As the agency of record for the Michelson Found Animals Foundation and their Adopt & Shop stores, we're always looking for ways to boost awareness. But with the noise of the election, our first instinct was to take a marketing hiatus.
Then we had another idea. What if we went right into the heart of the election and tried to capture some of that cultural energy on behalf of Found Animals? This was our challenge.
Our bar was low. If we got 100 new followers on Facebook, it would be a success. New followers would expand Found Animals' access to potential adopters or volunteers.
We wanted to capture people's sentiments about an election "in the toilet," while providing a humorous respite from nerve-racking election night coverage. So we set up a couple of litter boxes in Found Animals' kitten room and assigned each litter box to a candidate. With a few patriotic decorations, and a couple score cards, we were ready to let the kittens drop their votes on Facebook Live.
Our target was primarily millennial and gen-X pet lovers, a demo that indexes well on Facebook. We knew they would be checking their feeds throughout the night. We also knew how eager pet lovers are to share humorous pet-related content.
Kitty Election was concepted, planned and executed in under a week. Logistically, it was a strikingly simple operation, and that's how we wanted it. Part of the charm of Kitty Election is its innocence and simplicity. So we kept the production small and trusted in the power of the idea and its cultural context.
In just 2.5 hours and zero media dollars, Kitty Election received:
6 million views
Over 454,000 shares, likes, and comments
A reach of 16,555,787
6,000 (vastly outpacing our goal of 100) new Facebook followers which, for Found Animals, translates into expanded opportunities for adoptions and volunteer outreach.
Those brief hours brought the Found Animals Foundation more attention than any of their previous marketing campaigns, at any budget, even more views than livestreams from New York Magazine and The Huffington Post.
