Cats Protection: expanding the reach of the brand… and bringing smiles (even to dog lovers!)
We have a huge number of cat lovers/owners in the UK. But the majority are not necessarily in the mindset of wanting to support Cats Protection through a regular gift… or even a one-off cash donation. So, the question was asked: do we just leave that huge audience alone or find another way of bringing them into the fold? We naturally took up the challenge.
Some of the questions we asked ourselves:
What information/insight do Cats Protection have that might be of interest to cat owners?
What strands of expertise do Cat Protection have that give them permission to create content?
What do cat owners know v. don’t know about their cats?
If they are not ready to give, how can we get people to raise their hands and say “I’m happy to get in touch”?
The answers:
Cats Protection are “cat experts”… it’s not just about the physical health of cats (as delivered by vets)… it’s about how they can help with the overall well-being of cats, what makes them tick, what their behaviours/actions mean.
Cats, by nature, are somewhat more enigmatic than dogs… in other words, it’s not always obvious if they are happy, sad; whether they want a proverbial hug; or in fact, whether they like you/trust you.
Cat owners like most pet owners love their companions and would like to think they know all about their cats… but when pushed, they know they don’t.
So, we thought about providing some insights into cat behaviour – for instance when a cat is on its back, showing their tummies … is that an invitation for a scratch or “touch me and I’ll declare war”. That was one approach.
The film we have included here was under the theme of: “how do you know if your cat loves you?”… something that is naturally important to cat owners but knowledge that only a few can claim to have.
Our film (one of a suite) was created with this in mind but was executed in a light-hearted way, something that would engage and get people purring.
Then we come to the bridge between engagement and generating income.
It’s all about reciprocity: “we’re nice to you, please be nice to us”.
So, as you will have seen from the film, we offered a small booklet showing the different ways cats show their affection; all the responder had to do was give us their phone number so that we could call them and get their address to fulfil the interest/ information piece.
Naturally, we took the opportunity to ask them if they would like to help Cats Protection and the cats they look after.
So, by opening up a new door to the brand … we created a new happy, engaged and giving audience, happy ROI and happy cats.
Bio
Tash is the client managing director at DTV. Her passion is developing engaging and thought-provoking creative to generate a response and unite potential supporters behind different cause areas. She cut her teeth in the fundraising sector within global fundraising agencies and inhouse at Unicef UK. She loves presenting and mentoring, most recently being a member of the volunteer board for FemMentored a programme specifically for women in the third sector.