Over the past six years, the main goal of the American Pet Products Association's non-profit social media campaign, Pets Add Life (PAL), has been to increase pet ownership. This year, after research showed 4 in 10 millennials are on their way toward owning a pet already, the campaign focused on increasing pet ownership among the young generation and educating them on the best pet choices for each stage of life to lessen the chance of relinquishment.
We set out to create a campaign that would not only open and invite conversation about the particular stages of life that allowed for adding a pet but also provide us with user generated content showing those various instances involving pets as the next chapter in a millennial's life. For some, pets are the next step before kids. For others, pets are the comforting next step after a breakup, the next big thing before buying a house, or even having another child, etc. The goal is to educate millennials about the importance of pet choice for each stage of life and ultimately increase increase pet ownership among the generation.
To help educate millennials about the importance of pet choice for each stage of life and ultimately increase increase pet ownership among the generation, the campaign used Facebook, the most popular social media platform among the age group, as the main social channel to reach our target audience with our message online and on mobile devices.
To encourage millennials to take the "Pet Step" and add a pet to their life, the campaign used the following strategies and tactics:
- The Pet Step video contest, which was launched in August and will run through the end of October, is currently taking video submissions from fans explaining why they took the "Pet Step" and added a pet to their life. Two winners are chosen and announced on the Facebook page each month and will be awarded a $1,000 gift card to the pet store of choice. These fan-submitted videos are also shared on our YouTube channel and Facebook page to further solidify the message that taking the "Pet Step" positively impacts our lives.
- A 'Find a Pet' custom application, perfect for millennials who use mobile devices daily, was built into the website to encourage fans to take the "Pet Step" by searching for and getting matched with an adoptable pet in their area, ultimately decreasing the number of pets still waiting for their forever home and increasing pet ownership.
- Recent studies have shown that millennials are more likely to bring their pets along when they go out, so PAL sponsored Bark at the Park, which encourages people to bring their dogs to the ballpark for select Major League Baseball games throughout the season. Fans are then encouraged to take a photo and share it with PAL on Facebook to be automatically entered to win prizes. These fan photos are used as user-generated content on our social media channels to show just how much fun pets can bring to our lives.
- In an effort to reach millennials via the highly sharable content that is online videos, PAL partnered with video content producers, BuzzFeed (whose audience is comprised of over 50% millennials) and Shareability to create videos targeted to millennials that express the joys and benefits of having pets in our lives and the best reasons to add a pet to your life if you don't already have one. To further expand the targeted reach, PAL is also in the process of launching an influencer marketing campaign with Shareability where we will select and work with 10 social media influencers to produce 60 videos each month, spreading the "Pet Step" message to millennials worldwide.
Moving the needle on pet ownership is difficult to track, especially in just one year and among one specific generation, however, the results of our individual tactics show tremendous success with our target audience. Though the Pet Step Contest just launched, we have numerous comments in support of the Pet Steps taken as well as comments noting plans of Pet Steps in the near future. Over 6,100 dogs have accompanied their human counterparts to ball games this year for Bark at the Park and hundreds of photos have been shared in support of our cause. The partnership with BuzzFeed yielded over 10 million impressions and we expect even greater results with Shareability. Though we can't be certain millennial pet ownership increases are due to our campaign, we can be sure our message is reaching the right generation and resonating as intended.
