What we do

Digital

Activations 

Public Relations 

In 2012, the National Geographic Channel was concerned with the perception that it was dry and boring and wanted audiences to know that apart from its educational documentary, it also had factual entertainment programmes such as Cesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer.

We researched trending topics in Singapore and found that back then, dog abandonment was a big issue and many organisations were encouraging Singaporeans to adopt rather than buy dogs. This became a national topic that prompted the regulatory bodies to start looking at the feasibility of allowing HDB homeowners to own more than one dog.

Latching onto this as an opportunity to raise awareness of Dog Whisperer and NGC’s brand positioning, we created Singapore’s largest dog adoption drive, which we coined Free Pet Shop. We brought together four of Singapore’s biggest animal shelters under one roof and positioned it like a pet shop where you can “buy” a pet for free.

Communications were done entirely on Facebook, as we created a page which told the sob stories of each of the 80 dogs up for adoption individually, allowing users to click on their photos and read what that particular dog had gone through. The page acquired 5,000 fans organically inside one month, with all major press in Singapore reaching out to us via Facebook expressing interest in covering the event.

The event, held over a weekend, saw 8,000 people show up for it, front page coverage on The Straits Times, many free celebrity endorsements of the cause and increased the awareness of NGC’s brand positioning as a factual entertainment channel.

Free Pet Shop continued for two more years as Subaru came onboard as a title sponsor for the event as it became a key marketing event in Singapore for NGC.