Idea Bank: Comedians, Dogs Make 2014 a Year of Laughs

What’s the great idea? A calendar featuring dogs and comedians at local businesses

Who’s doing it? The Liberty Humane Society  (opens in a new tab)

What’s involved? New Jersey-based LHS already produces an annual calendar that features adoptable animals, but by partnering with the Hoboken Comedy Festival, the group saw an opportunity to reach a whole new audience and highlight popular destinations and local businesses in the city. “This was a great way for us to partner with the comedy festival and get people to remember both of our organizations throughout the entire year—and raise a little money for LHS as well,” says Irene Borngraeber, executive director at LHS. “The idea was to shoot the comedians [with the dogs] in a funny location of their choice that also highlighted local businesses who sponsored the event.” LHS contacted former adopters to bring their dogs back for the series of photo shoots. The calendar was made available during the comedy festival in early October, and LHS continues to sell them onsite.

What are people saying? “The response has been really positive. … The way we look at marketing is, we’re over the Sarah McLachlan stuff,” says Borngraeber, referring to a long-running TV commercial focusing on animal abuse and featuring a McLachlan song. “We really want to engage people on a whole different level, and the way that we’ve chosen to do that is through positive associations—showing people interacting with animals.”—Rob Stott

(Christopher Patrick Langston)