Innovative Marketing with Tidy Cats' Kitten Therapy

  Purina cat litter brand Tidy Cats released a YouTube video Tuesday to promote their Los Angeles-based campaign "Kitten Therapy."  The company sought out stressed passersby on the city's streets, asked about their emotional burdens then encouraged them to step inside a glass box to relax. After a short period of guided meditation, participants encounter the real therapeutic value of the experiment: a swarm of playful kittens that dash in from hatchways in the wall.  

Screenshots courtesy of Tidy Cats' "Kitten Therapy" YouTube video.

I stumbled upon the ad while video-surfing YouTube's "Most Popular" section and couldn't resist a peak. Tidy Cats and SoulPancake, the creative agency in charge of the campaign concept, surpassed my expectations both as a cat enthusiast and an advertising geek. I'm not alone; in just four days, the video has accumulated over 1 million views and launched coverage by Huffington Post, Yahoo and People Magazine, to name a few. Like Google and The Walking Dead, Tidy Cats' advertising campaigns illustrate an expert understanding of marketing in the digital age. Attention paid to a few key strategies separates Kitten Therapy and the Tidy Cats brand from competitors.

1. Tidy Cats Gives for the Sake of Giving

My marketing idol Gary Vaynerchuk would classify the Kitten Therapy video as one giant "jab" -- a non-intrusive commercial message that doesn't ask for or demand consumer action ("buy this litter," "print this coupon," "share this photo") but builds brand equity with the simple act of giving. Tidy Cats executed the Kitten Therapy campaign to bless strangers with a few minutes of uninterrupted fur fun. Of course, the video's virality constitutes priceless PR, but the glass box experiment yields a pretty low net benefit in and of itself.

Even the brand's YouTube account prides itself on creating content for consumer enjoyment. Straight from its "About" section, Tidy Cats says, "Tidy knows you can't get enough cat-related entertainment. So here's an entire YouTube channel dedicated to the awesome times that come along with cat ownership. Just another way that Tidy has your back (and your cat's back too)."


2. Tidy Cats Engages in Storytelling

Screenshots courtesy of Tidy Cats' "Virtual Kitten Therapy" YouTube video.

Consumers are quick to recognize -- and ignore -- the pleas of traditional advertisements. The Kitten Therapy video evaded this problem by pursuing a documentary-style approach with advanced video quality, raw interviews and story chronology. Just like the authors of history's most popular novels, the litter company presented a problem (stressed out consumers), approached a climax (the final moments of the guided meditation) and presented a solution (kittens, kittens and more kittens).


Not only did the brand excel in building a story within the video, but it extended the story by releasing their Virtual Kitten Therapy video the same day (it reminds me of Dawn's virtual volunteer ad released back in June, which racked up 3 million views and also won my heart).

3. Tidy Cats Implements Digital Trends

The brand realizes the route to its consumers' hearts is through the screen -- computer, tablet, smartphone or TV -- and it maintains these digital relationships through its YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. 

The use of hashtags like #kittenweek, #catswin and #helpmejvp propel the brand forward in the digital age of marketing by making content more timely, relatable and shareable. The brand's ability to embrace silliness and genuinity builds the impression of consumer-focused business.

Tidy Cats played off of Discovery Channel's annual summer marathon Shark Week with this ad for their YouTube campaign.

Tidy Cats launched a YouTube campaigned characterized by the hashtag "#helpmejvp," in which Dr. Julius Von Pepperbottom aids people "avoid life's little messes" like slow wi-fi and co-workers' smelly lunches.

Is Tidy Cats' marketing team ahead of the game?

Leave a comment below or reach out to The LC Studio on Twitter.