Petplan, North America's Most Comprehensive Pet Insurance Provider Partners with The Dodo to Reinvent the Pet Insurance Industry
Announces "Fetch by The Dodo" -- the first pet wellness brand dedicated to deepening the human-pet connection through technology, content and highly-personalized care
NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Petplan, North America's most comprehensive pet insurance provider, today announced it is partnering with The Dodo, the number one animal media brand globally on social, to reinvent pet insurance. Petplan will assume the name Fetch by The Dodo in 2021 combining best-in-class insurance technology and superior coverage with the brand strength and massive community of The Dodo.
Fetch by the Dodo will include a new, one-stop mobile app that offers pet parents instant access to their insurance plans, a robust pet community, and personalized pet health and wellness information. It will launch with Petplan's more than 250,000 existing members and extend its offering to The Dodo's pet-owning audience of 100 million Americans [comScore & Nielsen DCR, February 2020].
"This partnership joins our superior coverage, service, and technology with the reach, engagement and storytelling brilliance of The Dodo," said Paul Guyardo, President & CEO of Petplan North America. "Together we'll create a world of wellness benefits for pets, and put it right in the hands of their adoring parents."
"The Dodo is beloved across every social media platform and continues to expand and diversify its consumer touchpoints from Netflix, to children's books and podcasts, so this is a huge next step in our brand's growth," said YuJung Kim, President of The Dodo. "We are excited to partner with Petplan to extend The Dodo's voice, mobile content creation and marketing expertise to reimagine what pet insurance looks like for today's consumer."
Leading up to the launch of the partnership, Petplan has been investing in technology to deliver an intuitive mobile experience that provides seamless claims processing and world-class customer service. In addition, Petplan is building an analytics capability using artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict a pet's health trajectory and provide tools that will improve pet wellness and decrease vet care costs.
The pet insurance market remains extremely underpenetrated, and Fetch by The Dodo is poised for aggressive growth when it launches next year. An expert in scaling direct-to-consumer businesses including Discovery's Eurosport Player and DIRECTV, Paul Guyardo, CEO of Petplan, will become CEO of Fetch by The Dodo. Ben Lerer, CEO of Group Nine Media, The Dodo's parent company, has joined the Fetch Board of Directors. The Dodo will hold an equity stake in the Fetch business and hire a dedicated team of content creators, brand and growth marketers, and social media managers to collaborate with the existing Petplan team.
About Fetch by The Dodo
Fetch by The Dodo is a partnership between Petplan and The Dodo, and scheduled for introduction to consumers in May of 2021. Fetch by The Dodo evolved from Petplan, the most comprehensive pet health insurance in America. This initiative marks The Dodo's latest expansion into the direct-to-consumer space which includes its annual tentpole event, "Best Dog Day Ever," merchandise and Airbnb Animal Experiences.
Acquired by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus in October 2019, Petplan has consistently pioneered changes in the industry for the last 15 years forcing competitors to follow suit. Its latest innovation is the addition of TeleVet coverage which allows subscribers to text, chat or FaceTime veterinarians at no extra cost. Policies are administered by Fetch Insurance Services, LLC (Fetch Insurance Agency, LLC in Michigan), d/b/a Petplan (Petplan Insurance Agency, LLC in California) and underwritten by XL Specialty Insurance Company in the U.S. and XL Specialty Insurance Company – Canadian Branch in Canada. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions. For more information about Petplan pet health insurance, visit GoPetplan.com.
About The Dodo
The Dodo is the #1 media brand for reach on mobile in the U.S. [Nielsen DCR, November 2019], and the most engaged media brand globally across all content genres [Tubular Labs, May 2020]. We tell fun, entertaining, emotional stories about animals, which attract more than 5 BILLION monthly video views and make people laugh, cry happy tears, feel ALL the feels, and fall in love with animals. In December 2016, The Dodo joined forces with NowThis, Thrillist and Seeker to form Group Nine Media — the #1 video publisher on mobile in the U.S. [Nielsen DCR, June 2020]. The Dodo reaches a massive pet owning audience of nearly 100 million Americans [comScore & Nielsen DCR, February 2020] and has attracted them with its philosophy that pets are more than animals—they are family members.
Media Contact:
Casey McDonald, Petplan
[email protected]
Pierce White, The Dodo
[email protected]
SOURCE Petplan
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