Meow Mix Acatemy Attracts 50,000
Meow Mix is wrapping up an 11-city tour this week that gets people to think and play like their pet cat.
The Acatemy tour features a variety of cat-themed events for people, including “Cat-isthenics,” a place for visitors to exercise like a cat in cat cubbies, a large ball of yarn and climbing wall, an arts and crafts station where people build a new toy for their cat and “Cat Scratch Fever,” a section that teaches pet owners how to scratch like a DJ.
So far, more than 50,000 people have experienced the Acatemy, and more than 50,000 samples of the Meow Mix wet food have been distributed. At each stop, Meow Mix donated a pound of cat food to a local animal shelter and collected consumer information for future marketing.
Proceeds from the tour’s bookstore, which sells Meow Mix-branded merchandise, will also benefit local animal shelters. About $5,000 has been raised so far.
The final stop will be Nov. 1-2 in San Francisco. Previous tour locations include Pittsburgh, PA, Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Tampa, FL, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Sacramento, CA.
Meow Mix used to the tour to let cat owners experience the brand and to strengthen its bond with them, John Bell, client service director, TracyLocke, the lead agency on the campaign, said. The agency injected the Meow Mix tagline, “Think Like a Cat” as the theme of the promotion.
“In the pet category, there’s an awful lot of warmth and emotion,” Bell said “We wanted to get consumers to think differently about the brand.”
The tour was born out of a week-long event in New York City in August, where Meow Mix set up a ‘school” designed to help people get in touch with their feline side. The promotion offered events, such as meetings with a pet psychic, and seminars on how to cook like a cat.
“The tour lets consumers inject themselves into the “Think Like a Cat” campaign in different areas,” Bell said “At every touch point, we are trying to get people to think like a cat.”
Online people can visit http://www.MeowMix.com to watch video highlights of tour events, take an online Cat Aptitude Test and read commentary from Acatemy faculty.
The campaign also includes a sweepstakes on the site where five grand-prize winners will receive a “Think Like a Cat” weekend in Napa Valley, CA, with a cooking and dining experience hosted by celebrity chef Cat Cora. Other prizes include gift cards gift cards and Meow Mix-branded merchandise. The sweepstakes runs through Dec. 1.
Grand Central Marketing handled the New York event, and is in charge of PR, the sweepstakes and mobile tour for Meow Mix.
