Brief
Pedigree Wholesale approached spottydog to plan, implement and deliver a multi-platform communications campaign to announce the acquisition of Just for Pets, which had gone into administration several weeks before. spottydog was tasked with sensitively communicating Pedigree Wholesale’s takeover of the brand to stakeholders through social media management and customer service, regional consumer PR, national consumer PR and trade PR.
Action
Using media relations, and utilising existing contacts from spottydog’s extensive pet sector experience, spottydog reached out to key trade titles, as well as targeting all relevant regional news outlets where there were stores which would be affected by the news. In selected regions where there was one store closing and one store remaining open, the messaging was tweaked to ensure the story was cascaded tactfully and transparently.
Across social media, spottydog took control of the Facebook channel during the transition period, posting regular announcements and responding quickly to any concerned customer or employee questions that arose regarding the closures. spottydog also worked with the team at Pedigree to create an FAQs list ahead of the busy transition period to ensure that the most highly anticipated and difficult questions could be answered without delay.
Result
spottydog achieved coverage within all press sector areas targeted, with the story being covered by BBC News, Daily Mail, Metro, the I, Pet Gazette, Pet Business World, The Business Desk, The Express and Star series, Nottingham Post and many other regionals across the Country. In total, 82 pieces of coverage were achieved within a week of the story being sold in, and overall the sentiment was wholly positive, even within regions where stores were closing.
Our work was recognised by the PRCA DARE Awards where we were proud to receive the Campaign Challenges Award.
