MarketingInsideOut.com

In the Chinese Year of the Dog, it’s only fitting that man’s best friend is recognized for enriching the lives of humans over the past 12,000 years by being cute, clever, faithful, loyal, easy-going, self-confident, alert, happy, cheerful, sweet, sensitive, joyous, humorous and intelligent.  These are just a few of the endearing traits assigned to canis familiaris, accounting for their long running popularity in Disney classics like “Old Yeller,” as the action heroes of TV shows like “Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” and as underachievers in sitcom roles like Buck in “Married With Children.”  Their contributions as pitch pooches in print and broadcast advertising is equally impressive for every conceivable product from fabric deodorizer and baked beans, to Vise-Grip locking pliers (starring Rex the Wonder Dog). 

The appeal of dogs to advertisers is understandable given that more than 43 million American households have at least one dog, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.  According to that group, consumer demand for pet products and services is expanding into almost every corner typically reserved for human consumption including canine prescription drugs, ultrasounds, MRI’s, CAT scans and licensed pet products such as Barbie pet clothing and products.  Overall spending on pet products is expected to exceed $35 billion this year, which is certain to make agencies sit up and beg for a piece of the action. 

Innovative campaigns recognize the value of a strong PR component, such as the one created for Milk-Bone that provides support for canine assistants and to purchase canine officers for police departments across the country.  It even includes a grass roots contest that could land your dog’s photo on the Milk-Bone box.   One of the most successful series of public service announcements ever produced by Bozell featured Actors and Others for Animals on behalf of state veterinary associations in support of spaying and neutering programs.  The Hollywood celebs donated both their time and personal pets to make that campaign a howling success.  And human interest stories such as the “Leash on Life” program for Bozell client YouthConnect (CBRYouthConnect.org) are just the sort of warm and fuzzy features that appeal to local and national news programs and networks like Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and A&E.  As part of an integrated marketing campaign, high profile “puplicity” can have advertisers wagging their tails and help keep agencies out of the doghouse.
 

According to Jerry Della Femina, “Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”  In public relations, you can have fun with clothes that are on or off.  Consider the media buzz over the weekend when the Mediterranean island of Cyprus earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for “hooking” together the world’s longest chain of women’s bras.  News reports of the 114,000 bra chain stretched across the globe as news media as diverse as Fox News and The New York Times filed their datelines from PAPHOS, Cyprus.  Designed to raise awareness of breast cancer, the chain consisted of bras donated from around the world, some of them inscribed with emotional messages from both survivors and victims of the disease.

Here in the states, a “stealth beverage system” known as “the Beerbelly” was making headlines and being featured on CNN.   Consisting of a polyurethane bladder and sling that you can wear around your waist, the system resembles a natural beer belly when concealed underneath clothing.  The owner consumes the liquid contents of the pouch through a tube that can be directed up to be used as a straw, or down to fill a cup. 
What makes campaigns such as these successful?  One insight is provided by Dan Forbush, president and founder of ProfNet, a service of. PR Newswire which “clears” hundreds of news releases daily. “Read the world as a reporter would,” Forbush advises. “Given your beat and the readers you must satisfy, what topics are of interest? What angles do you find fresh and provocative?”  Following this logic, bras and beer obviously command high interest among members of the fourth estate.  Our lesson learned: like a brassier, finding the right “hook” can make the difference between a publicity campaign that’s well covered or a bust.