This case highlights how a unique discovery around a topic completely unrelated to the humble Oreo cookie led the brand to make a subtle but not insignificant shift of its brand position – moving from countering seriousness with playfulness to spotlighting a serious issue that would never arise if more playfulness existed in our troubled world – to solve a real societal challenge.

In a further strategic twist, the creative execution didn’t actually need to feature the cookie or any type of food item at all, yet still managed to have Oreo front and centre of the campaign.

As the World entered various states of lockdown through the early part of the pandemic, many UAE residents (85% of whom are expats with little family close by) followed the global trend of pet adoption to counter lockdown loneliness.

As society reopened and new pet owners returned to the offices and outdoor lifestyles once more, pet adoption went from a solution to one problem to the catalyst for another: mass scale pet abandonment.

Researching the scale of this problem via pet shelters, we noted a startling number of black & white pets abandoned and simultaneously uncovered the curious fact that Oreo was the 6th most popular black & white pet name!

Oreo found an inadvertent association in this space and found a role to play in its solution, setting about developing an activation aimed at supporting re-adoption of abandoned pets (named Oreo or otherwise), launching on International Homeless Animals’ Day.

While this case did not respond to a traditionally briefed business challenge, the brand did nonetheless see an association of its brand name with an under-represented subject, and in doing so, saw an opportunity to grow awareness and affinity of its brand with its core family audience.

There was also a strong alignment with Oreo’s purpose of using playful moments to counter the seriousness of life…but with a twist.

While traditionally the brand would execute around playfulness to counter and minimize seriousness of adult life, the pivot in this case was to turn the brand position on its head to double down and spotlight seriousness - before highlighting how in a more playful world, the issue would not be as serious as it was.

Nationwide pet adoption in the UAE grew by 7% through the pandemic, yet 12 months following lockdown abandonment outpaced voluntary surrenders by 2.5x.

Pet abandonment, as a subset of pet surrenders, was the issue.

Our breakthrough insight came in understanding what drove such devotion that fans associated the name Oreo with the most treasured member of their family outside of their actual family.

The inspiration came in realizing there’s a reason why Oreo’s are added to everything from cakes to milkshakes and in between - that nothing was ever made worse by adding Oreo.

Oreo firmly believes no form of Oreo should ever go unloved, but unfortunately in this instance, there were unloved Oreo’s that needed attention.

Our strategic approach took us from focusing on the Oreo that everyone loves to the abandoned pet Oreos that had been unloved; solving for the core issue of abandonment that research had unearthed.

Show the world how some of the best Oreos…aren’t cookies.

Introducing "Oreo & Friends"; a pet adoption campaign, encouraging UAE residents to adopt pets need homes.

Having uncovered the scale of pet abandonment and the strong association of black & white pets with Oreo, during the week of Homeless Animal’s Day we would pivot Oreo from orthodox cookie-based communications to having black and white pets as the symbol of the brand.

Passionate fans had already validated this association in culture providing confidence it would appeal on a broader scale, while staying true to our strategy.

In partnership with the UAE”s largest per shelters we launched bringhomeoreo.com - an adoption friendly microsite designed to help abandoned pets find new owners.

We changed the conversation from cookies to pets.

We replaced every existing pack with purposeful packaging designed to resemble pet homes, and made pets the stars of all of our communication.

Our packs sold out and all proceeds were donated to our shelter partners.

Our media campaign delivered over 28-million media impressions across national and international media platforms.

The true measure of success lay in the impact on the overwhelmed pet shelters previously struggling under the volume of stray & abandoned pets.

We had more than doubled the number of pets we expected and needed to rehouse, in

a stunning endorsement and testament to the appeal of our campaign message: a 25% increase in adoption enquiries at the shelters specifically featured in our campaign and 37% of the pets listed ultimately being rehoused within 1 month of the campaign.

With this campaign not only did relieve the pressure to allow them to do their crucial work in the community more effectively, we also showed once again how life could be made sweeter if the world stayed just a little more playful.

This campaign’s context relies on returning to 2020 as lockdowns were being implemented to counter the spread of the pandemic. The UAE’s lockdown was swift and severe, with residents homebound under a 24/7 curfew that lifted slowly under strict conditions as months progressed.

It was during this time that lockdown loneliness came to prominence, especially prevalent in the UAE where over 80% of residents are foreigners and in many cases living with little to no family in proximity.

Yet as a 7% surge in pet adoption solved loneliness for humans it came with an unwanted side effect for pets following reopening: pet abandonment became an unexpected societal concern as new pet owners were faced with the reality of pet care while they returned outdoors. A particular rescue organization estimated abandonment was outstripping voluntary surrender by 2.5x, and shelters were becoming overwhelmed.