Singing pets feature in major new Blue Cross online campaign

Added: (Thu Oct 22 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - The Blue Cross, one of the UK’s leading animal charities, is launching a new online fundraising campaign involving animated singing pets which have been created by acclaimed web animator Joel Veitch.

The campaign, produced by marketing agency RAPP, will utilise multi-format banner ads running across a wide variety of sites for six weeks. The ads have no Blue Cross branding but feature a dancing dog and the words "What's the song and dance about?" with viewers then clicking through to a microsite: www.singingpets.org.uk

The microsite features animated dogs and cats singing and dancing on a disco dance floor to a re-recorded version of the Bee Gee's hit "Staying Alive" - with the animals featured being animated versions of real homeless pets. As the song progresses the words "Thousands of pets are only staying alive thanks to the work of The Blue Cross" appear. Towards the end the scene changes to a moving picture of the lead dog being left out in the rain and the words change to: "But many more still need us."

Viewers can click "send to a friend" or "donate" at any point and the end frame features another call to action: "Please spare a thought for the thousands of pets who are at risk of being put down simply because they have no home. Start a regular gift of £2 a month and you can help The Blue Cross find loving new homes for these unwanted and abandoned pets." Viewers are encouraged to "donate now" which re-directs to the main Blue Cross website.

Commenting on the campaign, Julie Jeffes, acting director of fundraising at The Blue Cross says: "Our recent Talking Pets viral campaign was tremendously successful but this time we wanted to do something entertaining with an underlying serious message that would help raise money. We urgently require more regular donors to continue our work helping thousands of sick and homeless animals every year, so we hope this campaign will engage younger audiences and prompt more donations."

Talking Pets was designed to drive users to a new social network launched by The Blue Cross last year. The campaign microsite, www.talkingpets.org.uk, attracted over 130,000 visitors and achieved over 24,000 click-throughs to the social network.

Ends

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Laura Dobson at The Blue Cross on 020 7932 4065 / 07917 132 698 (out of hours)
Or
Robert Mayes, Group Communications Director, RAPP, on: 020 8735 8884