Move over cats, it’s time dogs owned the internet.
In honour of this year’s National Dog Day, which took place on Aug. 26, Nestlé Purina’s Dog Chow brand launched a limited edition online magazine titled Kibble & Collars.
Written from the perspective of a dog, topics include “Where Does My Family Go All Day?” “How To Get More Treats” and “Why Are Cats So Mean?”
Founded in 2004 by pet and family lifestyle expert and animal advocate, Colleen Paige, National Dog Day aims to bring attention to dogs in need of rescue, and to celebrate all the ways dogs help humans; sniffing out bombs, assisting the blind and providing stress relief.
Purina has marked the day in the past via “general social media posts,” but this year wanted to go bigger by carving out an online niche just for canines, according to Erin McKeever, digital communications strategist, Nestlé Purina Pet Care.
“We wanted to take more ownership of these kinds of opportunities because they’re so important culturally to Purina,” McKeever said. “There’s so many cats on the internet — and we love cats, don’t get me wrong — but we felt like there’s not enough dog out there. That’s really the direction that we wanted to go, to give dogs a space that they could really own on the internet.”
Kibble & Collars, which is living on the brand’s Tumblr page, also contains content for humans including an article that details the mental and physical health benefits of spending time with dogs.
McKeever said the site will remain active “for a while” and based on the public’s reaction could continue into the foreseeable future.
Developed by Purina Canada’s in-house HyperLab team, the effort is being promoted via Facebook and Twitter ads.
Media was managed by GroupM. Environics handled PR.
