Argentina, like the United States and Australia, is one of the most permissive countries when it comes to developing Branded Entertainment, which does not happen as easily in Europe.

The new Argentinian media law limited traditional advertising opportunity by imposing a significant price increase. Many companies in Argentina have jumped on the bandwagon of Branded Entertainment, generating a sea of sameness, not observing 3 factors for success, fit between the content and the brand, focus and fame.

It forced us to re-plan all our traditional marketing communications plans and pushed us to find other advertising options for Pedigree’s small budget, US$71,500, and obviously with the same effectiveness.

We first sparked awareness when the dog – Kymba – entered the Big Brother House. TV spots and banners helped find a new home for Kymba through an adoption contest.

In Kymba’s first appearance, the show achieved the highest ratings in the season and social media conversations exploded, creating an unexpected trend topic. Hashtags and Facebook groups appeared the same night. The participants needed to care for the dog and train her. The daily interactions between Kymba and the inhabitants involved the fans sharing videos and commenting on the dog’s life, discussions about who would be the ideal owner; the life of the dog spread to more than 30 websites and print media.

The audience asked the TV-program management to extend her presence in the house for eight weeks (the original plan was three weeks). Kymba became the fourth finalist and her last day on the show was the most-viewed episode.

-During the show, Pedigree’s share of market increased 1.1 pp (Q1 2011 vs Q1 2010) and penetration grew 1.3 pp in the same period-We received 8,000 adoption applications for Kymba-Monthly visits to Pedigree.com.ar grew from 6,000 to 89,000 during the Big Brother show-Kymba video had 58,000 views on YouTube-Over 70 spontaneous Facebook groups proposed Kymba as a Big Brother winner-Plus the support of journalists with + 30 free articles in newspapers and online sitesWe optimised the small budget (US$71,500) and achieved more than 2m impacts, 60% TV reach (+ 26% vs planned).Kymba gravitated to 1 person in particular and picked her own owner, Emiliano, from the contestants inside the house. Pedigree (for Kymba’s wellbeing) gave him the adoption. The family of the contest winner let Emiliano keep Kymba and picked another puppy from a shelter. Kymba was a fantastic friend for the success of Pedigree. Pedigree has decided to include another abandoned dog in the next Big Brother edition.