Every year, the American Kennel Club rounds up representatives from each of their recognized breeds for a weekend event of pets, scratched, and public education. What could be better than an expo hall full of pups? No, really. We’re asking.
The American Kennel Club (AKC) traditionally hosted their annual Meet the Breeds event in conjunction with the world-renowned Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. AKC broke with tradition, moving to a separate weekend in a unique venue- the centrally located Javits Center. While the sell was easy–a weekend petting pups–cutting through the noise of the New York advertising scene proved to be more challenging.
We wanted the dogs to be the stars of the creative since we were targeting New Yorkers in the dead of winter. A warm, fuzzy puppy to cuddle would be the ultimate reason to bundle up and adventure out on a weekend. Then, we identified media channels that we could leverage to make the greatest impact, and in this case for on-the-go New Yorkers, social, digital transit billboards, and OLA placements were the clear winners for blanketing the city.
With our Meet the Breeds approach in place, we started crafting visuals and storylines. We focused on unique breed names to subtly play up the educational aspect of the event, while using snappy phrases and clean images of the pups on white backgrounds. To punch it up, we incorporated AKC’s new brand campaign elements, such as doodles and hand-written font, into the mix.
