2016 Bronze Charity

Agency Kitcatt Nohr

Client Dogs Trust

Campaign summary What if a rescue dog dreamed about his perfect owner?

Campaign overview

The brief was to get more people into Dogs Trust centres - and rehoming Dogs Trust dogs. A third of people looking for a dog start by searching online for designer puppies.

This means that rescue dogs were overlooked and fewer people visited Dogs Trust Rehoming Centres.

Strategy

The real challenge was to compete with the convenience of searching online to find the puppy of your dreams.

From research of 2,000 dog owners, 79% were open to the idea of a rescue dog, yet only 32% went on to rehome one. Potential rehomers were distracted by cute pictures designer of puppies on the internet.

To fight this trend, the Dogs Trust needed to connect with people before they started searching. Getting a dog is an emotional journey. People are filled with excitement, imagining the moment they meet their soul mate.

The Dogs Trust heard from rehomers that when they walked through the centres ‘the dog chose them’. This insight turned the brief on its head.

It wasn’t about helping people find a special dog. It was about helping rescue dogs find a special owner.

Creativity

Prospective rehomers imagine what their special rescue dog might be like: big, bouncy and full of slobbery love or shy and retiring with adoring eyes.

What if the dog was also imagining, searching for that special someone? What if the dog has imagined that his perfect owner is a chap with a kind face, spectacles and a lovely smile?

The audience got a snapshot of the dog’s imagination with a knitted toy doll. A chap. With a kind face. Spectacles. With a lovely smile. The rescue dog shares his bath time, ball time and walks with his knitted doll - all the things he wants to share with his real owner. He has chosen his new owner - his owner just doesn’t know it yet.

This makes the meeting between the owner and dog even more poignant. The campaign led with a heartwarming TV ad to reach prospective owners before they started searching online for designer puppies. A digital and social campaign #SpecialSomeone drove them to the Dogs Trust website.

Results

In a crazy first week, the TV ad was viewed more than 1.3 million times and liked and shared thousands of times. Over the entire campaign, it has been viewed over seven million times on online media.

However the sweet spot came when 7,000 owners - completely off their own backs - posted pictures and stories on Facebook about the joy their Dogs Trust dog had brought to their lives. And they encouraged others to rehome too.

As a result, people stepped forward. They came to the rehoming centres up and down the country - reversing a four-year trend in visit numbers dropping consistently. The campaign increased footfall to centres by 12% on target and 15% on the same period last year.

But best of all rehoming of dogs is already 5% ahead of target and up 8% on last year.

Team

Simon Martin (Creative Director) • Harriet Elsom (Business Director) • Caroline Deput (Planning Director) • Beth Kwaterskik (Art Director) • Ellie Lynch (Copywriter) • Alison Loader (Senior Project Manager) • Sophie Marshall (Senior Account Director)

Contributors

Rattling Stick (Production) Prodigious (Production)