Speedy thinking on April Fool’s Day – how Ward Lovett Advertising and PR’s dressed-up dog attracted media interest

Creating stories to celebrate April Fool’s Day isn’t the most usual part of a PR agency’s job, but finding a sportswear designer to create a Lycra suit for a greyhound might be. Ward Lovett Advertising and PR was given the challenge as part of a campaign to raise the profile of greyhound racing with the target group of 18 to 35 year olds by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB).

The events-driven programme is aimed at driving footfall to the 25 GBGB regulated tracks across the UK and increasing word-of-mouth recommendations on how great a night at the dogs is.

Objectives

The April Fool’s story was devised to raise the profile of greyhound racing in a fun, tongue-in-cheek way, using the idea of a dog wearing an athletics/cycling inspired speed suit. The campaign had to be delivered quickly to hit traditional and social media around April Fool’s day, but building in enough time to allow papers to select it as their April Fool story.

As a one-hit story, the budget was limited, incorporating the suit design and production, photography and filming, but needed to work hard to generate the best possible results.

Tactics

The team at Ward Lovett recruited an up and coming young greyhound trainer, Diane Henry, to front the mock campaign to get the speed suit accredited by GBGB. Diane, a glamorous trainer famous for her pink Stetson and pink wellies, is the one of the new faces of greyhound racing, presenting a young, female friendly face for the sport.

Ward Lovett then teamed up with one of the only UK based sportswear designers, MG Sportswear to create the suit, which was custom-fitted to Molly, a retired greyhound from Hall Green Stadium.

Gino Ruffinato and his team created the silver Lycra suit ready for the mock trials photo shoot and filming at Hall Green Greyhound Stadium, where Diane was filmed in the style of a BBC News interview.

The mock release outlined the benefits of the suit, nicknamed the "winalot" suit, which would reduce race times by up to 15 per cent, by increasing the aerodynamics of the dog by flattening fur and keeping muscles warm while racing.

The release was then packaged up with photography and circulated to all major daily regionals and nationals and sports press, as well as all the greyhound stadiums, along with the YouTube link.

The video was also posted across a series of blogs, forums and websites including Facebook and the Daily Motion, and links to the story and the video were Tweeted.

Results

The story was picked up by industry bible The Racing Post, Gambling Magazine and a range of regional titles including the Oxford Journal. It was also broadcast as part of the At the Races programme and appeared across 2,400 betting shops on William Hill TV.

The YouTube link was shared across Facebook and attracted thousands of views online as well as being retweeted by individual greyhound stadiums and published on their sites.

The follow up stories on the model, Molly the greyhound and designer Gino also attracted interest in local and trade media.

Anecdotally, the story generated a real buzz around the greyhound stadiums and prompted dozens of enquiries to the Racing Post from readers commenting on the story.