Pedigree was looking to take their partnership with the annual Puppy Bowl to new heights this year, with a deeper presence on digital and social platforms. With many sports on hiatus this year due to COVID-19, Pedigree and Animal Planet partnered to bring our audience an interactive, multi-platform experience that would engage fans leading up to the Puppy Bowl across social and digital platforms, as well as on-air.
Playing off of the March Madness tournament bracket, Pedigree was the exclusive sponsor of the Puppy Bowl XVII Pupularity Play-offs. This bracket challenge invited fans to join in on the fun by choosing their favorite puppies each week for a chance to win $5,000 from the Pedigree Foundation to donate to a selected animal shelter. The winning Puppy was revealed during Puppy Bowl pre-game show. The bracket challenge came to life on a newly revamped Puppybowl.com, and was promoted across platforms throughout January. On social, Pedigree sponsored “Meet the players” social videos and flat content featuring the adorable puppies featured in this year’s game. The “Meet the players” content was also used to craft a custom short form for Animal Planet linear and streaming platforms, driving entry into the Pupularity Play-offs across screens. On-air on Animal Planet, Pedigree also sponsored custom :10 wraps driving consumers to the Pupularity Play-offs. Pedigree continued to engage our audience with presence within the Puppy Bowl main show as well. Pedigree was the returning sponsor of the Starting line-ups segments, as the puppies ran through the tunnel and onto the field. Pedigree’s stadium banners were also located at the entrance to the tunnel, allowing for multiple branding moments during the show. Additionally, Pedigree Puppy was featured during a time-out called by Dan the Ref, allowing the puppies to refuel with Pedigree Puppy.
Overall, the Pupularity Playoffs gave Pedigree a deeper social presence around Puppy Bowl this year, with 5x sponsored social posts, 4x social videos, and a robust site experience featuring Pedigree logo placement, in addition to the integrated linear and streaming video content and in-show integrations! Engagement for Pedigree’s digital content around Puppy Bowl increased year over year as well. The Pupularity Playoffs had over 250,000 votes, bringing more fans than ever to the Puppy Bowl universe! Puppybowl.com had the most weekly page views in the site’s history, and set an all-time record for the most daily page views.
