PUP SYNDROME

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Case Film

Presentation Image

TitlePUP SYNDROME
BrandMARS
Product/ServicePETCARE/ PUBLIC AWARENESS MESSAGE
Category B04. Business Citizenship / Corporate Responsibility & Environmental
Entrant BBDO RUSSIA GROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation BBDO RUSSIA GROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
Media Placement BBDO RUSSIA GROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
PR BBDO RUSSIA GROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
Production BBDO RUSSIA GROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Natalia Tsyganova BBDO Russia Group Managing Director
Alexey Fedorov BBDO Russia Group Creative Director
Ekaterina Savrasova BBDO Russia Group Creative Group Head
Natalia Sytnik BBDO Russia Group Senior Copywriter
Victor Gribanov BBDO Russia Group Digital Creative Group Head
Yuriy Marin BBDO Russia Group Senior Digital Producer
Boris Anisonyan BBDO Russia Group TV Production Director
Yana Ageeva BBDO Russia Group Senior Producer
Anna Chernaya BBDO Russia Group Junior Producer
Dmitriy Rubezhov BBDO Russia Group Music Producer
Kirill Kulygin BBDO Russia Group Director TV Production Studio
Andrey Belov BBDO Russia Group Senior TV studio manager
Elena Vorobyova BBDO Russia Group Group Account Director
Natalya Dzhafarova BBDO Russia Group Account Director
Anastasia Babuchenko BBDO Russia Group Account Supervisor
Taisia Reshetnikova Bureau Working Title Director
Alexandra Ivanova Bureau Working Title DOP
Elena Vlasova Bureau Working Title Executive producer
Tatyana Finaeva Bureau Working Title Line producer
Ruslana Osmanova Bureau Working Title Production designer
Kirill Khandurin Bureau Working Title Editor
Oleg Karpachev Bureau Working Title Music composer
Viacheslav Tikhomirov PR Agency Mint (BBDO Group) Managing Director
Anastasiya Pogorelova PR Agency Mint (BBDO Group) Client Services Director
Kseniya Kuznetsova PR Agency Mint (BBDO Group) Senior Project Manager
Maria Kirienko PR Agency Mint (BBDO Group) Project Manager
Sergey Kesoyan Mars Russia Portfolio Director, Dog Care MARS Petcare Russia
Maria Suchkova Mars Russia Senior Brand Manager Pedigree, Marketing MARS Petcare
Irina Menshenina The charitable fund “DownsideUp” Development Director
Yulia Goncharova The charitable fund “DownsideUp” Project Manager

The Campaign

During research we found shocking statistics: Employers in Russia don’t hire people with Down syndrome. ONLY 4 are officially employed in a country of 146 000 000 people. Russian society doesn’t believe people with Down syndrome can work. As a result adults with Down syndrome have no chance to live a full life. Also we found out there is PLENTY OF WORK at any pet hotel. Being away from their owners, dogs always need extra care and attention. And most importantly, dogs don’t notice disabilities and accept everyone the way they are. We had an IDEA to inspire a real pet hotel to hire people with Down syndrome. In partnership with DownsideUp charitable foundation we found 5 young people with Down syndrome willing to work and inspired a real dog hotel “Hors” to hire them for 3 months. The experiment was filmed and the “pUp syndrome” film came into being.

Execution

We created a unique social experiment and filmed it throughout its length. This is how “pUp syndrome” film came into being. It tells an inspiring story about the gradual progress of 5 young people with Down syndrome working in dog hotel “Hors” alongside dogs. The film shows that unlike Russian employers, dogs don’t see a disability and accept the young employees just as they are. The story flow is built on interviews of the project participants: psychologists, mothers, dog hotel staff. During the project it became clear to everyone that the dogs’ kind nature helped the guys open up and reveal their professional potential. The film spotlights the conclusion: people with Down syndrome deserve to be employed. It was launched on Russian YouTube on World Down Syndrome Day and supported by a widescale PR campaign.

DownsideUp Charitable foundation confirms numerous calls from potential employers who offer to hire a person with Down syndrome to work in the office/in a café/in trade. Seeing the demand DownsideUp opened a new department of professional adaptation for people with Down syndrome. Mars company committed to employ 4 people with Down syndrome in a new dog centre in Ulyanovsk region, which will open in 2017. The project officially became the First Professional Adaptation Programme for people with Down syndrome in Russia. On YouTube “pUp syndrome” film got 7 250 000 views at Average View Duration of 2,5 minutes. The project was covered twice by national TV at prime time and other national and regional media including TV, radio and social, which brought $ 1 117 778 USD of earned media. Total views of the film reached 24 000 000. The campaign brought 201 610 504 media impressions.

The Situation

In 2015 “Feed The Good” marked Pedigree’s first global campaign in years. To amplify it locally in Russia we had to start a fresh engaging conversation with the audience by inspiring them with a real life example of how dogs make the world better. “pUp syndrome” campaign was aimed at destroying a massive social stereotype – Russians believe that people with Down syndrome can’t work. To prove them wrong we created a unique social experiment. We inspired a real dog hotel “Hors” to hire 5 young people with Down Syndrome to work for 3 months alongside dogs - who accept

The Strategy

The main target audience for this film was any person who liked dogs, as we aimed to win the hearts of a broad audience by inspiring them with a real life example of how dogs make the world better. The key objective was to build respect towards Pedigree® as a culturally valuable and socially responsible brand in Russia, building a brand perception which goes far beyond a simple bag of dog food. Our goal was to stand out in our local petcare category. We launched the campaign on World Down syndrome day by placing a masthead banner and uploading the film on YouTube. The same day a PR press event was organized. Journalists and a celebrity ambassador started the initial discussion. The film was added to YouTube trueview and seeded in popular social networks. Given the content and its emotional force it was shared by bloggers and celebrities.