2012 IAB Awards | Brand Loyalty & Retention Winner
The Pedigree Adoption Drive
Agency: WhybinTBWATequila
Client: Mars Petcare
Strategy
Every dog deserves a loving home, so Pedigre Partnered with a not-for-profit organisation; PetRescue to try and improve the plight of the 100,000 dogs in shelters across Australia that are euthanised each year because they are unable to find new owners.
Tactics
As WhybinTBWATequila couldn’t bring people to the shelter dogs, they brought the shelter dogs to the people. Every media channel was selected for the execution of this campaign, and an exclusive PetRescue database was created, centralising information about every single shelter dog.
An Underdog Day was held at Bondi Beach, with yellow dog leads tied along the foreshore featuring the profiles of dogs waiting to be adopted. The ‘Dog-A-Like’ phone and Facebook app was created, matching prospective owners to a dog from the database using facial recognition. After the match had been made, the prospective owners were given the opportunity to adopt. An eight-part online documentary was also filmed, following the lives of five underdogs from homelessness to entering a new, loving home.
Results
Dog-A-Like became the no.1 app in the Australian iTunes store with more than 5.8m Facebook users. Due to an unprecedented online audience, the underdogs documentary was also later aired on national television, with plans for a second series due in 2013. The campaign target was far exceeded by achieving a 36% increase in the number of dogs adopted. That’s over 2,200 dogs every single month that found a new home and a new start in life.
