Viasat is a leading paid satellite TV operator which started broadcasting a Cartoon Network Channel.Our agency was asked to come up with ideas within a budget of just $5K.We knew that with such a low budget the only thing that might give us wide public attention would be an unprecedented PR campaign, a buzzed campaign.COMMUNICATION GOAL: to drive wide public awareness of the Cartoon Network launch.MARKETING GOAL: to meet subscription sales targets of Viasat in September, 2010.We decided to act as if we really had news. The main challenge was to create an event visited by journalists, to give them brilliant material to tell the country about. Our strategy was "World 1st Dogs’ Press-Conference." Instead of spokesmen we used "spokesdogs", who were talking to journalists! The Scooby Doo crew consisted of 6 real trained dogs.The "translation" was realized by the Interpreter from "dog" to "human" language – a Client’s (Viasat) representative.Results: - Media coverage: more than 1,000,000 Ukrainians. - The subscription sales plan for September, 2010 was fulfilled at 129%.

COMMUNICATION GOAL: to drive wide public awareness of a Cartoon Network launch.MARKETING GOAL: to meet subscription sales targets of Viasat in September, 2010.General attitude of households towards Viasat is positive.Available budget was only $5K.The only way to get public awareness was to encourage leading journalists to spread news about the Cartoon Network Channel. For sure they would not write a line about an ordinary launch about an ordinary channel. So, we were obliged to give them the news!

• We rented a top news agency press office in Ukraine called UNIAN (usually allocated for the President and other VIP).• The Scooby Doo crew consisted of 6 real trained dogs.The "translation" was realized by the Interpreter from "dog" to "human" language – a Client’s (Viasat) representative. The press conference started with a "live broadcast" of Scooby Doo’s press attaché in a suit and a tie, who told about the project and made excuses for Scooby’s absence.

Then the cartoon dog Scooby Doo spoke to the journalists via a pre-recorded video. Then the most interesting part started: journalists got to ask questions and the dogs, one after another, answered with barking, whining, wagging or waving paws. The Client’s interpreter translated everything to "human language". It took a full hour just to give away all the signatures requested by the journalists! And of course everyone wanted to take a photo of our celebrity dog-crew.

The subscription sales plan for September, 2010 was fulfilled at 129%. Massive free coverage received: • 2 weeks on, Google had 6 pages in Ukrainian with unique press-conference links, photos etc.• More than 100 publications in Internet, including top news sites, the total of traffic pages with this news covered over 257,000 people in the first day of publication!• The news spilled over the borders of Ukraine to Russian-speaking Internet space, including Kazakhstan and the countries of the Baltics with millions of impressions.• A news spot in the national TV morning-show seen by many Ukrainians.• The news was placed in the most popular dailies – the summary audience in printed press made 286,400 people.• News appeared on radio (audience made 21,500) At just 5K $ and 0 media, investment we made the Cartoon Network Channel launch a real big deal!

Our strategy was the "World's 1st Dogs’ Press-Conference."We decided to act as if we really had news. We had enough money to organize decent press-conference, so all the fun was to happen there. The main challenge was to create an event visited by the maximum amount of journalists, to give them brilliant material to tell the country about. Journalists ignore ordinary press events, they are tired of "talking heads"! How could we make journalists write about the launch of an ordinary cartoon channel with ordinary content?Instead of spokesmen we used "spokesdogs", who were talking to journalists!Journalists were stunned with the idea of visiting such an event. We all knew that it would be a news making meeting.

Viasat is a leading paid satellite TV operator competing with 3 other players in its category and constantly expanding the market share of paid satellite TV (terrestrial and cable TV occupy 83%, free satellite TV makes 12%, paid satellite TV has only 5%).Viasat started broadcasting the Cartoon Network Channel.The Agency was asked to come up with ideas within a limited budget of just $5K.We knew that with such a low budget the only thing that might give us wide public attention would be an unprecedented PR campaign, a buzzed campaign.