In September 2023, Independence Pet Group (IPG) brought Felix Cat Insurance into its core pet insurance brands. With 1% of cats insured in the U.S., there was a major opportunity and need for education on cat insurance, but Felix had low awareness and competitors vying for pet parent’s attention.
As a cat-focused brand, we wanted to break through to cat owners in a unique way. Our insight of men (27%) have adopted cats at higher rates than women (18%) over the course of the last 4 years led us to setting a goal of breaking through to cat dads and raising awareness for our feline-focused brand.
To reach cat dads, we created a campaign tailored to them launching a limited-edition cat dad hoodie ahead of Father’s Day with a built-in pouch for cats and set goals of 100M impressions, 80% image inclusion in coverage, 90% of coverage featuring our link, and planned to donate all proceeds to an organization focused on helping cats.
We designed a one-of-a-kind hoodie, developed engaging messaging used across social media, PR assets, and our microsite, and built a paid media and SEO strategy to increase Felix’s brand awareness and connect with the broader male audience.
To elevate further, we partnered with celebrity dancer and cat dad Derek Hough and cat-dad influencer Abram Engle and his cat, Kurt to promote the hoodie across socials.
To achieve social media goals, we set out to:
Build a social moment around #CatDadClub, featuring content from Derek Hough, Abram Engle,, employees, and hoodie purchasers to foster community and drive engagement.
Partner with an animal shelter selected by our influencer partner to amplify campaign awareness, community, and engagement.
Engage cat owner-employees to create authentic content, fostering excitement and internal brand advocacy.
Encourage UGC by promoting our audience to join the #CatDadClub, sharing unboxing videos, hoodie styling tutorials, and testimonial IG stories.
Sent hoodies to micro-influencers in the cat and lifestyle spaces, generating additional UGC and organic buzz.
To achieve media goals, we set out to:
Pitch the unique hoodie for inclusion in Father’s Day gift guides across relevant verticals.
Leverage Hough’s hoodie social post with entertainment media to drive awareness.
Offer samples to key media targets to drive coverage interest.
Highlight key data points around increase in male cat ownership to tap into cultural relevance and drive coverage.
Leading with data and touting partnerships with Hough and Kurt the Cat, embargoed pre-seeding began a month before Father’s Day with select, top-tier media outlets and gift guides providing a sneak peek of the hoodie, offering samples and interviews and leaning into the hoodie’s uniqueness.
Leveraging content with Hough and Kurt the Cat, we promoted the hoodie across social platforms with collaboration posts, user-generated content, and owned content reaching new audiences and increasing brand awareness.
Social link clicks surpassed brand average by 656%, delivering 17.6K impressions and a 7% engagement rate. Posts by Hough and Engle saw 447K+ content views delivering 3.4M+ impressions (39% higher than our monthly average), 80K+ engagements (40% higher than our monthly average), and 629 link clinks resulting in 5 hoodie purchases. Our audience grew by 743, representing a 16.5% increase compared to average growth and doubling our total male following from the previous month.
From micro-influencers and hoodie purchasers, we secured 30+ user generated posts along with a donation celebration post from Nashville Humane. Our outreach also resulted in 11 employee posts and a social giveaway hosted by the @CatDaddiesMovie, further driving engagement and excitement around the brand and campaign with our target audience.
Surpassing all of our goals, we secured 1.6 billion media impressions, a brand record high, with 51 media placements in outlets such as People, PetAge, PR Week, and Entertainment Weekly. We also saw 100% positive sentiment and 97% of key visual inclusion. Our press release garnered 356 pick-ups providing additional reach of 157.3M people.
Felix site organic visits rose by 69%, with our blog delivering 55 visits and an engagement rate of 83.64%. Organic clicks on branded terms rose by 227%, and organic branded CTR rose by 180%.
35 microsite users came to our brand site for a quote.
We donated all hoodie proceeds, totaling $2.4K, to Nashville Humane Association, an organization local to Engle and Kurt.
