Foppa funded Dagsmark’s marketing campaign – 59% annual growth

When a startup company faces challenges in its development, often the reason is that the new company and its products are poorly recognised by the public. Such recognition is often too expensive to obtain through advertising. In 2020, Dagsmark Petfood Oy discovered Foppa as a solution to the problem and, through collaboration, was able to rapidly increase its sales by 59 per cent.

Dagsmark, a pet food company, managed to increase its revenue last year from EUR 2.9 million to EUR 4.6 million.

The growth spurt was based on collaboration with Foppa that enabled a flexible solution for marketing and advertising. In the financing model, repayment is not based on fixed amounts but on the future of the financed company.

“With this arrangement, we were able to grow our marketing in a completely different way than before, because even after several previous rounds of funding, the finances were spent on everything else apart from marketing,” says Dagsmark Petfood managing director Laura Strömberg.

Dagsmark ran into a common problem encountered by startup companies

Dagsmark’s story began in 2016 when the company noticed a gap in the pet food market. At that time, there was not a single domestic dry food option for pets.

After 1.5 years of operation, the company had run into the same problem encountered by many startup companies in Finland: there was simply not enough volume, and the company’s degree of recognition no longer grew organically.

“We would need wider media visibility to take our operations to the next level. However, advertising nationwide is expensive and startup companies in particular often cannot afford it.” Strömberg says.

Startup companies are also able to invest in television

Dagsmark began collaborating with Foppa in 2019. The idea was that, through flexible and growth-linked marketing funding, it would be possible to invest in recognition more widely than before. Another benefit arising from the collaboration was the ability to share risks with Foppa.

“At the beginning of 2020, we set out to collaborate with Foppa on an advertising campaign that was bold, challenged competitors and occasionally split opinions. With the help of the campaign, we quickly reached a higher level of recognition and were able to bring up the topics wanted to raise as part of public discourse.”

TV advertising, which began in April 2020, was quickly reflected in sales. According to Strömberg, the biggest increase was in products advertised on television.

“Many companies wondered how we dared to engage in notoriously expensive television advertising, and they had no idea of a funding model like this.”

Foppa’s expertise was of great help

Strömberg points out that achieving peak figures in sales was not intrinsically due to the advertisements being broadcasted on television, but rather the right kinds of concepts behind the commercials that Dagsmark has developed itself.

“They (Foppa) understood the uniqueness of our business as well as our products, and they offered the right media packages for them. Whether it’s about a print or a video ad, they describe in detail why something should be done in a certain way.”

In spring 2021, Dagsmark has invested in measures to maintain advertising, for example. Since the top level has already been reached, it is not advisable to advertise on the same scale as in the launch phase. Dagsmark will next launch large-scale campaigning toward the end of the year, when a new family of wet cat food products is launched.

“For us, Foppa’s operations are very suitable because they have been agile and entrepreneurial. The processes do not take long and they are proactive. Working with them feels like we are working together.”