To help give cats and dogs a second chance, animal welfare charity Mayhew, has created an interactive outdoor campaign designed to match up animal lovers with pets.

The past year has seen a record number of owners being forced to give up pets to shelters, due to economic strain. As a result, Mayhew has seen a surge in demand for its range of veterinary and animal welfare services and in the first five months of 2023 alone, the charity saw the number of requests from pet owners to give up their dogs had increased by 54%, and the same figure for cats is 74%.

With cats and dogs increasingly being abandoned, the charity is on a mission to give these animals a second chance. As winner in the charity category of Ocean Outdoor’s 2022 digital creative competition which seeks to foster bold creative ideas, the charity created a campaign, Loved For Life, which used interactive outdoor technology to help match animals with new owners or foster carers.

The campaign was produced by Ocean Labs and Mayhew, with an activation that took place at Westfield London on June 29 and amplified more widely across 11 Ocean full motion screens.

At the Westfield London activation, passersby could see an animal matchmaking quiz on the Ocean Outdoor big screen. The quiz was designed to match pets with a loving home or suitable potential adopter and saw audiences answer questions shown on the screen such as “Are you more cat or dog?” and “Do you prefer early mornings or lazy days?”

Visitors were then invited to complete a short quiz on a tablet which used their replies to pair them with a dog or cat currently waiting to be adopted. Once the responses to the interactive quiz shown on the billboard were locked in, potential furry matches appeared on the large format screen. Audiences were then presented with a QR code which took participants to the Mayhew website where they could gain further information about their range of services for dogs, cats, pet owners and communities.

On the day Mayhew brand ambassadors and volunteers were also on hand to meet with shoppers and share their knowledge. Visitors could also meet Mayhew therapy dogs and learn more about the charity’s important work.

“There is a very worrying increase in people seeking our support to rehome their pet dogs and cats. At the same time as having to operate waiting lists to manage our capacity, we are having to work very hard to find new ways to reach prospective adopters and foster carers as they too struggle to make ends meet,” says Sherine Wheeler, Mayhew’s Chief Executive. “The opportunity to reach thousands of people across West London and encourage them to see how they can help - either by adopting an animal that needs a second chance, or by supporting Mayhew - is invaluable.