In a world subjugated by human beings, voiceless animals like shelter dogs are often considered to be damaged and undesirable. Unsurprisingly, despite of continuous efforts and appeals from Animal welfare activists, there has been very little call to action.
The Perfect Voiceovers was created by Edelman Singapore in Collaboration with; CAS (Causes for Animals), SAM (Society for Animal Matters), ASD (Action for Singapore Dogs), Chained Dog Awareness and Mutts Rescue.
The campaign's creative idea was organically structured around the archetypal journey of being able to communicate a story that resonates with the audience. It enlisted the participation of 9 media profiled influencers who had faced similar adversities in life and used their voices to tell the stories of the abandoned shelter animals. These stories were written and narrated in a specific tone that appealed to human emotions and encouraged the idea of adopting #shelterdogs, which was the primary driver of the campaign.
Capitalizing on the growing influence of visual media, the campaign rolled out 10 video pieces on YouTube. A four-minute trailer video, that served as the most important piece, was the first to be released. This video piece, shot in the format of a behind-the-scenes documentary, was used by the influencers to assemble attention to the campaign. An anthology series of 9 videos was released thereafter and served as an elaborate extension of the different stories.
Garima Jain, a former employee for PETA India (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) shared an interesting insight about this campaign.
“Campaigns like these only cause a ripple effect. Every person made aware of the situation of animals in need of adoption is a step closer to animals getting a chance at life. "
Garima Jain (Former Media and Celerity Assistant, PETA)
The campaign encouraged animal rescue shelters and activists to start a dialogue by using this approach of telling heartening stories that would ultimately persuade people to adopt shelter animals. Animal welfare organizations from all around the world successfully embraced this form of storytelling and subsequently witnessed an impressive rise in the adoption rates. These organizations also utilized visual media and emphasized on the hashtag #Lendavoice.
Some of the rescue and shelters who joined this movement were:
Peace Wind - (Japan)
Wild Dogs Rescue (Vietnam)
Sochi Dogs Rescue (USA)
PPAWS (Cambodia)
BAWA (Indonesia)
MARO (Philippines)
Aunt Pujiang Wang's Love Adoption Base (China)
Small Animal Protection Volunteer Alliance (China)
According to their reports, the collaboration started off with a zero-budget on paid media and instead focused entirely on the different mainstream media channels. Despite of the powerful use of social media, the frenzy around this cause only lasted for a couple of months and the campaign gradually faded away.
However, considering a 21% increase in adoption enquiry among related shelters contributes to the fact that this campaign generated a measurable amount of success. The success of the campaign also contributed to a massive collaboration among 15 shelters across South-East Asia. This means that despite of not having a very visible or vocal exhibit on social media channels, this campaign did manage to fulfill the purpose of encouraging more shelter animal adoption.
The strategic idea to launch it on the same month that celebrates Edelman's Global Day of Understanding contributed to the firm's initiative of taking action around those matters that relate to Diversity and Inclusion.
This is one of those scenarios which reflects the essence of powerful storytelling with PR Campaigns. In 2020, PRWeek Asia and Campaign Asia Pacific awarded this campaign with the Grand Prix Awards and declared The Perfect Voiceover as Campaign of The Year.
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