Studio Rescue Dog started with research, motivated by witnessing the terrible strains and tragedies that arise in the shelter system every day. We began to ask: how can we help to make a difference? What can we add to strengthen the system?
We commissioned research at the University of Arizona to understand the challenges. We 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 few resources for paid outreach - what a business would call marketing. Yet a core challenge, to avoid overcrowding and euthanasia, is generating interest - adoptions. What communication exists usually depends on social media. But social media posts are often framed by emergency, urgency, and loss. These messages are necessary and save many lives - but also cause many potential adopters to turn away. And - social media is its own bubble. No one managing a store, or a brand, would view social media as a sufficient marketing strategy.
So we formed the Studio around this idea: creating new ways to create visibility - that can reach, educate, and inspire many new rescuers. And, that present rescues with aspiration and joy - so that, for a potential dog owner, they "compete" more effectively with the idea of purchasing a family pet. And finally - and most critically - our focus is on strategies that can do so without needing millions in resources to implement. That is the innovation challenge.
The Studio's guiding themes draw on our past experience building aspirational lifestyle brands.
The Studio starts with the ideas of design and storytelling. Design can reframe rescues - it can surprise, amuse, awaken, inspire. 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.
The question - the most important one - then becomes: how can stories and aspiration travel to appear before large new audiences. What can overcome the budget and resource limitations that make shelters invisible - and, misunderstood? There are in fact many potential answers, suggested by how brands and retailers create audiences and engagement. The intent is that the Studio serve as a testbed for a variety of ideas and projects.
At the outset, we are organized around four broad categories for potential answers.
Collaborations - with consumer brands, first and foremost - and also with artists, creators, influencers, and others with followings - can achieve vast new generalized exposure in aspirational environments where rescue is not usually seen. The founding University of Arizona research documented that people are more likely to interact with and support brands that support rescue. So in a brand or artist or influencer collaboration, everyone wins - the collaboration partner, shelters, and the dogs. It was the potentially disruptive opportunity for collaborations that inspired the original idea for the Studio.
Grassroots brand campaigns can increase community-level visibility. Shelters do not generally have programs that engage their volunteers in marketing - the focus is inside the shelter. 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. The Studio can structure those campaigns - so all that's needed is local volunteers.
New direct tools for shelters can't change the budget constraints, but can change the design ethos - and, can potentially change reach and effectiveness. 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 and some are already available online - for those, we intend to accelerate the learning curve for shelters. (The grassroots tools described earlier also fall into this category).
Products create visible, durable symbols, and build brand presence. They embody design and storytelling. Simple ones - stickers, hats t-shirts - can be a way of activating and engaging individuals who believe in rescue - and potentially building a community with shared values, similar to the grassroots activation engaged in by action sport brands, More aspirational products are the natural means for brand collaborations. A special collection at an apparel brand can surprise, intrigue, and educate millions of customers and followers. Products distributed directly - to boutiques and stores - can make rescue visible in new places.
If we build enough of these green shoots, many will fail, but some will change how and where rescue is seen. The Studio is also meant to serve as a clearinghouse - not only for its own incubated ideas - but also, for great ideas that it finds in the field, that others have instigated. In that way, it can provide leverage - finding ideas that one shelter or one local volunteer group has pursued, that can be implemented by thousands of shelters and rescues, if they know about it. No pride of authorship - just an inventory of tools that have been proven to work.
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.
