Following dogs online?
Live From Los Angeles
As breeders, purebred rescue groups, adorable puppers, and hundreds of millennials gathered at 'Barks and Brews,' we continued the momentum and conversation via Facebook posts and Instagram Stories. The AKC's feed was filled with 3 hours of dog petting bliss, breaking down barriers and giving an even broader millennial audience more ways to engage with the organization.
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Because dogs play well everywhere, we also took the campaign offline, launching out- of-home-digital ads to help drive more awareness of the campaign and event, and get the puppers' voice and presence out in front of more young, savvy dog-lovers.
Live From Chicago
To bring the spunky personality of the campaign into the events themselves, we created custom environmental graphics, menus, table tents, and posters, encouraging attendees to share their photos and experiences with #akcmeetups.
"Hung out with some pretty cute pups at Pups and Pints. Have you ever seen a standard dachshund? 35 lbs of adorable sausage! #akcmeetups #thisisakc"
- Rachel, LA event attendee
Out Of Home
All elements of the campaign drove to a series of custom AKC Meetups landing pages, where the specific dog breed users clicked on in the banner ads greeted them with appropriate tail wags and excitement.
With the brand finally revealed, users were invited to RSVP to a local "Barks and Brews" event, where they'd have a chance to grab a beer, play with the purebred pups in person, talk to purebred rescue groups, and realize that breeders, and purebreds, are regular people and doggos, just like the rest of us.
Landing Pages
Retargeting ads are annoying. But reBARKeting ads sound pretty damn clickable. With maximum adorableness in mind, we created a hyper personalized, multi-channel campaign to begin changing millennials' outdated perceptions of the American Kennel Club's brand and mission, and build meaningful long-term connections with a new generation of dog-lovers.
Bringing it to Life
Cross-channel digital ads
The result? A seemingly "unbranded," sequential, cross-platform campaign where seeing a “Hi, hello!” message from a pug in a banner ad triggered another “Oh, it's you again. Wanna play fetch?” ad on Instagram, and enticed people to click through to meet the pups that had been following them around online in real life.
The Events
Challenge
The AKC had a branding problem: while recognition and engagement from their core of purebred enthusiasts was strong, the 135-year old organization was having trouble connecting with a younger “adopt don’t shop” millennial audience for whom "purebred" is often seen as a dirty word. Our challenge was to help these influential dog-lovers overcome AKC's historical perception, and begin to see them as a modern, trusted, expert resource and advocate for ALL dogs—and the people who love them.
Strategy
We started by identifying an entry point to connect with this audience, focusing on millennials who were considering adding a dog to their family. We mapped out the dog-seekers' digital journey, realizing that their path to decision usually included oodles of Google searches, IG dog-account follows, and YouTube dog video rabbit-holes. Dogs. All. Day. Then, we used analytics to uncover the top 5 most searched-for and followed dog breeds, and began putting the pieces together. If people following dogs = good, then dogs following people = even better.
Now dogs are following you.
With our reBARKeting approach in place, we started crafting visuals and storylines. Knowing the audience's sensitivity toward the AKC brand, the dogs needed to be our Trojan Horse to driving engagement and changing perception, so it made sense for the messaging to come from them. We captured original footage of the top 5 dogs breeds "interacting" with the viewer, built a matrix of over 90 dynamic ad variants, and mapped out their sequential retargeting paths across display, social, and YouTube.
To further change perception and bring greater awareness to a little known side of the AKC, all proceeds from the events benefitted the AKC Humane Fund, an arm of the organization that runs their rescue network, community education programs, advocates for responsible dog ownership, and gives grants to local organizations supporting dogs and the people who love them.
Results: Changing Purebred Perceptions
We knew we were hitting the right audience when we saw comments like these — dog seekers, looking for resources and connections, and dog lovers, sharing the excitement by tagging and inviting their friends. Both events exceeded their goals in ticket sales and attendance, bringing hundreds of millennials together with dogs and their breeders for two evenings of pure(bred) fun.
197%
154%
17,296,161
Total ad impressions
LA tickets sold above goal
Chicago tickets sold above goal