CASE STUDY: MILK-BONE SPOKESDOG: A TAIL OF SUCCESS

ISSUE:
Milk-Bone celebrated its 100th Anniversary by searching for the brand’s first-ever SpokesDog. The field was narrowed down to the top 100 finalists and it was up to America to select the brand’s top dog.

Milk-Bone fetched Coyne PR’s help to create media awareness for the top 100 finalists and drive consumers to Milk-Bone.com to vote. With no other marketing support, the finalist voting phase and winner announcement would rely solely on PR to help spread the word.

IDEA:
Coyne PR worked with the local finalists to draw out interesting facts about their relationships with their dogs and their excitement at the opportunity to be a Milk-Bone SpokesDog. Coyne PR helped make each finalist a “local market hero” by working extensively with media to tell their stories. The media, in turn, asked their readers/viewers to support local finalists by visiting the Milk-Bone Web site to vote.

Simultaneously, while pitching the local finalists, the Coyne PR team worked the phones with national broadcast outlets to secure an exclusive segment to announce the first-ever SpokesDog, scheduled to “take office” in February 2009. The team created and pitched the concept of the top three finalists appearing on a show with the hosts announcing the winner. The pitch created a moment of suspense, making the story more attractive to national broadcast outlets.

IMPACT:
Coverage for the SpokesDog finalist and winner phases set tongues wagging! The “Bark the Vote” campaign saturated local markets and generated 258 stories. More than 70,000 votes were cast for the SpokesDog and the brand saw traffic on Milk-Bone.com increase by 600 percent. The top three finalists appeared on “The Bonnie Hunt Show,” where a check for $100,000 was presented to the winner. The winner announcement generated 400 national and local stories across the country. Overall, Coyne PR delivered more than 650 stories resulting in 41 million media impressions. Highlights included USA Today, Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit-Free Press, DogChannel, Dogster, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun and broadcast network affiliates in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dallas.