Huggies recently launched a partnership with Disney with exclusive new 101 Dalmatians designs. To celebrate this launch, clients tasked us to create an activation that would generate buzz. We know that new parents who start using Huggies diapers when their child is born are less likely to switch to competitor brands. How could we reach our target audience (expecting and new parents) and debut the new Huggies 101 Dalmatians diapers?

As a brand dedicated to helping parents navigate the unknowns of babyhood, Huggies wanted to help pup parents during a universal milestone—introducing their dog to baby.

So, we created the first-ever Huggies Baby Academy for Pups. Designed from science-backed research, the Academy was a pop-up experience in New York City that helped pups prepare for the arrival of a new baby.

The Academy featured a series of immersive, sensorial experiences each designed to introduce pups to a different facet of babyhood—sounds, sights, smells, objects and beyond. It also featured a training stage to teach dogs baby-related commands, and professional dog trainers to support pups and pup parents as they moved through the space. And, of course, a diaper bar for parents to take home samples of the Huggies and Disney 101 Dalmatians diapers.

We know that parents who start using Huggies diapers when their child is born are less likely to switch to competitor brands.

Our strategy was to reach our target audience when they’re either preparing to bring home their baby or recently have (Point of Market Entry), while launching a partnership between Huggies and Disney’s 101 Dalmations diapers featuring exclusive dog patterns on the diapers.

The overlap in segmentation between new parents and dog parents became our sweet spot, and we were able to reach new parents at a pivotal parenting milestone, focusing on influencers at the intersection of “dog mom” and “baby mom” as well.

Located next to a New York dog park, we created the Baby Academy for Pups in partnership with influencer and celebrity dog trainer Kaelin Munkelwitz @AllThingsPups. Pups and parents were guided through the sensory experiences by a trainer from Munkelwitz’s team.

First, pups were exposed to the Baby Sound Garden, featuring baby noises set to a meditative score, that gradually increased in intensity.

Next, pups went to our Eye-Level Entertainment room, where they watched films of babies that were colored for caning eyes and trimmed for canine attention spans.

Lastly, dogs experienced baby gadgets like strollers, rattles, and diapers at our Diaper Bar, where parents could take home Huggies 101 Dalmatians diaper samples.

Jamie Chung @JamieJChung, a dog mom and new mom herself, attended the live activation in person. And we gifted @MeetTheBars, @hallielovesminny and @_mostlyadorable_ our Dog Meets Baby Kit to share our tips and tricks at home.

Results across earned, shared and owned properties demonstrate that the Huggies and Disney Baby launch exceeded benchmarks, earning over 116M earned impressions with the microsite linked to 70% of earned coverage and the exclusive 101 Dalmatians Diapers featured in 87% of earned stories. @Huggies saw a 1.6K jump in IG following in June, the largest we’d seen to date. Influencers drove +8.5M reach, 5.4M video views and +70K engagements. The rolling cadence of content created a steady drumbeat of social conversation, keeping Huggies top of mind and leading to 59 earned stories to date including Page Six, US Weekly (4 times), SheKnows and Yahoo! There were 9.8K foot traffic impressions at the pop-up, and the average time spent engaging with the live pop-up was nearly ten minutes per pup and pup parent. Cross promoting the launch with @DisneyBaby resulted in a combined reach of 2M impressions.