Background:

Every fourth retiree in Russia is alone. Risk of early death among lonely people reaches 70%.

There are 100 000 stray dogs in Moscow. Their lifetime is 2 years.

To live longer, stray dogs need to be taken care of, while lonely people need to care for someone.

Objectives:

- To find one solution for both issues.

- To bring attention to loneliness of retirees and stray dogs.

Challenge:

- Break barriers in a way stray dogs are perceived.

- Zero budget.

Solution:

«Care prolongs life».

We have created “Friend for friend” program to train stray dogs to become companion-dogs for lonely retirees.

Together with city shelters we train dogs to adapt to elders. We help lonely people become owners of these dogs.

Promotion strategy:

Two groups of audience:

1. Lonely retirees. Traditional channels: press, radio, TV.

2. Younger crowd who use Internet and could refer their elders to the program.

Execution:

Website to change perception of stray dogs and to introduce them to future owners.

Because of zero budget, we started working with volunteers: bloggers, journalists, photographers, film directors.

Program started to gain notoriety really fast. We won “Socially Active Media” festival and Sanoma IMedia provided us with free press coverage.

Result:

In 3 months, 27 500 000 media impressions with media value of 10 500 000 rubles.

The project was remarked by Moscow Government and received their approval for further development.

Our goal was to find a single solution for both social issues and to get community’s attention to a problem of loneliness of senior citizens and stray dogs.

The “Friend for friend” program is aimed at bringing the two together: finding homes for stray dogs and finding someone to take care of for lonely old people.

In just 3 months, the program received 27 500 000 media impressions with media value of 10 500 000 rubles. All on zero media budget.

Impressions were generated by numerous reports on TV channels, radio shows, press publications and social media.

Because of such wide coverage and social buzz created by the program, Moscow Government took note and discussed the program during a regular session. The program started from 5 test dogs which were trained by a two-month «Companion-dog» program. And now together with the Moscow Government we are expanding the database of dogs in partnership with Moscow shelters. That is more than 17 000 animals.

In Fall’14 the “Friend for friend” program was launched.

Together with shelters and animal funds we find stray dogs, assess their behavior and select the ones fit for senior people. These dogs undergo a two-month «Companion-dog» training program. Dogs get certified by passing a test.

Website http://friend-4-friend.org/ aims to break barriers in perception of stray dogs and introduce them to potential owners.

To promote the program we engaged volunteers: journalists, bloggers, film directors, photographers. Roundtables, press conferences, gave interviews were conducted.

The project has won “Socially Active Media” festival and Sanoma IM provided free press coverage.

Initially we worked with one partner only, but gradually additional shelters started joining the initiative. Website was adjusted to include new partners and turned to wide database of companion-dogs.

Eventually, the project was noticed by Moscow Government and received the approval for further development.

Population of Russia is 143 million, and 33 million of them are retired. Every fourth senior citizen in Russia is lonely. The risk of early death for these people reaches 70%.

Moscow alone is home to 100 000 of stray dogs who ended up without care of their owners. Life expectancy of a stray dog is just 2 years, while a domestic dog lives for 12 years on average.

Taking statistics into account and with psychologists’ help we discovered insights that influence life duration. For lonely people: lack of opportunity to take care of a living being. For homeless dogs: absence of a kind owner.

Message: Care prolongs life.

We identified two audiences for our communication:

1. Mature people, 48-65 years old. They feel lonely for a variety of reasons: loss of a spouse, departure of their grown up children, lack of grandchildren. People of this age are still full of energy but they have a strong desire to take care of someone and to feel cared in return.

2. Young people, 18-35 years old. They are children of people from the first audience. They can refer their elderly to the program.

We identified channels of communication for each audience: press, TV, radio, interest clubs for older people, internet for young ones.