Case Studies

PetSmart Executive Visibility Program

After years of laying low, PetSmart was ready for its executives to re-enter the limelight. Along with our agency partner, the External Communications team built thought leadership platforms and narratives for key C-level leaders. This comprehensive approach packaged everything leaders needed in one place, and included media training, content pillars, key messaging, and KPIs. The results of our first year of programming were exceptional in elevating PetSmart’s corporate storytelling and inserting the company in trending conversations and topics.

  • 1.1B earned impressions

  • 173 earned placements

  • 54% of business stories featured direct quote from leaders

PetSmart Chief Toy Tester

The PetSmart Chief Toy Tester campaign capitalized on the insight that not everyone wants to be an influencer, but everyone thinks their pet should be. We hosted the search for one cat and one dog to serve as our Chief Toy Tester, offering $10,000 to each winner, plus a one-year contract to help us test and explore our unrivaled selection of toys and gear. This was a fully integrated PR/social media campaign, utilizing influencer marketing to support efforts.

  • More than 30,000 unique pet parent entires received

  • Earned more than 1 billion impressions

  • Secured PetSmart’s first-ever segment on late night TV

  • Drove increased engagement with Treats loyalty program

  • Improved positive social media sentiment by 35%

PetSmart Pawliday Sweaters

PetSmart wanted a way to break through the saturated holiday season. We tapped into drop culture and the ugly holiday sweater trend to drive conversation and relevance beyond PetSmart’s holiday collection. The PetSmart Pawliday Sweater campaign provided 150 lucky pet parents with free matching sweater sets: their face embroidered on their pet’s sweater, and their pet’s face embroidered on theirs. At the time, this was PetSmart’s most successful PR campaign ever, driving relevance and positive consumer conversation around the brand that it hadn’t ever experienced before. This campaign included a custom microsite, as well as earned media, organic social, and influencer support.

  • Nearly 15K visits to our anythingforpets.com microsite

  • Earned 488K organic impressions and 12K organic social media engagements

  • Lifted positive social media sentiment by more than 20%

  • 7 influencer partners drove millions more impressions

  • Secured 19 feature stories in earned media with 110M impressions

  • 15 of 19 stories included “PetSmart” in the headline, breaking through the holiday coverage landscape

  • WINNER: PRSA Copper Anvil

Bar-S Foods Iconic Summer Mashup

With an ask to drive more cultural relevance and a budget of less than $500K, the team created and launched the Bar-S Iconic Summer Mashup. We tied our current shopper demographic together with our aspirational demographic through our mix of talent (Vanilla Ice) and song (Baby Got Back) for this fully integrated campaign that included media relations, organic social, influencer, and paid social content.

  • Campaign lifted sales by 12% vs. previous YOY declines

  • 45 million campaign views through earned media, organic social, and paid components

  • WINNER:

    • Silver REGGIE (ANA) for Challenger Brand Marketing

    • SHORTY WINNER for Influencer/Celebrity Marketing

United Nations HeForShe Gender Equity

The UN He for She movement faced even stiffer headwinds at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the pandemic’s significant social impact on gender equality. We were challenged with just a weeks-long timeline and an ask to breakthrough an oversaturated social media ecosystem to drive engagement and real change with a budget of $75K. We identified a new creative platform based off a common gender stereotype, got extra scrappy to develop and execute content that could cut through the clutter on social media. We created over 50 pieces of content (videos, stories, graphics) in less than two months.

  • 9.6 million video views

  • 1,744% increase in social media engagement

  • 250% growth in TikTok followers

  • Nominated for 3 SABRE Innovation Awards for Social Media

Arizona Office of Tourism [Un]Real Arizona

With the rise of social media also came the increase in over-touristed locations. Too many visitors can strain the resources of small communities, negatively impact the local environment, and even post economic threats. As part of the [Un]Real Arizona campaign, we carefully curated alternatives to Arizona’s most touristed locations and positioned them as hidden gems in the state.

  • This integrated paid, earned, shared, and owned effort increased hotel occupancy rates in targeted markets by nearly 10%

  • More than $1.2B in revenue attributed to the campaign

Pediatric Heart Recipient Meets Donor’s Mother

Working in the field of organ and tissue donation required profound sensitivity, as it is a matter of working with families through some of their most vulnerable moments.

When the mother of a pediatric heart recipient let me know she had connected via social media with her daughter’s donor mom, I wanted to allow the mothers to have the chance to meet in a way that was comfortable and intimate, while still ensuring the moment was shared with the public to illustrate the miracle of organ donation. I coordinated a private meeting between the mothers, Esther and Heather, and the heart recipient, Jordan, at Phoenix Children’s Hospital where the heart transplant was performed. I hired a private videographer to capture the moment they met for the first time to preserve the privacy and dignity of the experience.

Through strategic distribution of the photos, video, and story, the experience went internationally viral, racking up billions of broadcast and online views, social engagements, and headline clicks globally. To this day, it is my proudest professional work.

  • 3 billion trackable earned media impressions

  • 100% increase in donor registration in Arizona