The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an annual event held in New York City featuring thousands of dogs across hundreds of breeds, with tens of thousands of attendees. Millions more tune in online and on-air, catching highlights and the finals broadcasted on television, live from Madison Square Garden on FOX Sports and USA Network.
In 2016, GLOW and the Westminster Kennel Club set out to extend this epic live event in an unprecedented, all-access digital pass to exhibitors, attendees, and those watching from home. Over the course of three days February 13th, 15th and 16th our goals were to grow platform followings during this period of heightened conversations; increase home viewer engagement with Westminster's social accounts; and build brand, event, and broadcast awareness.
GLOW and the Westminster Kennel Club developed and executed a comprehensive second screen experience. We kept the social content online relevant to what was happening in real-time at the 140th Dog Show, served the viewers and fans the content and information they wanted, and above all, made sure to always be showcasing the event's true stars, the dogs.
The key to keeping social content online relevant to fans was giving them a glimpse to what was happening at the Show leading up to the evening television broadcasts, even if they were not able to attend the show in person. Through the use of year on year social streaming advancements, we were able to elevate this prestigious live event to a truly global scale.
To extend the excitement of Westminster to new audiences, we partnered with Snapchat's editorial team for a Live Story. The Snapchat Live Story, branded 'Westminster Dog Show' featuring custom WKC geofilters, was curated by Snapchat users at the Piers and MSG and was available to all Snapchat users globally for 24 hours starting Tuesday, 2/16. The Story received over 100M views globally and attracted over 7M unique viewers.
WKC was one of the first brands to partner with Instagram on their new Live Event initiative. Broadcasted to 98% of domestic Instagram users with an iPhone, this story was a curation of WKC and influencer videos of live events taking place at the Piers and MSG on Tuesday, 2/16. Many of the top performing videos of the live story were taken by two partnering influencers, The Dogist and Cait Oppermann. Working with WKC, these influencers were given premium access to the show from the Piers to MSG leveraging their followings and expertise to showcase the show during this milestone social activation.
We broadcasted Live on Facebook throughout the event, giving fans the opportunity to watch along and make comments in real-time on the stream. Each recording is permanently available for viewing our Facebook page with total overall video views hitting 451K and reaching 1.2M. Periscope was also used for the benching area at the Piers and MSG, during the preliminaries at the Piers and with interviews for sponsors like Cosequin and Purina.
Real-time video content was also a big part of the social content strategy, and throughout competition. Custom clips, slow-motion videos and hyperlapse videos were regularly posted across all platforms. Particularly compelling moments in the rings and on the floor were turned into GIFs, and re-purposed as additional content throughout the event.
Fan demand for information was high during the three days of competition; around-the-clock community management kept fans informed and engaged. To keep fans in the loop as the competition narrowed, we posted real-time judging results with beautiful custom graphics. Distinct branding, through application of Westminster's iconic purple and gold, helped the outcomes stand out from the rest of what was happening in social and facilitated easy sharing of official updates.
#WKCDogShow trended on Twitter at No. 10 in New York on Monday 2/15 despite a slew of Grammys-related trends, and trended at No. 5 nationally on Tuesday 2/16 during Best in Show.
WKCDogShow's Snapchat Live Story, branded 'Westminster Dog Show', was curated by Snapchat users at the Piers and MSG and was available to all Snapchat users globally for 24 hours starting Tuesday, 2/16. The Story received over 100M views globally attracting 7M unique viewers. Most Snaps in the story were branded with Westminster-themed geofilters, educating Snapchat users about the brand.
Facebook earned significant engagement with an overall reach of 5.8 million users, earning 23,624 new fans, an average engagement rate of 10%, and 115,494 average daily engaged users. Reach of the WKC Facebook page increased by 1,253% as views of the page increased 1,558% over the course of the show.
Twitter saw a 24% increase in community, earning 5,998k followers, a 20% increase year on year. During the days of the show, Twitter impressions earned a 1,422% increase. We saw significant growth compared to 2015, including a 52% increase in impressions and a 65% increase in engagement year over year.
The Westminster Kennel Club Instagram account saw a 44% growth increase over the days of the show. The real-time and behind the scenes photos and video earned significant engagement, into the thousands on many posts with 864 average likes and 64 average comments per post.
