Marketing for Dumm(pupp)ies
Recently, Joey (one of my best friends and usual partner for media projects) and I created a marketing proposal for a non-profit pet rescue organization named "Wonder Paws". I thought it would be nice to present that to you as well, considering we're going to have to create marketing components along with our short film.
The first thing we discussed was the practices of two already existing organizations, one of these being "Paws4You". Our presentation slide to the left tells the basic ways they were marketing as well as specific particular ways of marketing we found they were practicing in the bottom left-hand corner.
We had liked that the message of their organization/brand was not only to benefit the pets they were trying to rescue, but also the community as a whole, especially with how they "interact with their pets". This was something we wanted to consider for our own marketing presentation, as we thought it was important for a pet rescue organization to serve the pets, their owners, and the community. Their consistency in branding and use of interactive media in their Instagram stories also served as an inspiration to us(I also discuss this further on in the interactive media portion).
What we didn't like about the "Paws4You" brand was the amount of formality in their visual aspects and their digital presence. The reasoning for their brand colors can be easily understood, resembling the color scheme of firefighters, another group of people who aim to rescue and save. However, evident through their font choice and the design aspects of their website, they overdid their level of professionalism to a point we thought felt disconnected and cold. With "Wonder Paws", we wanted to create something more light-hearted and fun, similar to the next organization we researched.
"Abandoned Pet Rescue" did a much better job with their visual branding characteristics. It was much more joyful and associated the organization much more positively.
Additionally, they further reinforced their connection with the audience besides their bright and colorful visual brand through their use of pages on their website for donors and deceased pets, along with their "Alli Katz" Blog. These all worked to associate the brand with a friendly and inviting connotation, creating a sort of intimacy and relationship with their consumers, showing that they care. Their featured pet algorithm was also a great media product, not only to suggest pets to the consumer, but also build that relationship as they are providing the consumer with something that feels personalized to them with the algorithm.
We have a list of potential content the newsletter could hold and we also had an idea to include an illustrated comic strip in the newsletter, possibly with Charlie and Matilda, to make the newsletter not only be a great source of updates from wonder paws but also provide some entertainment. Perhaps this section of the newsletter can be engaging to kids as well.
On top of that, we thought that if the newsletter got enough subscribers, whether it be former or potential Wonder Paws consumers that local businesses and perhaps bigger corporations could advertise on the newsletter to generate profit for the organization.
Instagram gifs have come into popularity over the last couple of years as they give users a fun way to decorate their Instagram stories. It is also a free way of marketing! We thought it would be a good idea to create Instagram gifs that follow the branding and superhero theme, as seen with the little masks and the superhero paw print logo. This would provide consumers with content that they can actually use and enjoy, both parents and kids. It can be easily found by searching bigger keywords like Superhero or simply by searching wonder paws. Users would also be indirectly promoting the company as well.
Through our research with instagram, we noticed that many parents enjoy text based posts, usually with quotes that state something inspirational or state something quirky, and that cartoons based visuals sometimes come along with them, shown by the yellow circles. Additionally, we found that pictures of babies and children interacting with their moms and families are popular visuals as well.
We had created three different kinds of brochures to achieve different goals (volunteering, adoption, and donations). I have included a portion of each in this posting, one of them just being of general info on the backside of a brochure.
These brochures are a great way of print marketing to give lots of information in an easily portable and visually pleasing way. We plan to distribute these in local pet businesses and pass them out at events. We also think it would be a good idea to have them in places where families frequent like local restaurants, parks, and supermarkets.
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| Joey with his dog, Jake |
RESEARCH
We had liked that the message of their organization/brand was not only to benefit the pets they were trying to rescue, but also the community as a whole, especially with how they "interact with their pets". This was something we wanted to consider for our own marketing presentation, as we thought it was important for a pet rescue organization to serve the pets, their owners, and the community. Their consistency in branding and use of interactive media in their Instagram stories also served as an inspiration to us(I also discuss this further on in the interactive media portion).
What we didn't like about the "Paws4You" brand was the amount of formality in their visual aspects and their digital presence. The reasoning for their brand colors can be easily understood, resembling the color scheme of firefighters, another group of people who aim to rescue and save. However, evident through their font choice and the design aspects of their website, they overdid their level of professionalism to a point we thought felt disconnected and cold. With "Wonder Paws", we wanted to create something more light-hearted and fun, similar to the next organization we researched.
