The Campaign

The Lost Dogs Home is Australia’s largest animal shelter and it needed to find new ways of getting dogs a home. Traditional pet adoption advertising makes us feel sorry for shelter dogs. But when you think about it, we’re the ones that are trapped in confined spaces, with little sunlight and not enough exercise.

The Brief

The key objectives of the campaign were first and foremost to find homes for all the shelter dogs. The second was to raise awareness of the fantastic work the Lost Dogs Home (LDH) does in the community. We also wanted to increase the LDH database at the event, so we had prospective owners ready to be contacted when dogs came through the shelter in the future. Our target audience was identified as city office workers who loved dogs but hadn't previously had the time or seen the benefit of adopting a dog.

Results

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.

Execution

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.

The Situation

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.

The Strategy

The campaign plan focused on securing maximum coverage through a media roll out to ensure a successful event. We looked at what we had available to us and how we could make this relevant to media. This resulted in a media roll across print, online, radio and television. We also included an issues management plan detailing specific Q&A’s to address any sensitivity around the Home. As part of the role out we matched elements available to us with specific media outlets to achieve maximum results for The Home. Print items include colourful pictures and stories of office workers with shelter dogs. We organised dogs in studio at several major metro radio stations and leveraged the support of long time ambassador Mike Larkan to create colour and movement pieces covered by Channel Ten. With over 5,000 attendees and all dogs rehomed, the planning for the campaign achieved its objectives.