Poopsakes

Media Cause is a digital marketing agency with a mission: to scale the impact of organizations doing good.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) isn't known for being silly, but we wanted to expand their horizons just for April Fool's Day. The shock value of the revered AKC, not only talking about, but making 3D printed statues of pup's poop tickled us, and surprisingly, it tickled them, too.

Putting the Pile in the Wild

How It Came Out

April Fool's Day is the one day a year organizations, even as formal as the AKC, have a carte blanche on being silly, goofy or even a little odd. They didn't ask us to come up with this idea, or really any ideas. It's not a holiday that's on their radar.

As their agency, we're always looking for ways to bring in more personality and relatability— because while AKC is for all dogs, perception is that they're only for purebreds. This was an inclusive way to show they're really for any and all dogs, because any and all dogs poop.

VIEW CASE STUDY

Turning your dog's steaming pile into a custom 3D printed smile

Understanding we were going to stick to social, specifically Instagram to both target a younger demographic and avoid an older, more traditional AKC audience, we created a video for Instagram, stills for Instagram posts and stories, and worked with the AKC development team to launch a fake product page on the AKC store, complete with reviews and promos throughout the site.

While kicking around silly stunts in the office, we came up with the idea of Poopsakes. A 3D custom print of a poop, combined with your friendly Fido's face to make an unparalleled keepsake. We realized we had the resources to pull it all together to show proof of concept and immediately got to work.

Our VP Creative took on a new role of 3D designer to model, 3D print, and hand paint our sample. We created packaging, did a product shoot and presented it to the client.

They fell out of their chairs with laughter.

With some graceful and tactful negotiations, we even received clearance from their leadership. They were concerned about how poop would play with their current audience, so we opted to launch this one-day-only offer as a lead generation campaign.

Social Ad Examples

Fake Product Landing Page

Revealing the Joke

For the dozens of people who saw the organic posts, clicked the links and ordered, we had this pop up in place to thank them for having fun with us and as a thank you, we offered 10% off to the rest of the AKC Store.

Using the AKC template for products, we created a believable order form. It listed the top 25 most popular dog breeds in the US, asked dog owners to select the hue and shapes of their pup's poop, and if they'd like the Poopsake engraved.

To make the page even more believable, we also brought in reviews, the "Why we like it" section, and other key AKC shop elements.

If someone went to place an order, we asked for their email address so they could submit a photo of their pup to give to the artist who would be hand painting their work (and of course, capture some data along the way).