Creativity in Public Relations

I’m a dog guy – nothing against cats but I love my two chocolate Labradors (and my miniature dachshunds at my parents house too).  But, there are a lot of cat lovers and they are equally as superfreaky as dog lovers.  Over the past few years the people at Meow Mix have been exploring new grounds in the branded content space and entertaining cat fans along the way.  Their most recent project – “Think Like a Cat” game show with a $1M potential prize.  

The game show makes its debut next week (15 November) on The Game Show network.  The 30 minute show tests “how well people can think like their cat” using quizzes and interactive challenges for 8 lucky contestants (well 16 actually, 8 humans and 8 cats).  Over the past few months the Meow Mix teams conducted auditions in eight cities and each city winner was flown in to compete in the big show that will be hosted by talk show megastar – Chuck Woolery. You can see some of the contestants through the audition videos too.

I’m a big fan of branded content entertainment – I believe it’s a better use of marketing funds to create something specific to your brand that engages consumers in multiple ways in the fun, making a memorable and talk-worthy event for all. Many times its cheaper to produce your own content than it is to produce a :30 second commercial and then buy ad space to air it – which to me is such a scatter-shot approach versus something designed to appeal to hard core fans of a brand.  The special content makes it easy for consumers to bond with that particular brand.

The people at Meow Mix have consistently pushed the marketing boundaries, and always a good one to watch for inspiration.  They started it all with Meow TV more than 5 years ago, with segments that entertained humans as well as their cats (with squirrels running across the screen and more).  Next up was the Meow Mix Café which hit the scene in New York City serving humans and cats special treats.  And most recently the Meow Mix House scratched its way on TV, featuring a very cool house in NYC with webcams all over the place and a smorgasbord of cat fun for a bunch of lucky cats flown in from shelters across the country.  The cats were competing for a chance to be an official food tester for Meow Mix, and all ended up being adopted in the process.  The show had fans tuning in on and off-line for the fun and again, created special content that entertained cat fans and making them love Meow Mix even more.

So tune in to watch the show and see who wins the big check.  And keep tuning in for all things Meow Mix, a brand that has fully embraced and excelled in the branded content space – something I think that will become more and more common as smart brands look for new ways to be a part of the fun entertaining fans.