wednesday, february 6th, 2008
TARGET MARKETING HELPS HUMANE SOCIETY TARGET DOG FIGHTING
By Bill Roberts
Pam Wiese loves the warm and fuzzy side of her job. As public relations and marketing director of the Nebraska Humane Society, she has plenty of chances to cuddle kittens and nuzzle puppies, and she makes full use of the power of animal cuteness to tell her story to groups all over town.
But for the Feb. 6 luncheon meeting of the Mid-America Direct Marketing Association, she talked about a darker, more serious side of her work: how to muster a media campaign to combat dog fighting.
Efforts began two years ago, when the state legislature made it a felony to participate in dog fighting as a trainer, operator or watcher. Wiese wanted to publicize the law.
The Humane Society had the chance to air a TV spot titled “I don’t want to fight today,” a heartwarming story of a pit bull cruelly forced into fighting. But she realized that people involved in dog fighting really don’t care what the dog wants, so the TV spot would be ineffective.
Who are the people involved in dog fighting? With the help of Mark Langan, vice president of field operations for the Humane Society and a former police gang-unit investigator, Wiese developed a likely profile of the offenders.
They’re low-income, usually men, and involved with guns, drugs and other criminal activity. She believes most dog fights in the Omaha area are arranged on the spur of the moment, with wagers of $500 to $1,000. The people involved probably all know one another.
TARGET STRATEGY
Her strategy: Target the criminals. Offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information resulting in a dog fight being busted in progress.
“We have to give them some kind of impetus,” she said. “People have a tendency not to want to narc on their friends. And for good reason – these are dangerous people.”
Wiese said she received marketing advice from a Humane Society board member who is president of an Omaha advertising agency.
As a result, Wiese created short (10-second) TV spots with this simple message: “Get us into a dog fight and we’ll pay you $1,000.” The spots included actual dog-fighting footage (the upsetting sight was a reason to keep them short).
She ran the spots late at night, when the target audience might be more apt to see them. Also, she ran them in English and Spanish, since there was evidence of dog fighting in the Latino community.
Wiese said she got extra mileage out of the spots by placing paid spots on the stations that agreed to run the free public service announcements. In addition, she placed posters in stores selling tobacco and liquor in low-income areas.
The campaign got more publicity last summer, Wiese said, when NFL star Michael Vick was convicted on dog-fighting charges. A donor boosted the reward to $10,000.
Wiese said the donor told her, “Let’s shake some trees, see if we can’t get some people to narc on their friends.”
Cracking Omaha’s dog-fighting scene has been tough. So far, the campaign has not produced any arrests.
“We got some leads,” Wiese said. “There are people we’re keeping an eye on. The results are still mixed.”
Pam Wiese loves the warm and fuzzy side of her job. As public relations and marketing director of the Nebraska Humane Society, she has plenty of chances to cuddle kittens and nuzzle puppies, and she makes full use of the power of animal cuteness to tell her story to groups all over town.
But for the Feb. 6 luncheon meeting of the Mid-America Direct Marketing Association, she talked about a darker, more serious side of her work: how to muster a media campaign to combat dog fighting.
Efforts began two years ago, when the state legislature made it a felony to participate in dog fighting as a trainer, operator or watcher. Wiese wanted to publicize the law.
The Humane Society had the chance to air a TV spot titled “I don’t want to fight today,” a heartwarming story of a pit bull cruelly forced into fighting. But she realized that people involved in dog fighting really don’t care what the dog wants, so the TV spot would be ineffective.
Who are the people involved in dog fighting? With the help of Mark Langan, vice president of field operations for the Humane Society and a former police gang-unit investigator, Wiese developed a likely profile of the offenders.
They’re low-income, usually men, and involved with guns, drugs and other criminal activity. She believes most dog fights in the Omaha area are arranged on the spur of the moment, with wagers of $500 to $1,000. The people involved probably all know one another.
TARGET STRATEGY
Her strategy: Target the criminals. Offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information resulting in a dog fight being busted in progress.
“We have to give them some kind of impetus,” she said. “People have a tendency not to want to narc on their friends. And for good reason – these are dangerous people.”
Wiese said she received marketing advice from a Humane Society board member who is president of an Omaha advertising agency.
As a result, Wiese created short (10-second) TV spots with this simple message: “Get us into a dog fight and we’ll pay you $1,000.” The spots included actual dog-fighting footage (the upsetting sight was a reason to keep them short).
She ran the spots late at night, when the target audience might be more apt to see them. Also, she ran them in English and Spanish, since there was evidence of dog fighting in the Latino community.
Wiese said she got extra mileage out of the spots by placing paid spots on the stations that agreed to run the free public service announcements. In addition, she placed posters in stores selling tobacco and liquor in low-income areas.
The campaign got more publicity last summer, Wiese said, when NFL star Michael Vick was convicted on dog-fighting charges. A donor boosted the reward to $10,000.
Wiese said the donor told her, “Let’s shake some trees, see if we can’t get some people to narc on their friends.”
Cracking Omaha’s dog-fighting scene has been tough. So far, the campaign has not produced any arrests.
“We got some leads,” Wiese said. “There are people we’re keeping an eye on. The results are still mixed.”
Meanwhile, she keeps the Humane Society’s other public relations and marketing campaigns going with what she termed “warm-and-fuzzy targeting.”
She showed materials from a campaign called “Look Who’s Sheltering Shelter Pets.” It highlights prominent Omahans who have adopted shelter pets, which often have been abused and sometimes are considered less desirable.
The campaign has worked well, she said: “It’s chic to have a shelter pet.”
She also shared stories about the situations faced over the years by Humane Society personnel. They have removed a fishhook from a goose’s foot, taken a call about a roaming alligator, and found a home for a 300-pound housebroken potbellied pig after its elderly owner moved to a nursing home.
Meanwhile, she keeps the Humane Society’s other public relations and marketing campaigns going with what she termed “warm-and-fuzzy targeting.”
She showed materials from a campaign called “Look Who’s Sheltering Shelter Pets.” It highlights prominent Omahans who have adopted shelter pets, which often have been abused and sometimes are considered less desirable.
The campaign has worked well, she said: “It’s chic to have a shelter pet.”
She also shared stories about the situations faced over the years by Humane Society personnel. They have removed a fishhook from a goose’s foot, taken a call about a roaming alligator, and found a home for a 300-pound housebroken potbellied pig after its elderly owner moved to a nursing home.