Nulo’s Olympic campaign gives independent pet retailers a boost

Nulo is positioning its Olympics advertising spend as more than a brand-building exercise. The pet nutrition company says its Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics investment, paired with an independent retail promotion, helped drive business to specialty stores, with Pet Age reporting 46 million TV impressions, 8.1% sales gains across the top 15 pet specialty brands in the latest 52-week period, and participation from more than 2,500 independent retailers in Olympic-themed merchandising. (petage.com)

The campaign builds on Nulo’s longer-running “Fuel Incredible” platform, which first ramped up around the 2024 Paris Olympics. In that earlier phase, Nulo signed eight Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including Simone Biles, Caeleb Dressel, Gabby Thomas, Jessica Long, and Ryan Crouser, and ran ads across social, digital, broadcast, cable, retail, and print from June through September 2024. Sports Business Journal reported the campaign also included out-of-home placements in Olympic Trials markets and retail executions, showing early on that Nulo was using elite sports not just for awareness, but to support store-level activation. (petfoodindustry.com)

By October 2025, Nulo had extended the strategy into winter sports, adding athletes such as Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Alex Ferreira, Brenna Huckaby, Maddie Mastro, Kristen Santos-Griswold, and Jordan Stolz. PetfoodIndustry reported that this next phase included digital, print, and television ads, a 30-second TV spot on NBCUniversal networks and Peacock, plus out-of-home activations and in-store retail experiences. After the Games, Pet Age said Nulo credited its winter roster with helping fuel both brand awareness and store traffic, framing the campaign as a way to connect superior pet nutrition messaging with athlete performance standards and strong pet bonds. (petfoodindustry.com)

Nulo has also linked the marketing push to broader commercial performance. PetfoodIndustry, citing a Nielsen report referenced by Nulo, said the brand’s sales rose 2.1% to $261.8 million in the 52 weeks ending January 18, 2025, while volume increased 13.4%, excluding e-commerce platforms such as Chewy and Amazon. The company said it was one of only three brands among the top 15 in the report to post year-over-year sales gains, and executives tied that momentum directly to “industry leading marketing investments” in Fuel Incredible. Nulo has since leaned into that momentum with new FreeStyle kibble launches and stated plans to prioritize its dry kibble portfolio in 2025. (petfoodindustry.com)

Industry reaction suggests the campaign has landed beyond the pet aisle. Taylor, the agency behind earned-media amplification for the Paris phase, said the effort generated more than 1.9 billion earned editorial impressions and 700-plus placements, while the first iteration also picked up recognition from the Digiday Streaming & Video Awards, the MarCom Awards, and the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. That doesn’t independently validate sell-through at retail, but it does support Nulo’s argument that the campaign broke through a crowded Olympic sponsorship environment and gave the brand a bigger cultural footprint than a typical pet food ad buy. (taylorstrategy.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is a useful case study in how premium nutrition brands are shaping pet parent expectations before those conversations reach the exam room. Nulo’s message pairs performance, wellness, emotional support, and premium feeding in a way that’s highly legible to consumers. When that message is reinforced through independent pet retailers, in-store displays, and athlete storytelling, it can strengthen retailer influence over diet selection, especially for healthy pets and lifestyle-driven purchases. Veterinary teams may increasingly need to respond not just to ingredient questions, but to marketing-framed beliefs about performance, recovery, digestive health, and “fueling” pets like athletes. (petfoodindustry.com)

There’s also a channel story here. Independent pet retailers remain an important specialty distribution point in the U.S., and Nulo has repeatedly emphasized retailer-facing growth, especially in dry kibble, where it sees high-volume opportunity. If national brand campaigns can reliably move traffic into specialty stores, that could further sharpen the distinction between products pet parents discover through retail merchandising and those recommended in veterinary settings. For clinics that sell therapeutic or premium over-the-counter diets, that makes nutritional communication, and differentiation, more important. (annualreports.com)

What to watch: The next question is whether Nulo can sustain the lift after the Olympic halo fades, and whether it expands the strategy into more cause marketing, clinic-adjacent education, or additional specialty-channel programs as it continues investing in kibble, functional treats, and broader retail support. (petfoodindustry.com)