DC’s “Krypto Saves the Day” is a series of original comedic animated shorts available on YouTube and HBO Max – starring Krypto, Superman’s caped canine companion. To drive influencer and audience buzz among dog lovers, we unveiled the first gift box designed to be opened by dogs.
For too long, unboxings have been reserved for humans with thumbs. But we flipped the script and gave dogs their well-deserved moment of “superpower” with an influencer box made to be opened by paws, not hands! To open, our furry friends pull on the rope toy that’s sticking out of the box. One super tug would open it right up!
The dogfluencer campaign began when our first round of standard-size unboxing kits sent October 20-30 promoted the Halloween episode. In November we extended into real-world holiday impact: in addition to influencer kits, DC donated much larger versions of the boxes – filled with blankets, treats, essential supplies, plush toys, costumes, dog treats, a monetary donation and more – to four Los Angeles-area shelters. At a time when shelters are overwhelmed, these hero-sized kits delivered meaningful support while creating touching, visual moments of adoptable dogs enjoying their own super experience. The expanded November effort promoted the show’s holiday episode to 90 influencers – both canine and human – to excite them and their followers.
The campaign unleashed the playful chaos and madcap energy of Krypto himself, proving that every dog is super – especially when given the temporary power of opposable thumbs.
We created a first-of-its-kind influencer kit engineered for dogs, not humans – creating a never-before-seen unboxing moment that was instantly shareable. The playful mechanics, bold design, and surprise reveal drove standout content from pets and their people.
To drive audiences to DC Kids on YouTube, DC rolled out 4 custom animal shelter boxes and 90 branded kits, reaching 76 in-kind recipients, 4 paid dogfluencers, and DC power players like James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Our first round of dogfluencer kits was sent out October 20–30 to promote the Krypto Saves the Day Halloween episode. Our second round was sent out on November 28, supporting our holiday episode. The campaign included earned/owned media placements across social media platforms (like @DCOfficial and its 13.6M followers) to reach a primarily U.S.-based audience. Dogfluencers like Maxine the Fluffy Corgi (1.4M followers), Kara Mehrmann (541K followers), Bruno the Dog (178k followers) and Rupawl (48.7k followers) swooned over the kit – posting fun-filled dog unboxings of their own.
Aside from the standard kits, some included episode-specific extras:
• E2 Krypto Cape: Inspired by Krypto, this bold red cape let any pup channel their inner hero. Lightweight and comfortable, it’s perfect for photo ops or heroic walks around the block.
• E2 Dog Bowl: Even heroes must refuel! This Krypto-inspired bowl turns every meal into a super-powered feast.
• E3 Blanket: A custom-made, super-soft Krypto Saves the Day! blanket designed to bring cozy, heroic comfort to the season. Perfect for snuggling up after a long day of adventures.
To conclude, DC delivered a true hero moment to the community by bringing supplies, Krypto toys, monetary donation and IRL impact to four local animal shelters across the greater Los Angeles area. Over the course of two days, the team visited all the shelters – donating items and personally engaging with staff and animals alike.
The local shelters we partnered with for our holiday outreach:
• Santa Monica Animal Shelter Foundation
• Best Friends Los Angeles
• Angel City Pit Bulls
• Hesperia Animal Shelter
Packed with treats, blankets, toys, and a monetary donation, the kits delivered a memorable, impactful holiday experience for animals, humans and shelters – while allowing DC to solidify existing partnerships with Milk-Bone and Best Friends, and build meaningful community relationships that extended well beyond fandom.
Challenges arose in our creative process: we’d ideated around how to make influencer boxes interesting and unboxings novel when your influencer is an animal, to drive tune-in and social sharing from pet owners and families. Kits/boxes are losing relevance, so we had to get creative to motivate posting. But ultimately the gifting led to 62 brand channels and influencers – including 4 paid and 58 unpaid – that posted kit content. And those participants in turn generated 210 pieces of social content. By connecting the series and campaign’s story to real-world action, DC brought the “super” brand to both audiences online and IRL.
Creators bought-in: 60%+ of unpaid recipients shared excitement for Krypto Saves the Day! and the kit, driving awareness and conversation online. By the numbers…
• 3.9M+ TOTAL VIEWS (number of times any campaign post was viewed for at least 1 millisecond)
• 3.04M views of those were driven by in-kind partners.
• 2.88M+ TOTAL SOCIAL REACH
• 1.16% ENGAGEMENT RATE (sum of engagements divided by followers.)
• $851.6K+ SOCIAL MEDIA VALUE (total dollar value of all influencer content for the campaign)
YouTube tune-in saw growth at a super rate as the campaign progressed. A high posting rate paired with a clear, compelling call-to-action drove audiences to Episodes 2 and 3. And this led to significant increases in viewership between episodes, proving the campaign successful as the kits and partnerships resonated with our audience.
Episode 01: 1,123,591 views
Episode 02: 5,795,396 views – 4x MORE views THAN ep 1
Episode 03: 13,983,159 views – 12x MORE views THAN ep 1
The campaign sparked notably enthusiastic, feel-good sentiment across comments, DMs, and emails - reinforcing strong affinity for Krypto and DC. Creators who initially declined participation later followed up requesting a kit after seeing the organic buzz unfold online.
Another great number:
1 DOG ADOPTED BY TEAM MEMBER
In a super serendipitous and wholesome moment, Sam, the brand manager leading the campaign, rescued her very own Krypto from Angel City Pit Bulls. Formerly known as Cream Puff, Harley now resides in Pasadena.
