| Title | DRIVING DOGS |
| Brand | MINI / SPCA NEW ZEALAND |
| Product / Service | DOG ADOPTION |
| Entrant | DRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Entrant Company | DRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Advertising Agency | DRAFTFCB NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Vette | Animals On Q | Director - Animals On Q |
| Steph Pearson | Draftfcb New Zealand | Digital Director |
| Harri Owen | Draftfcb New Zealand | Head Of Digital And Content |
| Sarah Mcewen | Draftfcb New Zealand | Planner/Media Buyer |
| Rufus Chuter | Draftfcb New Zealand | Communications Planning Director |
| Rachel Leyland | Draftfcb New Zealand | Media Manager |
| Simon Teagle | Draftfcb New Zealand | General Manager - Media |
| Eloise Hay | Draftfcb New Zealand | Account Manager - PR |
| Angela Spain | Draftfcb New Zealand | General Manager - PR |
| Stephanie Hueber | Draftfcb New Zealand | Account Manager |
| Sally Willis | Draftfcb New Zealand | Account Director |
| Toby Sellers | Draftfcb New Zealand | Group Account Director |
| Nick Mcfarlane | Draftfcb New Zealand | Senior Designer |
| Blair Walker | Draftfcb New Zealand | Head Of Post Production |
| Marco Siraky | Draftfcb New Zealand | Director/Dop |
| Matt Williams | Draftfcb New Zealand | Creative |
| Peter Vegas | Draftfcb New Zealand | Creative |
| Regan Grafton | Draftfcb New Zealand | Executive Creative Director |
| Tony Clewett | Draftfcb New Zealand | Executive Creative Director |
| James Mok | Draftfcb New Zealand | Asia Pacific Executive Creative Director |
In New Zealand, shelter dogs are seen as damaged goods, second-rate compared to store-bought animals. So, finding homes for SPCA dogs is a real challenge. We had to change this. MINI, a SPCA sponsor, wanted to help. To do that, we showed New Zealand just how smart shelter dogs really are, by teaching three of them to do something no dog has ever done. Drive a car. We used this outrageous idea to capture the nation’s imagination; first posing the question “can you teach a dog to drive?” Then, we used incredible training footage across news, social-media and paid-media to drive engagement and anticipation for the answer: the three dogs driving LIVE on national TV. We capitalised on the perception change the incredible display generated to drive adoption interest, ensuring our driving dogs changed the lives of hundreds of shelter dogs in New Zealand, and around the world.
We captured the imagination of New Zealand, and the world. In just one week driving dogs dominated social and news media: - PR reached over 200 million people in 70 countries; $15m in exposure - 100 million+ reached through Twitter - 10 million Youtube views - Video content trending everywhere from Twitter, Huffington Post to the BBC – even trumping the royal baby news. 49% more people watched the live drive TV show versus the programme’s usual audience, making it their most popular story ever. The campaign changed people’s perceptions of shelter dogs, resulting in a 590% increase in adoption interest in New Zealand, and every SPCA dog being adopted. Increases in adoption interest were also recorded across the globe including the US and UK.
Content was a combination of live broadcast on one of New Zealand’s most popular free-to-air TV stations as well as digital video content hosted on Youtube, Facebook and branded websites. The TV station promoted the content heavily through show promos, prompting people to tune-in to see our content. The TV station also leveraged a range of Radio stations it also owns to prompt people to tune-in using promo space and DJ announcements. PR maximized exposure of the content both locally in New Zealand and around the world – we knew we’d get more coverage in NZ if we made news internationally. Paid content seeding and promotion within Facebook and Youtube ensured the digital content was accessible. This was complemented by paid search to ensure that any interest in the content was converted to a view.