The Fido Casting Call contest was officially launched on October 6, 2011. This search for the next four-legged star to appear in a Fido ad lasted 6 weeks and took place across Canada. The contest invited dog owners to create a “Casting Sheet" for their dog that they could obtain through a microsite or a tab on the company’s Facebook page. Dog owners were shared and promoted their casting sheet to the Facebook wall and by the end of the contest hundreds of dogs were posted and commented on. The Rogers’ community management team helped to answer customer questions and engaged by posting fun facts and contest details such as “Fido Casting Call contest fact: Judging by the entries we've received so far, the most popular dog name is Bella!". Our fans responded by posting pictures of their dogs, and “liking" and responding to each other’s comments and photos on the wall. • Chase is waiting patiently for Fido to announce it's Casting Call Winners! Chase Puppy, Fido will phone or email the winners but; since your such a good boy lets go to the puppy park today and see all your friends! • Vote for Spencer! • what a sweet face...bet she gets lots of hugs and kisses • Thank you to all who voted for Brayker in the Fido Casting Call. The votes are being tallied and they will confirm the winners shortly. He might still have a chance. • Definitly interested in getting my big boy into a Fido ad. He is unlike any other dog I have seen in a fido commercial. The Mastiff is the king of dogs, imagine a commercial with a couple of small dogs with Koodo and Solo tags around their necks and my big man walking past them with a Fido tag around his neck. you would not even need to say anything in the ad, the image would say it all. Fido is the stronger company and towers over the competition. At around 200 lbs at 1 year old, he is the ideal Fido dog. His name is Chewie. • Ah c'est une belle photo dans la vie de tout toutou qui va dans l'auto...BRRRrrrroummmmmmmmmm! Super, ils sont tellement beaux! Once dog owners registered, they were invited to promote their dog by asking for the support of their friends and family to get enough votes to secure a spot among the top 10. Up for grabs was a grand prize featuring VIP treatment for the winner and their dog including; transportation to Montreal, hotel accommodations, $500 in spending money, a day at the dog spa for the new star, a photo session in a professional studio, and last but not least, an appearance in a Fido ad. In addition to the awards, Fido was committed to donating $1 per vote up to $200,000 to the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, a non-profit organization that trains dogs to assist people with physical or medical disabilities. To create excitement for the contest, a series of events were held in 6 major cities across the country. Event pages were created on Facebook and the Community Managers helped to answer related questions. During these events, participants were given the opportunity to have a professional photograph taken of their dog for free on the spot and use the photo as part of their registration in the contest. After each event, a series of photos and a video were posted to Facebook. Here is one video after the event in Regina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2LABZYt2ao A partnership with the Pet Network channel gave Fido more exposure for the events, increasing the impact of the campaign. A promotional video was also launched at the start of the contest and all points of contact were used to get the word out (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, corporate website, emails, PR). A media campaign with a small budget was also initiated to generate excitement for the contest (pre-promotion on the ground and Facebook ads for the events, plus print ads). During the contest we continued to drum up excitement through the Facebook page by sharing fun facts and engaging in conversations about our fans dogs! Some examples of proactive content shared on our wall: Our fans loved the content and the contest and actively shared and promoted their dog on our Facebook pages and to their Facebook friends! During the contest we saw an increase of over 800% in comments and shares on our Facebook page! When the contest finalists were revealed the participants and other members congratulated the winners and Fido on the donation: • Congratulations to Speedy!!! I enjoyed the contest immensely, it certainly inspired community spirit. It was amazing to watch people come together and encourage others to become involved. The local newspaper ran a story on my dog and complete strangers approach me to ask how Mya was doing in the contest. What fun!! An added bonus is the huge amount of money that was raised for the Dog Guides of Canada!!!!! • LOL I ♥ how we recognize each other via the dogs lol gotta say hand-standing beagle is freaking awesome! Wait ... this is the handstand beagle right? • Congratulations to Camilla Gonzalez and her dog, Speedy Gonzalez the Miniature Schnauzer for winning the Grand Prize for the Fido Casting Call. I can hardly wait to see your ad for Fido. You had many supporters to help you get to the top. Good job and best of luck to you. The contest attracted the attention of mainstream media and was featured in numerous newspaper articles. What’s more, word of the contest rapidly spread online, generating incredible results - over 23,000 Casting Sheets were registered, and more than 4 million visits and 22 million pageviews on the microsite were counted. The initial objective of reaching $200,000 in donations was easily reached in under a week. The campaign also added 44,000 new Facebook fans in only 6 weeks effectively doubling the Fido facebook page! And best of all, due to the massive success of the contest, Fido increased the Canada Dog Guides donation amount to $220,000. This donation will help the foundation train 11 new Dog Guides that will all be named Fido. As a wrap up the Fido Mobile team created this video (currently in French, but soon to be in English as well). http://youtu.be/4VJgVZ9-Lo8
