The Mutt-ley Crew

Client: Guide Dogs

Cute, fluffy puppies that grow into life changing guide dogs, helping people with sight loss - sounds like an easy win to garner public support for a charity. Unfortunately not. In fact, just as all charities struggle to recruit volunteers, Guide Dogs struggles to secure volunteer Puppy Raisers to help train and socialise the puppies needed every year to support people with visual impairment.

The idea came to us after our own, very sweet and calm office dog Louie started barking at our Creative Director who had a long beard. He also barked at our finance controller who always wore a beanie and the guy in the corner shop who had piercings on his face. It was clear Louie was scared of these visual characteristics that were unfamiliar to him. Socialising puppies to become guide dogs in the big wide world is one of the tasks puppy raisers face when taking on this role. What if we could make this easier for them and encourage more puppy raisers to volunteer at the same time? Enter, the Mutt-ley Crew - a carefully curated band of tattooed, pierced and bearded individuals taking part in a Guide Dogs socialisation event, and acting as a visual call out for people with distinctive characteristics to volunteer as Puppy Raisers. Cue blanket coverage including multiple segments on national TV and radio. What’s more, we saw nearly double the traffic to the Guide Dogs website and a 59% increase in Puppy Raiser applications.