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.

Execution

The campaign launched with a video compilation of Ollie, Galaxy, and Frosty taking on the challenge on SPCA Singapore’s Facebook page. 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’s Instagram Story feed. For maximum impact and awareness, PR seeded the campaign to mainstream media, both print and online, as well as broadcast. High-reach influencers who are passionate about pets, as well as pet influencers, were also tapped on – leveraging the depth and reach they had to further get the message across to the masses. The promise of another hilarious ‘What The Fluff’ addition drew viewers in and its unexpected ending helped ensure the message resonated. A simple CTA encouraged viewers to help share it further.

With ZERO media spend, #WhatTheFluffChallenge2.0 racked up half-a-million organic views in the first three weeks, over 473 million earned impressions, and an estimated $1.87 million in earned media. SPCA Singapore also had a 3000% increase in engagement. Despite only being seeded to local media, the campaign was shared across the world – mainly in Asia, Europe, North America, Central America, and the Middle East – within a week of the campaign’s launch. Some notable media highlights include radio stations (96.3HaoFM, Money FM89.3, 938NOW) as well as top news and media sites (Barked by 9GAG, Mothership, SGAG, MSN, setn, Apply Daily, ET Today, to name a few), and other international pet shelters, such as the National Animal Welfare Trust (which shared their own inspired take, three days later). The humble videos turned a 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.

The Situation

#WhatTheFluffChallenge2.0 is a campaign driven by PR. With no budget for paid media to support the campaign, and the need to drive awareness and public dialogue around the issue of pet abandonment, the campaign leveraged a social media trend, and set out to shock and surprise – ensuring that it would be discussed and shared around the world. Furthermore, by tapping upon known animal-loving media, influencers, and communities, we garnered more earned media coverage – which helped further spread the message, ignite even more new conversations, and rally support for the cause.

The Strategy

Cute animal videos are a classic favourite of the Internet. What’s not to like about famous pets who have thousands of followers? Or cute animal reactions giving us a good laugh? But, as seen on SPCA’s pages, none of this love extended to abandoned pets beyond the usual community of enthusiasts and advocates. SPCA wanted the message of pet abandonment to not just reach the masses, but impact them to ignite real conversation. Our strategy was to hijack the popular internet challenge and in a quick bait-and-switch, shift consumer reaction from HUMOUR to EMPATHY to trigger real conversation. To start the “trend," 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.