Grub Club is Grand Prix Winner of Sky Zero Footprint Fun competition

Grub Club has been awarded £1m in media value as the Grand Prix Winner of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund competition.

Grub Club, the innovative maker of insect-based dog food, a viable, pet and planet-friendly alternative to meat and fish food products, is the brainchild of London Business School alumnus (LBS MBA 2021) Alessandro Di Trapani, and co-founder, Hugh Petit.

Sky awarded Grub Club £1m in media value for taking first place and becoming Grand Prix winner of its Sky Zero Footprint Fund competition.

Sky aims to encourage brands to become net zero and raise awareness of the climate crisis, and chose Grub Club as the Grand Prix Winner which was announced at a ceremony at the Soho Hotel in London in December last year. Grub Club was up against four other finalists: Milliways, OceanSaver, UpCircle and another famous LBS supported company, Ocean Bottle, which is led by LBS alumni and co-founders William Pearson and Nick Doman.

The finalists each received £250,000 as part of the scheme, with Grub Club receiving an extra £750,000 in media value.

The five finalists gave presentations showcasing their sustainability initiatives as well as showing their ads to the judges.

Sky said it was impressed with all five brands and Grub Club was awarded the Grand Prix “due to its ability to shake up its industry, it’s fun and bold creative and because it’s a simple sustainable swap that anyone can make”.

“By converting one per cent of the UK’s 12m dogs to Grub Club, we can save up to 180,000 tonnes of CO2e [carbon dioxide equivalent] emissions every year, which is equivalent to 22,000 trips around the world in a car,” said Alessandro.

“We’re offering dog food with purpose, and Sky Media is giving us a larger platform to be able to commit to having a real measurable impact on pets and the planet through the power of TV.”

The winning ad was created and produced in partnership with Small World Collective and Nusa Films.

The 30-second film features a glum dog that looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. His owner tells her friend that “he’s been acting really out of character lately”, turning off the lights, going through the recycling and burying the car keys.

The dog-owner concludes that he must have found out about global warming and her friend reassures her by saying that happened to her dog a few months ago.

She tells her that switching her dog food to Grub Club will fix the problem due to it being made from insect protein and therefore producing less greenhouse gases.

Sarah Jones, director of planning at Sky Media, added: “All five winners will play a crucial role in inspiring the nation to make environmentally conscious changes using the power and reach of TV.

“Thanks so much to all our 2023 entrants and finalists – the standard this year was exceptional. A massive congratulations to Grub Club for securing the £1m Grand Prize. We can’t wait to see all our winners make their debut on TV in 2024.”

Judges of this year’s competition included Stephen Woodford, chair of the advertising association; Sarah Jones, director of planning at Sky Media; Jo Fenn, global director of AdGreen; David Garrido, presenter at Sky Sports; Gideon Spanier, UK editor-in-chief of Campaign; Chris Baker, co-founder of Serious Tissues; Pippa Glucklich, chief executive of Electric Glue; Michelle Carvill, marketing consultant; Rosie Arnold, creative consultant; Richard Shotton, behavioural scientist; Dino Myers-Lamptey, founder of The Barber Shop; Marianne Matthews, group head, responsible business and sustainability at Sky; Cara French, head of strategic partnerships at Media Trust and Lindsey Clay, chief executive of Thinkbox. This is the third Sky Zero Footprint Fund competition with previous winners of the Grand Prix including Serious Tissues and Here We Flo.

LBS has been there to support all the way

Ale credits LBS, the support of Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital (IEPC) and the Incubator programme with offering Grub Club a great “daily support system”, and with helping him to develop both hard and soft skills for his future life as an entrepreneur.