The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is kicking off an over $1 million rebranding effort Oct. 1 with outdoor and print advertising in the New York metro area.
The campaign will center on the ASPCA’s cruelty prevention efforts. New Yorkers will see kiosk and bus advertising, as well as print ads in local publications like The Onion and The Village Voice, and The Wall Street Journal online with the tagline “Whatever you can imagine, we’ve seen worse.”
The address of a microsite, http://www.aspcaspeak.org, will be featured in the ads, as well as on orange wristbands available for $1 online. Jo Sullivan, senior vice president, development and Communications for the ASPCA, said 50,000 wristbands will be given out on the streets of New York in October to raise awareness as well.
The ASPCA’s main Web site will also be revamped this month, with the new logo and orange and grey color scheme. The nonprofit’s 750,000+ members will begin seeing the new creative in collateral and mailings early next year, after the organization has used up existing materials.
The organization will celebrate its 140th anniversary next year, said Sullivan, who felt it was vital to aesthetically update the look and feel of the animal welfare group’s marketing.
A study of donors, non-donors and “pet parents” showed the ASPCA was highly recognized for its animal cruelty prevention efforts, which was good. But what wasn’t good was the fact that they were often confused with other animal protection nonprofits.
The similarity of creative across different organizations was striking, said Sullivan, noting the prevalence of pawprints, pictures of cute puppies and kittens and the use of the color blue. “We needed to differentiate,” she said.
In addition to the new logo and color palate, the ASPCA created its first ever style guide for use of fonts and the new logo (four variations on the old logo were previously being used in different divisions of the organization).
The nonprofit also created guidelines for how animals should be portrayed in marketing materials. Dogs, for example, should always be shown wearing collars, while cats should be shown indoors. If felines are shown outdoors, they must be shown on a leash.
No new television commercials are being created as apart of the new campaign. Instead, existing DRTV spots will be updated with the new logo and image.
A main goal of the rebranding is to create a new pool of prospects for the ASPCA to draw from, said Sullivan, noting the animal welfare donor universe gets a little incestuous at times.
“Our best list is the Humane Society of the United States, and I’m sure it’s the same case them,” she said.
Studies show that animal welfare and environmental concerns combined only net 2.9% of the public’s nonprofit contributions, meaning prospecting is key. Sullivan is hopeful the campaign will draw visitors to the microsite, as about 7% of those who register on the main Web site convert to membership. She’d like to see that number rise to 10% or 11%.
Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency of record for the rebranding effort, donated their time for the campaign. The bulk of spending will go towards media buys and collateral; Sullivan hopes the ASPCA will benefit from remnant space toward the end of October to make the estimated $750,000 media spend go a bit further.
Separately, Sullivan noted that the ASPCA has raised over $12 million so far for relief efforts to aid animal shelters destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and to help reunite lost animals in the area with their owners. The organization’s initial goals for hurricane relief were $2 million. (Direct Newsline, Sept. 1, 2005)
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