The Campaign

Taking advantage of “What The Fluff” exploding on social media, we launched a series of videos on Facebook and Instagram that looked like they were hilarious additions to the challenge. Viewers watched Ollie, Galaxy, and Frosty be duped by the “drop-a-blanket-and-run-away” vanishing trick that’s become synonymous with the trend, but instead of the payoff of a dramatic reaction, laughter, or the owner reappearing, silence followed as the dogs were left alone by themselves. As the silence became deafening, we revealed that not every disappearing act is an act, and not every owner returns – Ollie, Galaxy, and Frosty are real-life pet abandonment cases. We then rallied audiences to help put a stop to it with a simple CTA to share the video and spread the message.

Creative Execution

#WhatTheFluffChallenge2.0 was launched on SPCA Singapore’s Facebook page with a video compilation of Ollie, Galaxy, and Frosty taking on the challenge. It was also tagged with the challenge's hashtag to ensure it was seeded. To drive the message over a longer period of time, over the next week, three cutdowns – individual videos of each dog – were posted organically on SPCA Singapore’s Instagram Stories feed. For maximum impact and awareness, PR also blasted the campaign to media, influencers, and communities that were known to be passionate about pets and their welfare. The videos’ unassuming nature and promise to be another hilarious ‘What The Fluff’ addition was set up to draw viewers in, while its unexpectedly meaningful ending designed to cement the campaign message and ensure that it would continue to spread around the internet.

Within the first three weeks of its launch, the #WhatTheFluffChallenge2.0 videos racked up over half-a-million organic views, over 473 million earned impressions, and $1.8 million in earned media, along with a 3000% increase in engagement with SPCA Singapore. When the videos launched, pet owners immediately adopted our message. Soon after, other pet shelters (such as the National Animal Welfare Trust, three days later) followed suit. Influencers, talk show hosts, and social media users, from Asia, Europe, North and Central America, and the Middle East all joined the conversation - turning the viral gag into a global message on pet abandonment. But the biggest result? Internet trends often go viral, and then disappear in a blink of an eye. But even after the millions lost interest in this viral gag, adoption queries about the shelter dogs still continue to pour in, and the conversation of pet abandonment continues to spread.

#WhatTheFluffChallenge2.0 hijacked a trending social media challenge and flipped it around to highlight the serious, real-world issue of pet abandonment. Leveraging an already present audience following the viral gag, SPCA seeded its own ‘What The Fluff’ Challenge video, which featured abandoned shelter dogs. When viewers were confronted with this unexpectedly meaningful ending, they started talking about the cruelty of pet abandonment, and joined SPCA’s cause to stop this nasty trend.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

With this simple internet challenge gaining traction and conversation, there was an opportunity to shift consumer reaction from HUMOUR to EMPATHY by highlighting that “disappearing acts” in the real world aren’t a laughing matter. We focused on hijacking the popular internet challenge by seeding our ‘hilarious’ entry - but in a quick bait-and-switch revealed the ugly truth - that sometimes disappearing acts aren’t acts, and some owners never return. We then pushed them to utilise their own personal social influence to spread awareness and start conversations around this shunned topic. To push the results further, we reached out to popular pet influencers with our video and intention, and encouraged them to repeat the challenge with our message. Then, we got them to egg on their followers and other pet owners – using their influence for good, sharing and spreading awareness of pet abandonment.