| Title | HUMAN WALKING PROGRAM |
| Brand | LOST DOGS HOME |
| Product / Service | DOG SHELTER |
| Category | B05. Fundraising, charities, appeals, non-profit organisations, public health & safety, public awareness |
| Entrant | GEORGE PATTERSON Y&R Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | GEORGE PATTERSON Y&R Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency | GEORGE PATTERSON Y&R Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Coulson | GPYR | Chief Creative Officer |
| Ben Coulson | GPYR | Executive Creative Director |
| Evan Roberts | GPYR | Creative Director |
| Jake Barrow | GPYR | Senior Art Director |
| Katie Britton | GPYR | Copywriter |
| Matt Lawson | GPYR | Copywriter |
| Daniel Smith | GPYR | Senior Digital Account Manager |
| Katy Greening | GPYR | Senior Account Manager |
| Katherine Muir | GPYR | Producer |
| Luisa Peters | GPYR | Producer |
It's getting pretty full at the Lost Dogs Home. Our task was to create an adoption campaign for Australia's biggest animal shelter - The Lost Dogs Home. We needed to find new prospective customers/dog-owners as well as changing the perception of shelter dogs, and let people see for themselves the benefits dog ownership. This was also an opportunity to grow the LDH database. Our strategy was simple: create a direct campaign that used the emotional connection between dog and human through a shared experience - being cooped up y, not seeing enough daylight and the need for a good walk.
Traditional pet adoption advertising relies on drawing sympathy from prospective owners with forlorn images of forgotten and abused animals. The fact that there are so many dogs in the shelter means perhaps people have become immune to these campaigns. Our idea did the opposite - by appealing to office workers directly and putting them in the position of those who needed rescuing, and that one of our dogs could do that for them. We gave people a very personal reason to adopt a dog, rather than a reason to feel sorry for it.
We believed that if we could get enough people to actually meet our dogs then every single one would be adopted. So we created The Human Walking Program, an event where we invited office workers to get out of from behind their desks and go for lunchtime walkies with a shelter dog in Melbourne's financial district. Office workers saw the positive benefits of dog ownership in the most direct way imaginable - engaging with the dogs themselves. The event was supported by EDMs to large corporate firms, DM packs to local cafes, press, outdoor, radio and editorial. And of course there was the event itself – one giant, living, barking, interactive piece of outdoor.
The Human Walking Program was attended by more than 5,000 anxious and stressed office workers who wanted to walk and spend time with a shelter dog. Our message was picked up nationally in print, radio and every major television network with an exposure of over 4,000,000 people. The Lost Dogs Home collected the contact details of each attendee and increase their database by over 1000%. The Human Walking Program has become their most successful campaign ever and will now become regular national event. Most importantly every single dog at the event was adopted.