Every child wants a dog, whereas every parent is usually against it.

“You won’t take care of it”, they say. To be frank, they’re often right because having a dog is hard work.

PEDIGREE® decided to solve this universal dilemma by creating 1st Grrrade – the first ever course where kids can prove to their parents that they can be responsible dog owners and show the seriousness of their intentions. At the same time, it shows parents whether a dog is their kid’s naïve fantasy or their real dream.

By doing so, the brand provided a means of understanding between children and their parents.

The project reminds parents: before getting a dog for your child, make sure that it’s not just a whim, but a serious commitment. And it explains to children: a dog isn’t just fun and joy; dog ownership means daily responsibility and hard work.

To kick off the programme, we conducted a real course in a Moscow school offering 1st-3rd grade pupils the chance to prove to their parents that they could be responsible dog owners. Teachers, psychologists and professional pet trainers took children through 6 weeks of theory and practice to prepare them for the realities of dog ownership.

An uplifting documentary film was developed capturing the emotional ups and downs of the programme. The film was launched on September 1st on YouTube and was promoted on social networks with a 30” trailer.

To drive the program’s scale, PEDIGREE® simultaneously launched an online course, so that EVERY kid in Russia could prove that he or she could be a responsible dog owner. The course consists of 10 interactive lessons with videos, tests and supporting materials, and it was hosted on the national digital diary that all schools use to manage timetables and grades.

1st Grrrade programme was the first online course in Russia to educate kids on how to take care of a dog.

The program reached 7 000 000 kids on Dnevnik.ru, Russia’s digital diary for schoolchildren.

65% of pupils who took the course returned to the project and one in 15 earned the diploma.

On average, 1st Grrrade participants visited 9.5 pages per session, 475% higher than expected, and the session duration was 14 minutes.

The film: more than 12 million views on YouTube, a leader on Ads Leaderboard.

Campaign reached 166 000 000 media and PR impressions and hit the headlines in traditional and social media: 140+ print and online titles published stories about 1st Grrrade together with celebrities and bloggers.

The response PEDIGREE® received was overwhelming: thousands of children, and even adults, confirmed they’d been dreaming about a course like this, and schools demanded it for their pupils.

PEDIGREE® 1st Grrrade engaged millions of dog lovers with an emotional documentary that captured all the ups and downs of the educational program we held in a Moscow school. The film was promoted via YouTube, social networks and PR support, and it attracted lots of viewers and responses.

We also launched the online course on Russia’s digital school diary, giving us a unique opportunity to reach 70% of Russian pupils and precisely target children between the ages of 7 and 12. The portal offered the tools for directly contacting both parents and their children and attracting them to the course.

September 1st is the start of a new school year in Russia, and it’s always a big date for children and their parents. September and October are the most active months for educational communication in digital media. Our goal was to provide a useful tool for kids, 1st-3rd grade pupils, and their parents.

The documentary film about the offline program was promoted to a broad audience, reaching all dog lovers in social networks and on YouTube and raising awareness of the project.

We hosted the online course on Dnevnik.ru, the largest educational online portal in Russia, reaching over 7 000 000 schoolchildren and precisely targeting 7-12 y.o pupils. Kids could use their accounts to sign up to the course.

Outside the portal, “1st Grrrade” campaign was supported on social networks, traditional and social media with the mix of educational and fun materials targeting parents specifically.

Dogs are beneficial to children: they teach kids responsibility and build empathy. Waltham® Centre for Pet Nutrition, in its study on human-animal interaction, found that 75% of kids sought out their pets when they were upset. Close relationships with dogs have also been linked to the development of more positive behavior among children.

But kids don’t realize that a dog brings daily work and responsibility. They beg their parents for a pet, but sometimes after they finally get a dog, kids play with it for a while and then forget about it. The animal becomes a burden for everyone.

PEDIGREE® cares deeply about dogs’ wellbeing and believes that dogs help children to mature and become responsible. Our idea was to launch an educational programme that would help children prove that they can be responsible dog owners.