Additionally, they further reinforced their connection with the audience besides their bright and colorful visual brand through their use of pages on their website for donors and deceased pets, along with their "Alli Katz" Blog. These all worked to associate the brand with a friendly and inviting connotation, creating a sort of intimacy and relationship with their consumers, showing that they care. Their featured pet algorithm was also a great media product, not only to suggest pets to the consumer, but also build that relationship as they are providing the consumer with something that feels personalized to them with the algorithm.
TARGET AUDIENCE
We chose the target audience of families for our marketing campaign, targeting different demographics concerning the parents and the kids, specifically going for 25-35 year olds that are either younger or potential parents, and 6-12 year olds for the kids. We decided not to target a specific gender for the kids, but leaned towards moms for the parents, as they make more of the buying decisions impacted by their children. Additionally, we look to have families who are employed, educated, and value family because those aspects would imply they could provide a happy and healthy home for a pet and goes along with the selective application process for adoption that "Wonder Paws" had. We also included some other facts about what appeals to parents that we took into account when making our media products.
REBRANDING
We had created a new, more modernized logo for wonder paws with two characters we had created, Charlie the dog and Matilda the cat, who can be recurring characters that are associated with the brand. Right when we had thought about the name of Wonderpaws, we immediately thought about superheroes which would be appealing to the kids we have as our target audience, so we had that become a major component of our campaign. We had chosen a bright, primary color scheme because not only is it eye-catching due to how vibrant it is, but it is specifically appealing to younger children as well, basic primary colors being one of the first colors they are introduced to and recognize. Additionally, we had chosen two slogans that connect back to the superhero theme and also indicate that adoption is a sort of "heroic" act.
MARKETING PRODUCTS
We had created a design for a newsletter as shown to the left called "The Paw Print"! We believe a newsletter is a great way for the organization to engage consumers and directly deliver important information to the inboxes of the parents in our target audience, who check emails quite often.
We have a list of potential content the newsletter could hold and we also had an idea to include an illustrated comic strip in the newsletter, possibly with Charlie and Matilda, to make the newsletter not only be a great source of updates from wonder paws but also provide some entertainment. Perhaps this section of the newsletter can be engaging to kids as well.
On top of that, we thought that if the newsletter got enough subscribers, whether it be former or potential Wonder Paws consumers that local businesses and perhaps bigger corporations could advertise on the newsletter to generate profit for the organization.
Instagram gifs have come into popularity over the last couple of years as they give users a fun way to decorate their Instagram stories. It is also a free way of marketing! We thought it would be a good idea to create Instagram gifs that follow the branding and superhero theme, as seen with the little masks and the superhero paw print logo. This would provide consumers with content that they can actually use and enjoy, both parents and kids. It can be easily found by searching bigger keywords like Superhero or simply by searching wonder paws. Users would also be indirectly promoting the company as well. 
One event we had an idea for was a Superhero Movie Night at the park. It would be a family outing event (including any pets!), so it would appeal to both the parents and kids. As it would show a superhero movie, it stays consistent with the branding. Wonderpaws would also have an opportunity to do some fundraising, possibly by partnering with local businesses, to sell food or snacks like popcorn, and dog treats for attending pups. This would also help create a bond between the organization and current/potential consumers, hosting an event for the community to enjoy. Adoptable pets could also be present there to meet families who are possibly adoptees.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Regarding social media, we will be targeting the parents through this form of digital marketing. Among our target audience age group, YouTube is the most popular, followed by Facebook and then Instagram. We will be focusing our marketing on these social media. Additionally, concerning reaching out to kids, YouTube kids would be a nice resource is doing digital marketing directly to children. We have some statistics about the popularity of the app amount our target audience on the slide, backing up our choices.
We had analyzed examples of the most engaged with media on Instagram and Facebook on different popular hashtags concerning mothers, parenting, and family.
Concerning Facebook, we found similar patterns in popularity with text based image posts usually containing some kind of quote and at times accompanied by a graphic and the same with the pictures of babies and children interacting with their moms as well.
