As part of its annual Platinum & Agency Elite Awards program celebrating the best and brightest in communications, PR News handpicks a group of campaigns that will likely be remembered in years to come for their ingenuity, strategic messaging and measurable communications outcomes. These campaigns make up PR News’ Platinum Hall of Fame, and this year's winners will be officially inducted at PR News' Platinum & Agency Elite Awards luncheon Sept. 21 in New York City.
One of this year's Hall of Fame inductees, the Purina ONE Cat Café, wowed judges for its forward-thinking approach as the first cat café pop-up in North America. For this experiential campaign, Purina ONE, working with agency partner Golin, took a cue from the popular trend in Eastern Asia and Europe. The pet food brand also partnered with the North Shore Animal League, which organized cat adoptions onsite, and won placements on “TODAY," Reuters and other top outlets through strategic media outreach.
PR News learned more about the inner workings of the campaign from Golin's executive director of real-time engagement Stephanie Matthews, who worked directly on the activation.
PR News: What were the goals of the campaign?
Stephanie Matthews: There’s no question cats are the darlings of the Internet, but we wanted to investigate: How do you shift the conversation from cuteness and quirkiness to health and nutrition? How do you go from funny cat videos and feline celebrities to a discussion about the benefits of a cat food brand?
As part of a larger effort to start a cultural movement around improving the lives of cats, Purina ONE’s goal with this campaign was to educate cat owners about cat health and nutrition by showing them visible differences in their cats after switching their food.
PR News: Where did the Purina ONE Cat Café idea originate?
SM: Purina ONE’s vibrant community of cat owners—more than 500,000 strong on Facebook at the time—were actively engaged with each other and the brand online, but they had no place to connect offline. Dog owners have parks and designated beaches, but we wanted to find a place where cat lovers could socialize.
We’d been following the cat café trend in Europe and Asia and thought bringing the idea stateside was a perfect way to combine conversations about health and nutrition with visible proof in the form of Purina ONE-fed adoptable cats. It also gave cat lovers a unique place to call their own.
PR News: What were some of the ways Golin and Purina ONE collaborated to ensure the campaign hit the mark?
SM: The Golin team worked hand-in-hand with the Purina ONE brand team, Purina’s Internal Checkmark Marketing PR team and the event activation team at marketing agency Awestruck to make sure the event was a success, including collaboration on the following elements:
- A Manhattan storefront location to serve as our pop-up Café. (Golin worked with Awestruck to assure we had the proper permissions and permits.)
- Purina’s Checkmark team designed the space and worked with a local artist to create custom cat structures. Purina’s animal experts inspected the space to make sure it was safe and comfortable for cats.
- Purina leveraged an existing partnership with North Shore Animal League America to identify and provide the right adoptable cats who would thrive in this type of environment.
- The teams collaborated on complimentary “Cat’achinos,” with cat faces drawn in the foam, served in branded Purina ONE mugs.
- A livestream feed provided a virtual experience for people who weren’t at the Cat Café. Veterinarians and other experts held daily Cat Chats, answering questions from the Café audience and those joining online.
- Tablets allowed consumers to sign up for Purina ONE’s 28 Day Challenge onsite and receive additional incentives like travel mugs and product coupons.
- A celebrity partnership with Carrie Ann Inaba helped drive home the message of the 28 Day Challenge. She conducted local and national media interviews, participated in a Cat Chat, posted to her social channels, shot videos for use in paid media and mingled with consumers.
PR News: How did you measure success?
SM: Purina ONE’s brand director said this program “truly started a cultural movement around improving the lives of cats,” kicking off the brand’s larger goal in less than a week.
The campaign drove significant in-person and online consumer engagement, including more than 2,000 consumers over four days, many waiting in line for up to six hours. Another 215,000 viewed the livestream and 25 cats were adopted as a result of the effort.
Media coverage surpassed all expected goals with 1,100 placements resulting in more than 220 million impressions. Coverage included "TODAY," Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, The New Yorker, Huffington Post, CNN and The Tonight Show. A drumbeat of coverage continues years later as similar installations are compared to the success of the Cat Café.
Social media engagement reached an all-time high during the event, with 6,000 social media mentions—more than any other cat food of any brand in April—and a 400% increase in online search demand for Purina ONE in April.
PR News: What were some of the biggest wins from a media coverage standpoint? Why do you think those placements or pitches were successful?
SM: Anytime you can secure earned coverage from the Today Show, the Tonight Show, Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker in the same week, you know you’ve hit on a great idea. The simplicity of the idea, combined with the buzz-building elements (cute cats, long lines, shareable coffee art) accelerated the story around the globe.
PR News: How did you coordinate the onsite experience with social media and other digital elements?
SM: As soon as the story that a Cat Café was coming to New York began to leak, Golin began reaching out to anyone of influence to invite them to the media preview ahead of the public opening. As buzz built, an offsite team shared assets (pictures, video, livestream links) in real-time and responded to every media request.
As the Café got up and running, teams on-site and off coordinated assets and manned the livestream, answering questions and feeding them to experts. Meetings at the end of each day helped coordinate efforts among the team and work through any unanticipated issues (crowd control, supplies, etc.).
Hear from Stephanie and the rest of the Platinum Hall of Fame inductees in person at PR News' Platinum & Agency Elite Awards Sept. 21 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. ESPN's Hannah Storm will be hosting.