PI: “The Feline Factor in Branding: How Cats are Purring Their Way to Content Marketing Success.”

Good day everyone! In today's digital age, the influence of cat content and content marketing strategies has emerged as a powerful force for audience engagement. This article delves into the world of branding and how cats have become key players in driving content marketing success. I personally excited to feature all kinds of cats in my journey as a content and media strategist! The publication will explore all types of strategies when cat content is used and how they have successfully gained reognisition and engagement among their audience in any online platforms.

Let’s go back to 19th and 20th centuries where the perception of cats has been shifted into a positive light from the dark, being associated with wisdom and creativity. Cats started to adopt on roles as heroes or supporting characters in nursery rhymes and literary works (e.g. Puss in Boots from fairy tales, Tomcat Murr from ETA Hoffmann's writings.). There was a study made by an ethologist examining the relationship between humans and cats to understand why humans have such love for felines. Cats’ popularity is mostly based on their enjoyment of physical contact with their owners, their predictable behaviours, cleanliness and their resemblance to humans in certain ways. Although cats cannot replace human connections in the social media, they do serve as an additional source of emotional support for their owners. Cats can become "significant others" and have the ability to uplift negative moods, especially when there is a strong bond. Below represents different organizations and how they adopt cat content within their strategy to gain engagement within the social media platform.

Viral Cat Content (Trending)

Trend: Grumpy Cat

Tardar Sauce, also known as Grumpy Cat, was an internet celebrate after one night. This is because of his ‘grumpy’ expression on Tardar’s face, caused by an underbite and feline dwarfism, captivated millions. She gained widespread recognition when a photograph of her was shared on Reddit in 2012, leading to the creation of many humorous content in different formats and the popularization of "lolcats" and parodies featuring her image. His unique appearance and endearing charm made her an iconic figure in Internet culture, leaving a lasting impact as a beloved feline sensation.

Example: Friskies & Buzzfeed - Happiness Finds Grumpy Cat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc5PgtdcUBU

In a new video featuring Grumpy Cat, it becomes evident that she goes to great lengths to avoid happiness, reaffirming her reputation as an online sensation. The video, with over 700,000 views in less than 24 hours on Buzzfeed's YouTube channel, showcases Grumpy Cat's various talents of frowning, grimacing, glowering, and sulking, all while being filmed at a PetSmart store and cleverly promoting a line of new cat food products endorsed by Grumpy Cat. Despite her perpetual state of irritability, her demeanor continues to entertain and captivate audiences.

Example: Friskies - Grumpy Cat on Friskies® Cat Game Show, Will Kitty Play With It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdhsnwZzrL0

Other than using the content of the grumpy cat for their new food product line, the cat was also featured in a game show on its channel. It has been stated how Friskies ensure for the Grumpy cat to become an official spokes cat of Frieskies where they paid flights, hotel, personal assistant, a chauffeur and unlimited Friskes food and bottled water. This is because the cat had to travel to promote, including the one in new york in Good Morning America, Anderson Live and many more. Thus, it proves on how the grumpy cat was able to maintain her large popularity through out the years.

Brand Personality with Cats

Example: Karaoke Manekineko

Karaoke Manekineko is a prominent karaoke chain with 600 outlets spread across Japan, and expanded its presence in Malaysia in 2018. The organisation has been optimising such cat-themed elements in their branding strategy to create a unique and appealing experience for their customers. Their logo features a cute and playful cat, which can be recognizable visual brand identity. This cat mascot is consistently incorporated into promotional materials, signage, and advertising campaigns, establishing a strong connection between Karaoke Manekineko and cats. Moreover, the karaoke rooms and common areas within their establishments are covered with cat-themed decorations, from wall art, wallpapers, to cushions.

In addition, Karaoke Manekineko creatively integrates cat-related elements into their naming and taglines. The choice of the name "Manekineko" is referred Japanese beckoning cat figurine symbolizing luck and fortune, adds positive association to the brand with harmony. They also incorporate cat-related phrases or puns in their taglines, further emphasized their cat themed branding.

Advertising campaign with Cats.

Example: IKEA cats advert - IKEA Releases 100 Cats Into a Store and the Result is Beautiful (Happy Inside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aUhzddiVOQ

Ikea, a multinational corporation known for manufacturing and selling furniture, home decor, and design items. Outside of their usual campaigns, the company created a captivating commercial titled "Happy Inside.” The commercial features a video format with 100 released cats explore the store featuring many features. Throughout the video of the cats roaming around, this is a perfect showcase on how Ikea’s products are displaying an essence of a joyful living space expressed through the cats’ expression and body language. According to experts, since it was inspired from a popular movie, this led to a significant buzz on social media gaining millions of views, captivating the audience world wide. The advertisement was produced by a London-based advertising firm Mother, also released a captivating behind the scene video titled ‘Herding cats,” gaining over 2 million views on Youtube within two weeks. This has been claimed by Reviewer Leo Benedictus from The Guardian, that this the follow up video of in producing the video is a clever example of meta-advertising including the audience in the production. Along side the cats, the audience will be evoked emotionally when looking at the cats behind the scenes and in the official video.

In conclusion, the viral effect of cats in social media is undeniable effective. They have become powerful tool for branding strategies in order to adopt audience engagement. From Grumpy Cat's iconic expression as a viral meme to Karaoke Manekineko's cat-themed branding, along IKEA's cat-filled advertisement, cats capture attention and drive brand recognition. Their ability to evoke emotions and create memorable experiences makes them integral to successful marketing campaigns. Cats have become influential figures in social media and their impact will continue to resonate with audiences, contributing to the success of future campaigns.

Bibliography

100 cats turned loose in an IKEA store to film commercial; “making-of” spot becomes a Web hit - Los Angeles Times. (2010, September 24). Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/la-unleashed/story/2010-09-23/100-cats-turned-loose-in-an-ikea-store-to-film-commercial-making-of-spot-becomes-a-web-hit#:~:text=100%20cats%20turned%20loose%20in,Web%20hit%20%2D%20Los%20Angeles%20Times

Podhovnik, E. (2016). THE MEOW FACTOR - AN INVESTIGATION OF CAT CONTENT IN TODAY’S MEDIA. https://doi.org/10.20472/ahc.2016.001.013

Roy, S. (n.d.-a). Cat Calling! - The rising role of the felines in Marketing & Communication strategy! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cat-calling-rising-role-felines-marketing-strategy-roy-shawn-/

Scott Craven, The Arizona Republic. (2015, August 5). Grumpy Cat meets Happiness in new Buzzfeed video. Azcentral. https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/2015/08/05/grumpy-cat-new-buzzfeed-video/31171905/

The 6 Best Marketing Campaign Ads Which Use Cats on Them - Searing Idolatry. (2019, August 8). Searing Idolatry. https://searingidolatry.co.uk/the-6-best-marketing-campaign-ads-which-use-cats-on-them/