Guide Dogs uses DRTV to promote Sponsor a Puppy scheme

Published on 2 September 2008, by howardlake

in

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is aiming to reach new audiences with a direct response TV campaign promoting its Sponsor a Puppy fundraising product.

The campaign, developed by direct-to-digital agency TDA, is designed to inspire people to support the charity with a monthly Direct Debit to sponsor a guide dog puppy. The money will help to fund a puppy's training to become a qualified guide dog.

The advert depicts an everyday journey that a qualified guide dog and its blind or partially-sighted owner might make via public transport, and includes negotiating steep staircases, crowds, road works and cyclists. Footage of a fully-trained guide dog with its young male owner is interspersed with that of a puppy in training.

"Sponsor a Puppy is a fantastic way to introduce people to our life-transforming work," says Amanda Mitchell-Francombe, Head of Individual Giving at Guide Dogs. "Guide dog puppies undergo extensive training before they are ready to provide a truly life-changing level of independence and freedom to a person with sight loss.

"By sponsoring a puppy people can help to fund the puppy's training from six weeks to around 20-months of age, when the young dog will qualify as a working guide dog with its new blind or partially sighted owner."

The advert will air on satellite and terrestrial channels including Sky and UKTV from 15 September 2008. Viewers will be encouraged to call Guide Dogs or go online to pledge £1 per week to become a Sponsor a Puppy supporter.

www.guidedogs.org.uk/index.php?id=1592