Company: Wag!
Campaign: Wag! Cool Treats City Tour
Agency mix: Havas Formula (PR, social), Havas Street (activation)
Duration: July 15 – August 15, 2018
App-based dog walking platform Wag! dished out dog-friendly ice cream to help pets beat the heat and connect with consumers.
Strategy
Wag! and its PR agency partner for the campaign, Havas Formula, began planning for the activation in mid-June 2018.
"Wag! had two goals for this campaign: Drive positive awareness for their brand in two key markets and help spread the word about summer heat safety for pets in a memorable way," explained Michael Olguin, president and CEO of Havas Formula.
The brand decided to launch a brand ambassador tour of high-traffic parks in New York City and Washington, DC, and offer free canine-friendly ice cream made with soy flour and coconut oil.
The campaign team also looked to garner attention of consumer outlets and local top-tier media in each city to help drive awareness of the tour.
"To amplify our activation and traditional media efforts, we engaged with popular local dog influencers to spread the word about Wag! and tease the ice cream cart locations in each city," said Olguin.
Tactics
On July 10, Wag! put out a blog post announcing the dates and locations of the activation, as well as pointing out some safety tips for helping dogs stay healthy during the sweltering summer months.
On July 15, National Ice Cream Day, the brand launched its New York City tour in Central Park.
"Brand ambassadors engaged with pet parents on their own turf, such as dog parks and local hot spots, to hand out dog-friendly ice cream and educational materials on summer heat safety, while sharing more about Wag!’s trusted dog-walking services," added Olguin.
The New York leg of the tour ran through July 29 and with additional activations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.
On August 6, the brand began a five-day tour of DC, including a stop at City Tap House on August 11 to participate in a local event series called Dog Days of Summer.
The brand also used a total of six social influencers, three in each city, to make appearances and create posts to help boost awareness of the tour. Canine influencers tapped included: @poochofnyc, "the Bob Ross of dogs" with 133K Instagram followers, @mayathedox, an D.C.-based pup with 136K Instagram followers, and @navycorgi, another D.C. dog influencer with more than 50K Instagram followers.
Results
The Wag! Cool Treats City Tour landed the brand nearly 60 unique media placements in outlets such as CNBC, Yahoo!, Refinery29, Pet Insider, Metro NYC, and Thrillist D.C. The activation even led to on-site broadcast coverage from Fox 5 DC.
Throughout the tour, the street team distributed 1,268 free ice cream treats to dogs across both cities and engaged directly with more than 3,600 consumers to tell them about the brand.
Social content posted by the brand and influencers led to 12,000 likes measured across all platforms. The brand found that influencer content performed well, with each post from influencers netting an average of 2,200 social engagements.
