The Dog Marketing Blog

I received an e-direct from Cherrybrook recently promoting the IDTag.com. This is a tag which contains a website and phone number to contact IDTag.com, where the tag owner is supposed to have registered the tag’s unique number with identifying information about their pet. The first year of service is free, followed by a $6.95 annual fee.   When a pet is lost, the owner logs in to the IDtag website and notifications are sent via email to all local shelters, including photos and veterinary information about the pet.  This seems like an idea that is more appealing than practical, as it relies on pet owner compliance to make sure the pet is fully registered and that the alerts are sent out promptly via a web login or phone call (if the tag’s on the lost dog, will the owner have the info?)   I still think a collar or collar tag with the owner’s cell phone is a better bet, and I am a proponent of microchipping as well, but remember – microchips do need to be registered with the chip maker for the concept to work. (BTW I am NOT in favor of registering chips with government agencies, I don’t want Big Brother in my dogs’ business.)

Who should I meet today on Twitter AND Linkedin but Julie King, a fellow Detroit area westsider who also shares an interest in dogs and professional credentials in marketing.  She has launched the Gertie Gear line of dog products with a line of air-filled beds for dogs.  These beds appear to all be of the round or donut style, which allows the dog to curl up in the middle, although some of her live models are exercising their creative license and posing fully awake lying crosswise.  I like the idea, as it solves one of the problems I have with the dog bed that gets the most use in my home, which is that Anna likes to lie on it whilst slobbering on her ball, so it gets a nasty wet spot on one corner.  I can take off the cover and wash it, but underneath it gets stinky after awhile and washing the center is a pain.  The air bed filling won’t absorb moisture like fiberfill so you just wash the cover and you’re done.  So what’s Julie doing for marketing? She tweeted about the product when it got listed on Buy Michigan,  which caught my eye, she’s set up an Etsy store, and she’s got an eye catching website that includes her contact info and a link to the store.

Celebrating its 100th year, Milk-Bone announced the results of its “Milk-Bone Moments” contest to select its first ever spokes-dog.  Dog owners submitted photos or videos and an essay to enter. People were able to vote on the Milk-Bone website (the contest ended in November, but the link is still there.) The winner is a Great Dane named Winston from Wisconsin.  Winston will be used to advocate for Milk-Bone’s  Canine Heroes program which aids personal and professional service dogs. Milk-Bone is a divison of DelMonte.

A dog-twist on the Twitter phenomenon called #followfriday. Pawluxury, a dog products site that really gets social media launched this new hashtag today. They’ve asked their followers to recognize quality dog-topic tweeters with the hashtag signifier. According to Real Time Trends, it’s been in the top 10 hashtags (#7) today.  I’ll  be checking them out to find interesting new tweeps to follow myself.

This past Thursday evening I participated in a Twitter scavenger hunt called Barkhunt (or #Barkhunt, the hashtag in front signifies a common tag to be used to share info on a topic or event.) The event was sponsored by four dog online businesses who tweet (send messages on Twitter), FourLeggedMedia, Best Bully Sticks, Ask Spike Online and Paw Luxury.  Starting at 9 PM EST and lasting for an hour, every five minutes a clue would be given by one of the sponsors related to something on one of the other sponsors’ websites.  All participants were asked to retweet (RT) the clue  and the first one to direct message (DM) the answer to the sponsor relating to the clue won.  It really was fun to participate, although it took me a few rounds to figure out the best strategies for actually finding the answers. HINT: it would help to familiarize oneself with the website structures and where the search box is in advance! I didn’t win anything, but I’m game to try again.  Prizes were what else – dog related items, mostly around $10-$20 in value. In follow up tweets, I learned that Twitter contests are just emerging and have been pretty successful in driving traffic and results for the sponsors. The Barkhunt RT traffic got up to the 3rd or 4th most RT’d post at one point during the contest; pretty impressive!  Especially given that the sponsors tweet about nothing but dog topics – word about the event spread through the sponsors’ dog enthusiast followers who publicized it via RTs to their followers.

