The Mark DeLong Photography team recently partnered with MARS Petcare and their dental treat brand, GREENIES, to create a re-launched brand image and marketing campaign. With the assistance of their agency, Catapult Marketing, the MDP team took on all aspects of the production, from animal casting to location scouting. By pulling together some amazing talent (dogs and humans) and utilizing a beautiful, contemporary home, we created a fresh, vibrant campaign for the GREENIES brand. Not only do these images capture the GREENIES product, but also represent diverse family situations, seasons, holiday's and "special moments spent with your pet." The GREENIES treats are a great way to improve and maintain your pet's dental health, not to mention dogs LOVE them, they were truly "jumping for joy" during our shoot. Our amazing crew even included professional dog trainers and an Animal Care Expert, ensuring that our all-star talent had their tails wagging all day. Mark's technical experience within commercial advertising photography and deep love of animals, created a contagious energy on set that opened the door to endless creativity. This shoot left our entire team inspired and eager to jump into our next commercial petcare project. From photo to video, pre-production to final retouching, dogs to cats (maybe even llamas), the Mark DeLong Photography team is prepared to take on your next commercial advertising petcare project.

Below are some recently released images from the shoot, with more to come soon! You can find these images on the GREENIES social pages, newly launched website and petcare stores across the United States and Canada.

Featured on the newly launched GREENIES website.

Stick around to learn more about our experience in the commercial advertising petcare industry.

Commercial Photography for Pet Brands

Working with people to capture that perfect picture can be challenging even when you’re working in a controlled, indoor environment. Bulbs burn out. Those strands of loose hair just won’t fall the way you want them to. Models simply can’t give you those telling expressions you were hoping for.

Naturally, you can overcome many of these difficulties easily. You can instruct a staff member to replace an expired bulb, for instance. You can ask your stylists to redo someone’s hair. You can share a humorous story with your models to brighten their mood and get the expressions you want. In short, you can often use your words to overcome many of the challenges you’re faced with as a professional photographer.

But, what happens when you’re working with talent that doesn’t speak your language or isn’t even the same species as you? If you’re a pet brand photographer like Mark DeLong, they most certainly are not. In the case of Mark, working with animals isn’t riddled with obstacles. Instead, it’s a creative process that’s rewarding for Mark, his clients and, above all else, the pets he works with.

Promoting Pet Brands

To be a successful pet advertising photographer, it certainly helps to have a genuine love for animals. While you may be able to mask your feelings for a person, animals instinctually know how you feel. It’s this instinct that often leads cats to harangue people who are afraid of them for sport and attracts dogs to people who are upset and need some consoling.

When you’re enthusiastic about your four-legged talent, you’ll be rewarded many times over. Not only will you probably be given a sloppy kiss or two, but you’ll get the shots your two-legged clients need to build their brands and sell their products, which can lead to even more business for you down the line.

The purpose of commercial photography for pet brands is to use the natural personalities of your subjects to establish or reinforce a brand and promote its image and products. As a pet photographer, you need to connect with your talent to let their personalities shine for the benefit of your clients.

If you’ve worked with or owned dogs in the past, then you know these intelligent, sentient creatures have their own thoughts, feelings, opinions and tendencies. A Labrador Retriever may not think twice about jumping into the nearest lake but may refuse to go out in the rain. A poodle may enjoy the feel of raindrops on its skin but may turn its nose up at the thought of leaping into a murky pond. One dog may be content to chew its toys while another may only have an appetite for your furniture’s legs.

Every animal is different, and it’s only by interacting with your talent that you can match them with the style that will communicate your client’s message clearly.

Capturing the Perfect Moment

When Greenies tapped Mark DeLong Photography for a recent photo shoot, Mark and his crew knew they were in for a riotous time. Over the course of the wildly successful shoot, Mark and his team enjoyed their subjects’ unpredictable natures, surprising behaviors and unique personalities. In the end, these things mixed with the mastery of Mark DeLong Photography yielded photos that are destined to make Greenies even more of a household name than it already is.

In general, pets are less predictable than human talent. While you can tell a person to move slightly to the left or right, instructing even a well-trained pet to do the same may end up wreaking havoc on your stage. But, it’s that very unpredictability that often produces the very best photos and videos.

As a sought-after pet advertising photographer, Mark gives the pets he works with the freedom to express themselves. By doing this, Mark captures imagery that relays the full nature of his talent’s multi-faceted personalities in a two-dimensional medium. As a result, Mark’s pictures communicate the feelings and emotions that enable pet owners to make a connection with a client’s products and brand image. In other words, by giving pets the freedom to be themselves, Mark and his team always capture those perfect moments for their clients.

Take a Look

If you want to see the results that Mark can produce for his clients when he works with pets, we encourage you to look through his portfolio online. When you do, you’ll see photos that communicate what Mark’s subjects were experiencing in the moment — joy, curiosity, amusement and love — and immediately understand how powerful images of animals can be when it comes to promoting your brand and products.