Friskies - Dear Kitten

Cat videos + YouTube Stars + Brand Integration.  Sounds like a recipe for a derivative click bait video right?  Thankfully not.  You may remember that a few months back Nestle owned Purina Cat Food teamed up with YouTube Star Ze Frank to produce this hilarious 'A Cat's Guide To Taking Care Of Your Human.' which subtly promoted their Tidy Cat line of cat litter.

Ze Frank has created a new video for the Nestle owned Purina family of brands.  The video, 'Dear Kitten' is a hilarious guide told from the perspective of an elder cat informing the the new kitten in the house all about life with humans while subtly promoting Friskies cat food.  A perfect example of how to do 'branded content' well.

The Friskies

Everyone knows cat videos are huge.  Hell, there are even agencies dedicated purely to catvertising ;-)  So it's not surprise that Friskies has tapped into this infinite well of content and appetite for cat videos by creating...The Friskies!  Billed as the Oscars for Cat Videos, the Friskies is offering a $15,000 Grand Prize for the best new cat video of 2012.  Here's the teaser video:
The only question is why it's taken this long for a brand to do this.  It's extremely fertile ground and a natural fit for Petcare brands.  Actually, I'm also confused as to why the contest isn't being run on YouTube, which again would seem like the natural home for this contest rather than a microsite.

Additional Articles: Fast Company

Sol Republic - The World's First Headphones For Cats

I usually like to avoid any posts that perpetrate the idea that YouTube is just about cats or dogs on skateboards, but August 8th was World Cat Day, so I may as well celebrate that momentous occasion.

First up is a nice feature from AdWeek that showcases 9 awesome cat commercials that drive the Internet wild.

The second is a hilarious spot/campaign from headphone manufacturer Sol Republic and their agency, RoosterNY.  They paired up with Deadmau5 partner, Professor Meowington, to produce the world's first pair of headphones designed for cats.  They only made 10 pairs of these catphones, with each pair retailing for $1000.  All proceeds from the headphones will go to the ASPCA (an animal protection society).  To support this initiative, RoosterNY created this hilarious infomercial style video, check it out below.

Cats, Deadmau5, hilariy...that's pretty much a trifecta in terms of capturing the attention of the meme-loving Internet audience and will hopefully be effective in raising overall awareness of the Sol Republic brand. Not to mention the fact that they're also raising money for a good cause at the same time.


via PSFK