MediaPost reports that Pedigree is re-purposing some of the ads shown on the Westminster Kennel Club broadcast through the DogTime media Sparky Media Center widget.  Another Westminster advertiser, Toyota Venza is also participating with Sparky as are other leading pet brands.  Although Pedigree was the sole dog food sponsor of Westminster, apparently the brand is willing to share space with at least one other dog food advertiser, Eukanuba, in the widget.  The widget is an effective way to package a lot of advertising content in a compact space, and according to DogTime, generates engagement in the 3 minute per visitor range.

MediaPost notes a number of moves that Toyota is making to pomote the new Venza to dog owners. Toyota was the sole automotive sponsor of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show and has signed up to sponsor Cesar Milan’s Dog Whisperer in its fifth season. In previous seasons, Cesar drove  Jeeps and other Chrysler products. Toyota plans to promote Vensa at dog-related events and websites and is following in the steps of other manufacturers, like GMC and Saab, in offering dog related vehicle accessories. Kurgo is mentioned as a partner for these products, although dog accessories are not currently mentioned on the Toyota website.  I’ve never seen any of these attempts meet with great success, as the merchandise offered is frequently impractical and overpriced, but I will follow their efforts with interest. Since Honda has been a leader in the dog-friendly vehicle market, it’s interesting to see another Japanese manufacturer take this direction.

MediaPost reports that MRM Minneapolis has landed advertising duties for Purina’s Chef Michael’s dog food. The wet food, which is sold in 3 oz  tubs wrapped in a colorful cardboard sleeve, comes in eight different flavor varieties. A dry version is scheduled to launch later this year.  Curiously, I could find no mention of the product on the Purina website, although the product is apparently available at PetSmart as well as online retailer PetFoodDirect now.  The product names all include the word “flavor” which means that the Association of American Feed Control Officers (AAFCO) does not require a specific amount of that ingredient, but just enough to be detected.

I had an interesting conversation this morning with Andrea Lane, head of the American Kennel Club’s Public Education department.  I recently inherited responsibility for the Progressive Dog Club of Wayne County’s website after the untimely passing of our webmaster.  With all I’ve learned recently about search engine optimization that I’ve been putting into practice on my personal and breed club websites, I think I can greatly improve the performance of this all breed club site as well. I asked Andrea if she could recommend any sites that I could refer to as truly best practice examples. She told me she had looked at a lot of parent club sites recently as she was working on updating the AKC breed identification guide, but had not really done a study of all breed club sites. In general she finds the parent club sites of greater quality, but some of the largest all breed clubs and clusters do an excellent job. I know we had looked at all the Michigan all breed club sites before we launched the Progressive site, and they did vary quite a bit in scope and content freshness. Andrea strongly recommended including some of the AKC’s downloadable education content in the site and focusing on teaching people what to expect at a dog show and stimulating their interest in joining the ranks of dog club supporters and event participants.

I think the website is Main Street Dog (stronger brand identity cues would be helpful!) that reported on a beautiful new line of furniture grade dog crates by DenHaus.  The only one that looks large enough for a Bull Terrier is the TownHaus which is a rather traditional styled wood piece in a rectangular shape. At over $400 it’s a lot more than a VariKennel, but it looks very nice and comes in a variety of colors. I really prefer the sleek look of the oval ZenHaus and round BowHaus but given the number of dogs and crates I already have I don’t think any of the Hauses are in my future soon!  They’ve included some social media links (digg, facebook, etc.) on each product page, there’s a place for partners to sign in, but none are mentioned so I don’t know if they are available through retailers at present.  This might be a good item for dog show vending at large shows – where they can reach people with passion for dogs and money to spend on them. Lovely idea – I have a couple of friends that have put their wood or metal working talents to use making some really cool dog crates so it’s good to see someone make a commercial product from that idea.