that attract loyalty participate in culture, rather than interrupt it.”
Instead of a static mascot, Petbarn ‘petsonified’ its existing characters Petey and Barnadette into creators. The feed now runs on candid videos, bad mirror selfies and unscripted moments, giving the characters a daily presence rather than a campaign slot.
From deletion stunt to daily franchise
The deleted feed was only the reset. After the stunt, Howatson+Company extended the same world across email, ecommerce, retail media and out-of-home. Emails now come from Petey and Barnadette. OOH executions ask what a cat would frame or a dog would chew before dispatch.
Chris Howatson, CEO of Howatson+Company, said the team built a permanent technical pipeline mixing 3D modelling, 2D animation, VFX and custom generative AI tools. For a similar budget to previous years, the brand is producing hundreds of bespoke assets instead of one or two hero pieces.
What marketers can take from this
- Reset expectations with a memorable first move, then keep publishing every day.
- Turn brand characters into active creators rather than campaign mascots.
- Use generative AI as a permanent volume layer, not a one-off experiment.
- Extend the world across email, retail media and OOH so the feed is not the only stage.
The lesson is not to delete an account for shock value. The stunt worked because Petbarn had an existing brand world and a production system ready to sustain it. A deleted feed without a daily publishing engine would just look like a mistake.
Source: Campaign Brief
