The Brief

Every year, The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive offers support to thousands of abandoned dogs around the country. While numbers hadn’t dropped, unfortunately public interest had. We needed to find a new way to connect. This project was designed to remind people how important donations are to our cause, and to show how their support (no matter how insignificant it may seem) could save the life of an abandoned dog.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

This year we wanted to demonstrate the power of a donation in a memorable and fresh way. We partnered with a production company and developed a way to watch two different films on the same screen at the same time. Utilising this technology, we screened parallel stories; the first of a mistreated dog who gets rescued, the second of the same mistreated dog who never gets found. Before the movie, cinemagoers could choose between two sets of glasses. One pair was free. The other they got for a small donation. That choice decided the fate of the dog on screen.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

This remarkable cinema experience got the nation talking. It changed behavior, opinions and broke fundraising records. The cinema experience ran from July to August. In that time we raised more in public donations that the entire PEDIGREE Adoption Drive activity for the previous year. In one case, a man left the cinema (before the feature) and dropped $50 into a collection bucket. Based on the national and international media attention the campaign received, MARS have chosen to run the cinema experience globally for the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive – probably the greatest indication of a campaign’s success anyone could share.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We wanted to demonstrate how every single dollar donated to The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive could help save the life of an abandoned dog. We wanted to show how apathy was the only thing stopping saving lives. To bring this to life we created a world first cinema experience, that allowed consumers to see the power of their donation. If they gave a dollar they saved a life. The result was a profoundly moving experience, one that got the whole nation talking.