ANIMAL STRIKE

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleANIMAL STRIKE
BrandPAW JUSTICE
Product / ServiceCHARITY
CategoryC02. Use of Social in a PR campaign
EntrantDDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Entrant Company DDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Advertising Agency DDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Agency OMD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR Agency MANGO COMMUNICATIONS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Andy Fackrell DDB Group New Zealand Executive Creative Director
Shane Bradnick DDB Group New Zealand Creative Director
James Conner DDB Group New Zealand Art Director
Christie Cooper DDB Group New Zealand Copywriter
Jenny Travers DDB Group New Zealand Account Director
Jason Vertongen DDB Group New Zealand Lead Designer
Sam Schrey DDB Group New Zealand Digital Designer
Dov Tombs DDB Group New Zealand Producer
Paul Myles DDB Group New Zealand Developer
Cameron Crosby DDB Group New Zealand Lead Developer
Toby Morris DDB Group New Zealand Illustrator
Nikita Kearsley DDB Group New Zealand Creative Art Buyer
Julz Lane DDB Group New Zealand Production Manager
Renee Lam DDB Group New Zealand Designer
Lucinda Sherborne DDB Group New Zealand Head Of Planning
Michiel Cox DDB Group New Zealand Digital Planner
Jack Murphy DDB Group New Zealand Social Planner
Paul Pritchard DDB Group New Zealand Digital Director
Sean Brown DDB Group New Zealand/Mango Senior Account Director
Beat PR Additional company
Eleisha Balmer DDB Group New Zealand/Mango Senior Account Manager

The Campaign

In 2013, the New Zealand Government passed a new law to curb the sale of synthetic recreational drugs, ‘party pills’, by pushing the producers to safety test them on dogs. Animal-rights activist group, Paw Justice, was desperate to pressure the Government to review the law, but couldn’t fund an extensive above-the-line campaign. They had to rely on PR and social media to rally Kiwis together and make the government take notice. How do we grab the public’s attention? We staged a world-first Animal Strike and let our furry friends protest on behalf of New Zealand dogs. For one day, we blocked the animal content people love. We collaborated with YouTube, Google, local TV stations and websites to block everything from singing cats to skateboarding dogs. We then encouraged the public to sign the petition and download the strike toolkit to block their own animal content. No selfies with your poodle Paul, or pics of your new kitten Cathy – they were all on strike. And news media couldn’t get enough, sharing our story through the country’s biggest news organisations, pushing our key messages about the inhumane practice of lab testing on dogs. For an investment of less than $5,000, this campaign not only reached a potential audience of over 22 million people, it generated enough groundswell to influence the people who matter. Because of this campaign, the New Zealand Government has changed the law. Woof!

The Brief

The goal was simple – get the government to amend the new law. Getting them to do it was not so simple. Of those surveyed, 72.3%, didn’t support the new law. We needed to grab these peoples attention, then drive them to our website to sign the petition. Then PR was used to generate enough news coverage to make the Government take notice. Our target audience was New Zealanders. But to raise more awareness we also targeted animal loving celebrities and the media, as well as famous internet animals like Boo.

Results

We did it! We changed the law. Due to an immense amount of public pressure, Prime Minister John Key announced, “There will be no animal testing, either locally or internationally to support the application for a physco active substance”. In only a few days we received over 58,000 petition signatures. We spent less than $5000 yet received a potential reach of over 22million. 98% of all those visited the website went on to sign the petition. 78% visited the website through social media channels. Over 110,000 people and their animals took part in the strike online either by uploading a strike message or participating on our facebook page. Celebrities and famous animals took part in the strike, including Denise Richards, Ian Somerhalder and the world’s most famous dog, Boo. #animalstrike trended on twitter on the day of the strike.

Execution

1. We engaged with New Zealand’s biggest media outlets to cover the story a few days before the strike. 2. Used Paw Justice spokesperson for media interviews. Exclusive content to the country’s largest breakfast news channel to create impact 3. We collaborated with Google, YouTube, TV stations to block animal content for the day. 4. We created a website so the public could get involved in the strike by downloading a strike toolkit they could easily use to block their own animal content. 5. We identified the key influencers to share the campaign on our behalf Proactive social media engagement to rally support internationally and drive the hashtag.

The Situation

When the New Zealand Government passed a law pushing for synthetic drug producers to safety test them on dogs, it immediately got the hackles up on animal activist group, Paw Justice. With only a few weeks to get a petition into parliament and no funds for an extensive advertising campaign, we needed a PR and social campaign to generate significant media coverage about the issue and rally Kiwis together to put so much pressure on the government that they would have no choice but to pay attention.

The Strategy

Cat playing piano has nearly 9million views. Dog skateboarding has over 3million views. We all know people love being entertained by animals so we utilised that passion and turned it into action. We spent hundreds of hours a year being entertained by animals but when it comes to watching hard-hitting animal-rights ads most people just turn away. So instead of showing the public something they didn’t want to see, we got their attention by taking away what they love. We needed the media to cover the story, but we had to generate a groundswell first. We needed partners on board to leverage their audiences and flex their muscles.