Held in more than 300 communities across Canada, the annual Walk for Dog Guides raises funds to provide life-changing Dog Guides to Canadians with physical and medical disabilities. After sponsoring Dog Guide teams for many years, in 2017, Pet Valu became the title sponsor of the Walk for Dog Guides. Beacon was hired to drive participation in, and donations for, the Walk and raise awareness of Pet Valu’s support for Dog Guides.

 

Beacon developed and executed a media relations program that:

• Was designed to generate longer, feature-style stories in high reach national and regional media outlets

• Focused on the human side of Dog Guides

• Levered Pet Valu sponsored Dog Guides teams across Canada as spokespeople

• Tag teamed with Lions Foundation Canada’s Communications Manager to maximize media coverage

 

Results included:

• 132 earned media stories, including a feature print story and video in the Toronto Star and Chronicle Herald, segments on CTV News at Six and 11 (Toronto), CTV Weekend News (Atlantic), CTV News (Atlantic), Global News at Six (Regina), Morning News (Regina) and more

• Total reach of media stories: 23,287,769

 

The media strategy was so effective a Toronto Star reporter made a video about how she couldn’t resist Beacon’s pitch https://bit.ly/2IQPNRC