The Munich Animal Shelter is one of the largest shelters in Europe. In order to raise awareness for hundreds of dogs who are waiting for new owners, we were asked to create a campaign. Considering that some of them have been living in the shelter for many years, we had to come up with an innovative non-classical way to attract attention – with a very low production budget and no money for media.

There is nothing that ties bonds together like music. So when a recent study from the University of Glasgow confirmed that dogs have individual tastes in music – just like people – we felt inspired to initiate a new way of adopting shelter dogs: For the Munich Animal Shelter, we teamed up with the popular music streaming service Spotify to create „Adoptify“, matching shelter dogs with potential owners based on their musical tastes.

First, we had to find out the dogs’ favourite genres. The dogs that provoked the most reactions were chosen for the videos. On Spotify, we then targeted users with the same taste in music and matched both through banner ads. That’s how rock fans, electro heads, opera enthusiasts, hip hop addicts and indie pop lovers found their perfect dog. The banners directly led listeners to the website where they could find additional information and get in touch with the shelter.

The testing of the musical preferences of the shelter dogs took place in the Munich Animal shelter from 29.11.2017 until 01.12.2017. The dogs that provoked the most positive reactions were chosen for the videos.

The campaign aired from 27.12.17 until 25.01.2018 on Spotify Streaming Service, Spotify Web-App and Mobile and included Video and Audio Banner with regional targeting.

With 1,85% clickrate the performance of overlay desktop banners was many times higher than the usual Spotify benchmark of 1,22%.

Traffic on the website of the Munich Animal shelter increased by one third during the campaign period.

Press coverage in over 80 countries worldwide

70 Million media impressions

6.5 million € in earned media

Animal Shelters between Berlin and Bogota want to adapt the campaign.

All promoted dogs found a new home.

Adoption enquiries increased by 340%.