During the holiday season, when audiences are inundated with emotional messaging and peak generosity, PetSmart Charities saw an opportunity to show up differently. Instead of competing with traditional nonprofit appeals for attention, we tapped into the cultural phenomenon of Hallmark-style holiday movies to raise awareness of pet adoption through feel-good, familiar storytelling that audiences already love.
Home for the Pawlidays was inspired by the warm, cozy, and hopeful tone of holiday romance films. The idea was simple: remind viewers that the holiday love story they’re watching on screen is one they could create for themselves by adopting a pet. By framing real adoption journeys as cinematic, heartwarming stories, the series transformed real pets and adopters into the stars of their own holiday movies.
Designed as a multi-episode branded series, Home for the Pawlidays rolled out across social and digital platforms using platform-native formats to encourage discovery, sharing, and repeat viewing throughout the season.
Our primary goals:
By tapping into a beloved holiday storytelling format, Home for the Pawlidays aimed to turn cozy viewing moments into real-life adoption inspiration.
By tapping into a beloved holiday storytelling format, Home for the Pawlidays aimed to turn cozy viewing moments into real-life adoption inspiration.
To bring Home for the Pawlidays to life, PetSmart Charities approached the series as seasonal entertainment rather than a traditional nonprofit campaign. The strategy was to tap into the cultural popularity of holiday feel-good rom coms, using familiar storytelling cues to draw audiences in before revealing the real adoption stories at the heart of each film.
The execution centered on a multi-episode branded series, with each story introduced through short, trailer-style videos that acted as playful spoofs of classic holiday movie tropes. These trailers were designed to hook viewers through humor and familiarity, then drive them to the full-length adoption stories that inspired them.
Each long-form episode told a true adoption story, following real pets and adopters as the emotional core of the series. Rather than scripting narratives, we captured authentic interactions and shaped them into cinematic, story-driven edits that mirrored the emotional arc of a holiday romance, connection, transformation, and a hopeful ending, while remaining grounded in real-world impact.
The series was built for platform-native distribution across social and digital channels. Short-form trailers fueled discovery and sharing, while longer-form episodes allowed audiences to emotionally invest in each journey. An episodic rollout throughout the holiday season encouraged repeat viewing and sustained engagement.
Supplemental content expanded the storytelling universe. Custom movie posters were created for each storyline, mimicking the visual language of holiday film promotions and reinforcing the entertainment framing. Behind-the-scenes blooper reels and outtakes were also released, offering a lighter, more playful look at the making of the series and helping humanize both the process and the people involved.
Production presented unique challenges, from unpredictable filming conditions to prioritizing the well-being of adoptable pets and honoring real adoption timelines. Flexibility was built into every phase, allowing stories to unfold naturally and ensuring authenticity remained central.
By pairing spoof-inspired trailers with heartfelt true stories, Home for the Pawlidays created a distinctive content funnel (entertainment first, impact revealed), helping adoption storytelling stand out in an oversaturated holiday content landscape.
Home for the Pawlidays demonstrated the effectiveness of episodic, entertainment-led storytelling to drive awareness and engagement during the holiday season. By pairing short, spoof-style trailers with longer-form true adoption stories, the series delivered strong performance across Meta platforms and reinforced the value of culturally relevant branded storytelling.
Meta Performance Overview:
Key Content Performance Highlights:
While the teaser led in views, A Reel Country Christmas drove deeper engagement on Instagram, generating:
Beyond performance metrics, the series delivered tangible, mission-driven impact:
