Title | CHILD REPLACEMENT PROGRAMME |
Brand | PEDIGREE |
Product / Service | DOG ADOPTION |
Entrant | COLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
Idea Creation | COLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
Media Placement | STARCOM Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
PR | IMPACT PR Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
Production | EXIT FILMS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Nick Worthington | Colenso BBDO | Creative Chairman |
Andre Sallowicz | Colenso BBDO | Creative Director |
Simon Vicars | Colenso BBDO | Creative Director |
Andre Sallowicz | Colenso BBDO | Art Director |
Simon Vicars | Colenso BBDO | Copywriter |
Ahmad Salim | Colenso BBDO | Group Business Director |
Abbi Barker | Colenso BBDO | Business Director |
Alice Sopwith | Colenso BBDO | Account Manager |
Ed Gunn | Colenso BBDO | Planner |
Paul Gunn | Colenso BBDO | PR & Activation |
Oliver Downs | MARS NZ | Marketing Director |
Cormac van den Hoofdakker | MARS NZ | Marketing Manager - Pet |
Maria Granados | MARS NZ | BRAND MANAGER – DOG & SPECIALTY |
Mark Delvin | Impact PR | Director |
Tim Freeman | Colenso BBDO | Experience Design Director |
Will Thorrat | Colenso BBDO | Digital Producer |
Dean Pomfrett | Colenso BBDO | Design Director |
Craig Thompson | Colenso BBDO | User Experience Architect |
David Arcus | Colenso BBDO | Lead Developer |
Alex Krivenko | Colenso BBDO | Front-end Developer |
Emma Tait | Colenso BBDO | Senior Product and Experience |
Serena Fountain-Jones | Colenso BBDO | Senior Producer |
Will Bailey | Colenso BBDO | Photographer |
Jodi Davis | Colenso BBDO | Senior Mac Op |
Reks Kok | Colenso BBDO | Retoucher |
Jen Storey | Colenso BBDO | Head of Broadcast |
Declan Cahill | Exit Films | Production Company Producer |
Adam Gunser | Exit Films | Director |
Pete Ritchie | n/a | Colourist |
Empty Nest Syndrome is the loneliness parents feel when their children leave home. But while these parents sit in a quiet house lamenting how quickly their kids grew up, a dog sits in a shelter longing for a home. A home it can fill with love and companionship. Our idea was to connect these abandoned dogs with lonely parents. The Pedigree Child Replacement Programme targeted ‘Empty Nesters’ with a comically blunt campaign encouraging them to adopt a dog and ‘move on’ when their kids moved out. All work directed parents to our website (replacethem.co.nz) where they could match the characteristics of their child with the characteristics of an abandoned dog– ensuring the perfect replacement was found. To further incentivise adoption we offered parents the chance to turn their child’s old stuff into new stuff for their dog. Bedspreads were turned into dog beds, and beloved jackets into dog jackets.
We launched The Pedigree Child Replacement Programme through three films that played in cinema, TV and online. When viewed online each film directly clicked through to replacethem.co.nz. Click through banners on Skype took our message to lonely parents, while geo-targeted mobile banners encouraged parents in airports to visit our site the moment their kids left the country. All work directed parents to replacethem.co.nz where they could match the characteristics of their child with the characteristics of a dog in a shelter – ensuring the perfect replacement was found. To further incentivise adoption we offered parents the chance to turn their child’s old stuff into new stuff for their dog. Bedspreads were turned into dog beds, trophies into dog bowls and beloved jackets into dog jackets. Everywhere parents were, we were there to offer them the love, laughter and companionship they’d been longing for in the form of a shelter dog.
The Pedigree Child Replacement Programme received global media attention, featuring on prime time news and driving mass interest in dog adoption. The campaign drove an 824% lift in dog adoption enquiries through animal shelters as well as a 16% lift in Pedigree’s sales. Visits to the site far exceeded forecasted expectations, forcing us to find more shelter dogs to meet the demand. In six weeks we got more online dog adoption enquiries than in the last two years combined, helping to make The Pedigree Child Replacement Programme the most successful Adoption Drive campaign in almost a decade. In a country of just 4.5 million people, we achieved over 15m impressions during the campaign period.
To get as many dogs adopted as possible, we needed to surround lonely parents with our campaign. But we didn’t just want media that reached them, we wanted every touchpoint to enhance the idea. So we used banners on Skype and print ads in gossip magazines. TV ads beamed into lonely living rooms and radio ads played on the quiet drive to work. Digital displays at airports even encouraged parents to replace their kids the moment they left the country. Everywhere parents were, we were there to offer them the perfect child replacement– a dog longing for a home.
‘Empty Nesters’ are considered to be anyone between the age of 45 and 75, living without children. They have the highest disposable income of any other group, so they’re often targeted by advertisers. To stand out, we needed to speak to them across multiple channels in a totally unrestrained and comically brutal way. Our approach to increase adoptions was to build unavoidable intrigue around the campaign. This started with the name. ‘The Pedigree Child Replacement Programme’ was received with disbelief by media outlets, with its straight-talking honesty helping to spread the campaign through PR and paid channels. Our promotion to help parents convert their children’s stuff into new stuff for dogs built even further on that intrigue, with hundreds of parents tagging their children in Facebook posts promoting the service.