The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is one of the oldest sporting events in modern history. Held annually in New York City, thousands of dogs across hundreds of breeds compete for the title 'Best in Show', with tens of thousands of attendees. Millions more tune in online and on-air.
Between the annual shows, however, social awareness and chatter about the Westminster Kennel Club lessens. In 2017, GLOW partnered with Westminster to sustain social awareness and engagement year-round. Our goal was to grow the in-between social conversation amongst the dog fancy while introducing casual dog lovers into the world of Westminster.
Following the success of the 2016 dog show, GLOW and Westminster developed a long term sustainment strategy to organically grow social conversation, with limited budget for paid support. The Road To Westminster strategy elevated the Westminster brand as relevant source of dog-new year round, educate and grow new audiences, and build momentum for the 2017 dog show.
The Road To Westminster strategy allowed audiences to follow local competitions leading up to Westminster. Social content highlighted top dogs that would be competing in the 2017 show, successfully peaking people's interest and giving them stories to follow. We ideated and produced a number of social videos to educate audiences about the dog show basics including Dog Show 101, Grooming 101, Breeding 101, and Agility 101. Spotlight interviews highlighted the legends in the industry, breeders, owners and handlers and their stories.
The local competitions received on-the-ground social content capture including real-time Instagram Stories, competition highlights, photo galleries, and interviews. Regional Best in Show Teaser graphics pre-luded each regional competition and were disseminated across social platforms to build buzz around the show and alert our audience to stay tuned for more content, while encouraging people at the dog show to post their own. Regional Best in Show Winners graphics were produced highlighting the winners from that show.
#RoadToWKC User Activation leveraged UGC content from the show giving our audience a unique view of each event. We included direct call-to-actions for users to share their event photos for a chance to be featured on the Westminster accounts. This incentivized dog show patrons to post their content using the #RoadToWKC hashtag, keeping Westminster top of mind for dog show lovers everywhere year-round.
We utilized archival content to drive conversations with both the dog show enthusiasts and casual dog lovers; educated, entertained, and engaged with every communication; and grew our communities on the platforms they were most active in. We were also careful to maintain a consistent voice across each platform that reflected Westminster: trusted and exclusive, but also fun and accessible.
By laying out and executing a strategy for maintaining the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's social presence year-round, we were organically able to successfully grow our followings across all platforms and sustain conversations, while keeping fans engaged and celebrating dogs year-round.
