Branded entertainment is quickly playing an important role in advertising in the United States. Many brands are shifting attention (and dollars) to longer-form storytelling and brand building outside of traditional television. PetSmart is no different, realizing that they need to break away from the “Sale! Sale! Sale!” mentality and engage with their consumers at a more emotional level in channels like digital and social video.

The campaign premiered during the Academy Awards where it quickly stood out for both its comedy and its honesty. Viewers were directed online where they could watch the film in its entirety, along with other films in the series. Our social channels shared the films, and a targeted Twitter media campaign reached out to various passionate pet owner groups to watch and share our branded content.

The campaign premiered during the 2015 Oscars and quickly dominated social media. In just a few short weeks, the films garnered 120 million impressions, generated 100+ earned media posts and overall, earned PetSmart nearly $3,000,000 in free media. It even started a bigger conversation online—from people lauding the campaign on Twitter and promising to name their dogs “Snakefinder” to articles and debates over the idea of people referring to their pets as “kids” (social media has spoken, it’s very common). Clearly, this notion of Pethood struck a chord and continues to spark conversation as the campaign progresses.