With our analysis, we have gathered up the conclusion of specific visuals that parents are drawn to, and we have put some examples of such images in the slide. We have illustrations/cartoons with text-based quotes, then quirky animal pictures as well as pictures of children and family interacting with dogs. The depiction of this reflects that Parents like looking at images of their children and typically their family interacting with them, in this case, the dogs holding that place. Showing parents pictures of kids having fun and being happy around pets implies that pets will do just that for them, provide them with joy. We’re not only trying to market the pets themselves for them to get adopted but the wonderful experience for a family of having a pet.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Another primary part of our social media campaign besides the regular posts is to make sure that most media shared is engaging and interactive. This will help us get more audience engagement with the social media and thus, the brand. We have included a sample of an Instagram story video, which is a strong visual with the bright brand colors and the gid of a dog, as well as a screen capture of a quiz we had made that directs a person to an adoptable pet after answering a couple of questions. These types of quizzes are a great example of interactive media that engages the audience, and also feels personalized to the consumer as they get to determine what kind of pet is suggested to them. Instagram stories in itself have lots of ways for audiences to engage with the brand with the polls and emoticon sliders. Additionally, posting video and utilizing motion graphics on Instagram and Facebook will make for much more engaging media as well.
We have also thought of doing live streams of events on Instagram and Facebook as well, providing yet more interactive media.
BROCHURES
We had created three different kinds of brochures to achieve different goals (volunteering, adoption, and donations). I have included a portion of each in this posting, one of them just being of general info on the backside of a brochure.
These brochures are a great way of print marketing to give lots of information in an easily portable and visually pleasing way. We plan to distribute these in local pet businesses and pass them out at events. We also think it would be a good idea to have them in places where families frequent like local restaurants, parks, and supermarkets.
VIDEO SAMPLE #1
This FIRST animation video depicts a little girl dressing up a superhero, which at the end shows that she was doing so to go play with her sidekick, charlie the dog! Again, the bright brand colors will grab people’s attention to the advertisement, engaging them straight away and the superhero aspect stays on theme. As mentioned before while talking about social media, we are trying to market the great EXPERIENCE that adopting a pet will provide for a family. since this video depicts a little girl having fun and being happy with her puppy, it shows that pets are a source of happiness for one’s children. Additionally, a dad does show at some points in the video. He is shown at the end looking happily at his daughter with her dog, implying the satisfaction of having a pet for parents as well. On top of that, the characters are both in a purple color to be void of race so anyone could connect to the characters in the ad.
VIDEO SAMPLE #2
This is one of the videos we have created that gives general information about Wonder Paws in a fun, bright animatic video. We give some information about high kill shelters and provide them statistics, then begin to talk about Wonder Paws, implying it is the solution to this issue. The branded colors in the video, of course, grab the audience's attention with its vividness, and the flat color modern design of the graphics appeal to the parents in our target audience, while the cartoon aspect can appeal to children.
Both of these promotional videos are intended to be uploaded onto YouTube and YouTube kids, both as stand-alone content and as advertisements to play in front of videos. They can also be uploaded to Facebook and Instagram/IGTV as well!
FINAL THOUGHTS
We had learned quite a few important things in the creation of this project that is sure to assist us in doing the marketing of our portfolio project.
- RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH! The research was a fundamental portion of our marketing campaign, whether it be in figuring out what kind of social media posts attract our exact target audience, or figuring out what colors most appeal to children. Well-planned out marketing campaigns specifically made to satisfy the exact target audience niche are essential to be backed up by research to follow what has already been proven to be successful. We will be doing just as thorough research into our marketing and product of our portfolio project.
- TARGET AUDIENCE MUST BE SPECIFIC TO WHAT ONE IS MARKETING. It was a very important part of our campaign to choose a target audience that was appropriate for Wonder Paws. We had to think exactly about what kind of consumers Wonder Paws NEEDS according to their needs as an organization. Choosing a random group like teenagers would not have been an effective choice for a target audience, considering what type of people we needed to get access to Wonder Paws' services. This being said, we need a specific target audience to receive and use the message of our portfolio project, so the marketing should follow that.
- BRANDING CONSISTENCY. Having our message that adopting a pet was a heroic act active throughout all our media products, as well as the visual aspects associated with our brand was significant to our campaign. We plan to have just as much visual and message consistency between our marketing for the portfolio project.
- GET INTIMATE. With non-profit organizations like Wonder Paws, creating a connection with the consumer was a crucial part of the campaign to get them to support them and their pets. Being a person who loves and wants to make emotional films that connect people, having the marketing for our project that creates a deep relationship and intimacy with our target audience and our media product is key.
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