In September 2014, I was selected as a finalist to compete in The Big Ad Gig. This year’s challenge was to develop a multi-channel social campaign for The Shelter Pet Project that makes shelters and rescue groups the first place people look when acquiring a pet.
Here’s a quote from the brief:
“Right now, only 20 percent of dogs and only 26 percent of cats are adopted from shelters.
An estimated 2.7 million pets are still not adopted each year. Because of the misperception that shelter pets are damaged goods and that these animals did something wrong to end up in shelters, healthy cats and dogs too often have their lives, and their stories, end at animal shelters.”
How do you market pet adoption to the connected generation? You attack these obstacles:
1) Ignorance: they’re not exposed to real life examples of happy shelter pet owners - they aren’t sure who they know has adopted and who hasn’t.
2) Procrastination: they might plan to get a pet ‘someday’ but don’t feel any urgency to adopt now.
The solution lies in where this audience spends most of their time: 35% of relationships in the U.S. now start online. (Mine did too.) We also want people who are considering a pet to search online, on PetFinder.com, a database of adoptable shelter pets from across North America. They should be able to start the process online and then connect with these pets offline.
All these ideas come together in the the #ShelterMatch campaign.
It’s an online and social media movement to connect those seeking a pet with their perfect shelter pet match, and celebrate the friendship between millions of pet owners and their amazing adopted pets.
The campaign extends across 3 media channels: online, social and experiential.
The first execution is the microsite, which lives on The Shelter Pet Project website. The “Find Your #ShelterMatch” Quiz recommends the best pet for you based on your lifestyle.
It asks you the same questions that shelter staff use to determine a good fit, assigns you a pet owner personality type, and suggests local pet matches from PetFinder.com.
What’s better than a selfie? A selfie with your pet! What’s better than a selfie with your pet? A professional portrait of you and your pet! The #ShelterMatch Portrait Project drives engagement on social channels by giving shelter pet adopters the chance to get a portrait with their furry friends.
The first phase will be exclusive to online influencers who own shelter pets. They will direct followers to the website to find out how to get their own #ShelterMatch portraits.
The next phase rolls out the Portrait Project to the public by taking it on tour to Adopt-A-Thons in major cities. These are popular events held across the country where shelters bring out their homeless pets to meet thousands of potential adopters.
The offer of a professional photoshoot will draw both old and brand-new shelter pet owners to get their portraits taken and share their stories. As an extra incentive, branded collateral will be given away each time a shelter pet is adopted at the event.
The advertising includes banners as well as Mashable’s cool feature called Brand Lift that allows brands to pull assets from their social campaigns directly to their ad space.
The #ShelterMatch campaign attacks the audience’s ignorance and procrastination from many angles across media channels:
1) The spread of #ShelterMatch portraits across the web puts peer pressure on friends and family to consider shelter pet adoption.
2) The offer of a professional photo with their newly adopted shelter pet gives our audience a sense of urgency to act now.
3) And when they take the quiz, they get personalized results that connect them with pets they could see themselves adopting.
Most importantly, the #ShelterMatch Campaign contributes many more dog and cat photos to the internet. And the internet can never have enough dog and cat pictures.
