In a marketplace filled with Superhero Blockbusters (Avengers, Spiderman) and nostalgic juggernaut Toy Story, Secret Life of Pets 2 had a highly ambitious box office target of $15m.

To deliver on our box office goal we needed to broaden our audience beyond kids & parents and drive interest amongst the fickle 18-24yrs group – a genuine challenge for an animated film designed for kids.

We knew from testing results that the current creative materials were resonating well with parents & kids but not connecting with the under 24yrs. To engage this group, we needed a campaign that would push the boundaries of traditional animation advertising and demonstrate that this film was ‘not just for kids’.

3 insights that lead us to our core creative idea:

1. Under 25yrs audience are socially conscious and vocal about topics they believe in. They’re comfortable sharing opinions on social and galvanise as a group around issues they are passionate about.

2.Launching during the Australian election. We know that Aussie’s are bombarded with messaging and seek comic relief from the intense political campaigning.

3. There was a divide between people who love cats and dogs. This debate sparks passionate conversations with Australians and is something our under 25yrs audience can relate to.

Introducing “The Great Australian Pet Debate”:

Partnering with Pet Rescue we asked the most important question of the 2019 Federal Election – Is Australia A Cat or A Dog Nation? Encouraging Aussies to vote #TeamCat or #TeamDog we started a national conversation. $1 from every vote would be donated to Pet Rescue to help save pets in need.

By sparking a national conversation #TeamCat vs #TeamDog, we provided an entry point for our under 25yrs audience into the world of PETS2.

Our Pets characters Max (Dog) & Chloe (Cat) were the face of our great debate and through comedic mock political messaging we encouraged young Australian’s to “make Australia Purrr again” by voting for Chloe or if “in dogs they trust” vote Max.

Strategically our alignment with a charity provided an authentic reason for our audience to engage – we knew they are passionate about social issues and helping Pets in need is right at the top of their list.

Understanding that our audience live and breathe online, we developed a digitally led campaign which would making voting easy and provide the platform for our passionate under 25’s to share their opinion and have fun with the campaign.

Our digitally led campaign launched in partnership with the Daily Mail on the eve of the final Election Debate.

A destination for pet-related viral content, we transformed the Pets section of DMA into “The Daily Tail” for the Great Pet Debate.

This was the hub for Aussies voting #TeamDog or #TeamCat. UGC, native, and bespoke clips showcased cat and dog content over two weeks. Voters could also share their vote to social.

Social was home to heated debate, to capture this we partnered with Facebook to run the Australia first interactive video polling ad unit allowing users to vote directly in-feed.

Pet influencers were enlisted to lend credibility and rally their fans to join the conversation.

Post-election the results were in and newsfeeds were blitzed, Australia is officially a Dog Nation. This bespoke #TeamDogWins clip reminded audiences that no matter the winner…everyone will love The Secret Life of Pets 2.

Receiving over 114,000 votes. The FB polling asset delivered an 11% engagement rate, 151% higher than our animation benchmark.

Post launch of the Great Pet Debate our weekly Neilsen tracking showed a 15 point increase in total awareness and 5 point increase in ‘definite interest to see at the cinema’ among females 18-25yrs.

Strong interest levels for the under 25yrs demonstrated we successfully expanded the audience. As a result we smashed the box office target by 20% delivering $18m.

Measuring success at the box office, we benchmark results vs the US. Delivering 10% of the US box office falls in line with global performance.

PETS2 Australian release delivered 11.4% of the US box office, a successful release. The ONLY territory globally to activate ‘the great pet debate’ we can attribute this over delivery to our PETS2 campaign and the incremental volume driven by the under 25yrs at the box office.