Technology

Posted on September 17, 2019 by staff

UKTV Ventures and pet app make £1m ‘airtime-for-equity’ deal

Technology

UKTV Ventures, the multi-million pound innovation fund from UKTV has announced its latest ‘airtime-for-equity investment’ deal with PetTech start-up app PitPat.

The deal gives UKTV Ventures equity in the firm in exchange for ads for its app which will run on UKTV’s channels Alibi, Dave, Drama, Eden, Gold, W, and Yesterday until early 2020.

The ad campaign is said to have a net value of £1m, giving PitPat – described as a ‘FitBit for dogs’ – access to an audience of over 30 million viewers a month with a 30 second campaign (below) designed to attract the attention of dogs.

PitPat offers an IoT device which attaches to a dog collar, which sends data to a free accompanying app to track a dogs activity and health.

PitPat founder Andrew Nowell, said: “Our aim was to show that PitPat makes walkies as exciting and rewarding for owners as it is for their dogs. The concept also really speaks to one of our core brand values: PitPat is made for dogs and so is our ad.”

Last year UKTV unveiled its first airtime-for-equity investment in childrens TV platform Hopster.

Director of UKTV Ventures, Sheena Amin, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with PitPat to help grow its brand through TV advertising on our network. UKTV Ventures is committed to helping companies new to TV advertising build their brand and scale up by benefiting from the wide reach, trust and recognition only achieved through TV advertising. I’m looking forward to seeing the positive impact that PitPat’s engaging ad will undoubtedly have on the growth of its business.”