Studio Rescue Dog is a personal project. It's not so much a formal venture as a series of explorations under a nom de plume (in much the same way that musical artists construct band names around new creative experiments).
Rescuing our little dogs had given me joy and a cause for hope after a long few years of loss. As I became involved with rescue and the shelter system, I began to see the terrible losses that arise in the system every day. I began to ask: how can I help to make a difference here?
I commissioned research at the University of Arizona to understand the challenges. I found enormous interest in rescue, and, goodwill for individuals and organizations supporting it. But also: a huge gap in visibility. And, in how rescues are seen.
Shelters have no resources for real, paid outreach - what a business would call marketing. As a result, rescue dogs are often seen only by people already looking for them. And when rescue does reach a wider audience, it is frequently framed by emergency, urgency, and loss. These messages are necessary - but, cause many potential adopters to turn away.
So I formed the Studio to house experiments to create new visibility - and, to portray rescues with aspiration, desire, and love.
Its ideas draw on my own experience, which has involved various things, but the one of salience here is several decades building aspirational lifestyle brands. I felt that rescue needed a similar kind of brand-building - both wider and more aspirational exposure, and, reframing - as an aspirational lifestyle choice, infused with beauty and joy - not as charity.
As with aspirational brands, the Studio starts with the idea of storytelling. Stories change how we interpret the world. Rescue is naturally aligned with storytelling. It is rich in perspectives and emotion. Stories can change rescue's perception - reflecting not just lifesaving, but also humor, joy, adventure, companionship. A second core discipline is design: to enhance the the perception of rescue, to escape the bars of the shelter kennels and present rescues in a world of aspiration.
The question then becomes: how can stories travel to appear before large new audiences? What can overcome the budget and resource limitations that make shelters invisible - and, misunderstood? The Studio organized around four broad answers.
Collaborations and campaigns - with brands, first and foremost - and also with artists, creators, influencers, and others with followings - can achieve vast new exposure in aspirational environments where rescue is not usually seen. My University of Arizona research documented that people are more likely to interact with and support brands that support rescue, so everyone wins. It was the potentially disruptive opportunity for collaborations - with national brands, in particular - that inspired the original idea for the Studio.
Grassroots campaigns can increase community-level visibility. Shelters do not generally have programs that engage their volunteers in marketing - the focus is inside the shelter. Outreach is focused on social media - which is its own bubble - and, one-off events. There's an opportunity for street-level brand-building, of the kind that's powered many action sport and other apparel businesses - a sticker on the door of every downtown business can turn an ordinary town into a rescue dog town.
Products and branding create visible, durable symbols that carry long-term recognition. They embody design and storytelling. They are a natural means to collaboration - a special collection at an apparel brand, a hat or t-shirt offered by a band. Products for collaborators, that reflect their brand ethos, merchandise focus, and customer are the Studio's design priority. We are also creating some standalone products (and branding) to honor rescue and rescuers (and, hopefully, turn more rescuers into ambassadors and advocates).
Direct tools for shelters can create new visibility and reframe rescue animals. Shelters need new tools for both content generation and distribution - that are infused with design and aspiration, and that create new audiences. Several new tools are in the works. (The grassroots tools described earlier also fall into this category).
The Studio's gestalt is to be an incubator: to imagine and test many ideas. Each is an experiment. If we build enough of these green shoots, some will be unicorns, and fundamentally change how and where rescue is seen.
Every rescue — and every rescuer — has a story. Stories of love, survival, new beginnings - redemption. The Studio's job is to carry those stories to new audiences, to honor the animals who need to be rescued, and the people who open their lives to them.