Qantas-Pupgrade

QANTAS - PUPGRADE

According to a 2011 study, airports are “are more stressful than work or moving house.” So , if you are experiencing stress, how can this be reduced (other than create a different airport experience of course)?

Common stress-busting solutions include everything from massages and aromatherapy to soothing music. Stress relief solutions also often include animals. For example, in a 2001 study, researchers found that pet-owning patients with high blood pressure could keep their blood pressure lower during times of mental stress than patients without pets.

Those two insights - the stress associated with travel, and the calming power of pets - led to Qantas staging a “Pupgrade” stunt in December, in the domestic terminal of Sydney Airport.

Staff brought in a litter of Tarmaruke puppies, who had been “‘specifically trained for stress relief”, making them the perfect airport companion. Passengers

were told that the pups were there to relieve the stress of Christmas so that they’d leave in the right frame of mind for the holidays.

According to the Daily Mail, as well as being friendly and sociable, they are bred to have “no doggy odour.” Needless to say passengers were not allowed to take the puppies with them on board, but they were allowed to cuddle them in the departures area.

The whole stunt was then turned into a short video, which Qantas released on social media.

Qantas is not the only airline to have worked with dogs or other animals.

In 2015, United did something very similar by bringing 230 certified “Comfort Dogs” to airports in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark and Washington/Dulles. Passengers who uploaded a photo of them petting a dog, were entered into a competition to win flights.

Meanwhile, for several years, Virgin America staged “Operation Chihuahua.” This involved abandoned dogs being transported from California, to the East Coast of the USA for adoption.

In 2016, Virgin America combined Operation Chihuahua with a “Tiny Dogs, Tiny Fares” sale where not only were flights put on sale at a discount of up to 30%, every booking resulted in a $10 donation to Virgin America’s animal shelter partners.

With Virgin’s new owner, Alaska Airlines retiring the Virgin America brand, it appears that Operation Chihuahua has now finished.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Using pets and animals in marketing campaigns can work, with Forbes saying that “pets are serious business for marketers.” However, the key is tying it back to the brand and we’d agree with this quote from the Chief Strategy Officer of global ad agency BBDO Abbot Mead Vickers:”

“Of course using cute animals in ads is an easy fix – which is why we shouldn’t shy away from using them. You only have to see the number of YouTube videos featuring cats and dogs to understand people’s endless fascination with them. The challenge is to make a commercial get its communication across without it becoming just another nice film about an animal.”