On Sunday, when we picked up Lucy from her night at Stay Pet Hotel, a boutique hotel for dogs in NE Portland, two things happened. When we paid, Kim, the proprietor, handed us two nice images of our girl with Stay Pet Hotel branding added, thereby making our pet the star of a Stay Pet Hotel custom advert. How smart is that? Lucy also came back to us with a new sense of calm, which tells me there’s some powerful dog whispering going inside this doggy lodge.
Kim and James also run Waggin’ Wagon, a mobile dog playgroup service. According to their site, social interaction relieves boredom, curbs unwanted behaviors and provides the exercise that is essential to the health of any dog. Typical outing is two to four hours. Their day rate for this service is $22.
Giving a branded something away for free is always smart if you can make that something stick around and be seen over and over, and with pet photos, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. It’s not exactly out of the box thinking, but I still like the strong and simple idea behind the campaign.