Take Five Black Friday: What You Did Over Thanksgiving Vacation…
…OK, not *exactly* vacation—here’s a round-up of some of the promotions you ran last weekend. If your agency is featured here, leave a comment and me know how you did. Same thing if you ran a promo and it’s not featured here. We’re hoping to use the info for a future article to inspire other shelters to take your lead next year.
- My colleagues at the ASPCA Adoption Center in New York City launched Cat Friday, waiving fees on all cats over a year old, including Winona—resulting in 35 adoptions…and all without paid advertising.
“Instead, we promoted our message via publicity through local media outlets that were covering Black Friday deals,” says the ASPCA’s Gail Buchwald, Senior Vice President, Adoption Center. “Our strategy was to capitalize on the consumers’ retail ‘acquisition’ mode by messaging the value of lifelong companionship vs. the short-term utility of fashion or electronics while offering deep discounts.” And even better news–adoptions were still strong on Saturday and Sunday.
- Animal Rescue League of Iowa reduced fees on black cats all day long, and customers at their Animal House Store could spin and win discount adoptions.
– Butte Humane Society kicked off their “Home for the Holidays” campaign with door buster coupons on Black Friday—the first 50 people to visit BHS got to randomly draw a coupon for adoption fee discounts from 10% to 75% off.
Click to play this delightful slideshow of BHS' available animals!
- Crank it up to 11 and check out NOAH’s Black Friday promo video.
- Another awesome video from Austin Pets Alive!—it helps if you’ve got a fun and lively spokesperson who could probably sell ice cream to penguins! (Oh man, that’s not the usual saying, is it?)
- No, these folks aren’t waiting on line for a great deal on a giant plasma screen TV—they’re celebrating Black Free-Day at the Central Oklahoma Humane Society, where adoption fees for dogs and cats were waived all day long. “Our final adoptions count is 129!” they told us. “Our staff and volunteers are grinning from ear to ear at the thought of all the happy animals we helped today.” (P.S. That number included all their available dogs!)
- In case you missed last week’s Take Five Friday, my colleague Susan Britt, Senior Director, Shelter Training, said I should feature this one from Kansas Humane Society again because it’s so brilliant…
KHS hosted a Black Friday Critter Camp for kids ages 5-12; get the deets here.
That’s way more than 5 items, isn’t it? Oh, well. How ‘bout one more then:
- Not surprising from these trendsetters, Wisconsin Humane Society kicked it up a notch and rocked Cyber Monday, with 5 bucks off purchases of $40 or more in their online store.
Tags: Adoption Marketing, Adoption Programs, Marketing & Media, Saving Lives, Take Five Friday
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Zachary Black Says:
Way to go COHS! You kicked butt with Black Friday, I loved following your posts throughout the day!
Kat Hodges Says:
Thanks, Zachary! We were pretty stoked to have such a successful event the first time we tried it!