30% of adults in the US are not in a relationship, but 50% of those single adults would like to meet someone new. Meanwhile, America has 2.3 million dogs in shelters looking for someone to love them. To find new homes for these dogs, it made sense to connect newly single people with a dog that would give them both a new life full of love.

Our brief was to remind people that real love still exists and can be found at your local shelter. Rebound Dogs was a fun, memorable way to target people who were in need of a new companion. But instead of a human companion, our objective was to give them a furry one. One that was the statistical opposite of your ex.

It’s common behavior that people look for distraction after breaking up with a partner.

‘Rebounds’ are generally seen as negative behavior that doesn’t bring you true happiness. We wanted to flip this belief on its head by making ‘rebounding’ a positive experience.

To do this we created a mobile experience where you can input characteristics about your ex and get matched with the statistical opposite of them…in dog form. And to make it as actionable as possible, we kept the search results limited to local shelters in the user’s area.

According to Amy Hackney, a psychology professor from South Georgia University - “The sooner people begin dating someone new, the faster they feel that they have recovered from that prior relationship”

This is where we came in to help our Genzennial target audience get back to normal - because this audience finds it harder than most with 84% of Genzennials having suffered heartbreak and it made 72% of them less trusting of a relationship.

In order to show up in a relevant way, we needed to add value to not only our audience but also the dogs we want to find new homes for. Enter Rebound Dogs, when they no longer trust humans, we can introduce them to a dog which is the polar opposite, allowing them to walk into the future with a dog by their side. Breaking the stigma of the rebound while inserting Pedigree into the conversation.

The core of the experience is a mobile site where you can describe your ex, via a fun interface of multiple choice questions; hair length, hair color, height etc. These characteristics are then inverted and used to search Adoptapet.com for a dog that is the complete opposite of your ex. Rebound Dogs then matches you with a rescue dog in your area that you can adopt via Adoptapet.com.

To drive people to the experience, we created a humorous online video that shows a woman being reminded of her ex’s bald head everywhere she goes, until she moves on and finds happiness again by adopting a long-haired sheepdog.

We also targeted the newly single by leaning into classic break up behaviors. We put QR code stickers in gyms and hair salons, and even made custom ice cream cups that also drove people to Rebound Dogs website.

Rebound Dogs launched on April 9th 2024 and has therefore not been live long enough to collect performance data at the time this was submitted.