Running head: A PET A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Team B
Kenan Sabic
Nick Stoddard
Megan Russell
Ian Rosales
Olivia Coe
Salt Lake Community College

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

It is no secret that as the years go on, obesity is becoming more and more of an epidemic
especially among younger generations. As technology improves and daily lives become more
and more stressful, people make unhealthy choices and exercise less. This communication
campaign is passionate about getting younger generations motivated to change their lifestyle. We
will do this by inspiring physical and mental well-being by becoming active with a workout
buddy, more specifically your treasured pet. For those that do not own a pet, we will encourage
adoption to create confidence and companionship while having a great workout friend to help
motivate you. The strategic communication plan that follows will include a purpose, audience,
messaging goals, key messages, channels, and tactical plan for this campaign.
Purpose / Objective
The purpose of this communications campaign is to provide information on how working
out with your dog can improve physical health and mental health. This campaign will
specifically target the millennial generation. According to Policymic.com, millennials are
expected to live shorter lives than their parent X generation. We hope to change this statistic by
reaching out to millennials through their go-to ways of communication which is social media.
In turn, by informing the millennial generation, we hope that this will impact future generation to
lead a healthy lifestyle and become more active with help from their pets. We will use a variety
of channels such as; flyers, Facebook, and Instagram. This campaign will be held on April 30th
from noon till 2 P.M. Spring is here and summer is around the corner, so lets get ready for
summer with our furry companions!

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Audience
The target audience for this communication campaign is the millennial generation along
the Wasatch Front. Below are the demographic and psychographic descriptions for this audience.

Demographics
In 2014, Salt Lake County held the highest population of Millennials in Utah numbering to
336,089 (Jacobsen, 2015)
45 percent of those millennials are college students. (Snowder, 2015)
Millennials are accounted for as the most diverse generation group in Utah and more than
100,000 millennials in Utah are minorities. (Jacobsen, 2015)
Millennials are the largest generation in Utah since 2002, even overtaking the baby boomers
which account for 10 percent of the population and millennials almost triple this number.
(Snowder, 2015)
The Median age for millennials in Salt Lake City is 24.3. (Jacobsen, 2015)
Median income level for millennials in Salt Lake City is $20,000 per year.(Business Insider, n.d.)
One third of those ages 18 to 27 are obese. (Alexander, 2013)
Psychographics
Millennials are avid multi-taskers who grew up in a technological age. They love a challenge of
taking on new and exciting tasks. By focusing in on this age group we can encourage millennials
to take more walks with their dog and become more active while still accomplishing many tasks.
(Sweeney, 2006)
Millennials work to play and a balanced home life is very important to them. Stressing the ease
of working out with your pet and showing that it will not make a huge change to their daily lives
is essential. (Sweeney, 2006)

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Millennials like to see themselves as trendsetters and like to do things in a quick and efficient
manner in ways they see different from previous generations. They embrace change in their
community .(Sweeney, 2006)
Millennials are earnest gamers who have spent countless numbers of hours in front of the
computer and television which has led to an obesity rate that continues to rise. (Sweeney, 2006)
Millennials are used to a life of convenience including fast food restaurants and more advanced
transportation systems. Walking has vastly decreased among this generation. (Alexander, 2013)
Millennials feel an increase of stress because of growing up in an age of revelations with
technology. Unemployment levels and cost of tuition in this area greatly affect the stress level of
this generation. (Alexander, 2013)
Audience Analysis
As stated in our demographics, this audience is on the younger side, typically between the
ages of 18 and 26. This group is highly motivated by technology and multi-tasking and love to
think outside the box. As stated above, they are trend setters and efficiency is very important to
them. (Sweeney, 2006) By showing our audience a new and effective way of being motivated to
work out with an animal buddy, we can show them bright and exciting ideas to spark motivation.
Most millennials are college students that have high amounts of stress levels. Stress increases
cortisol and norepinephrine levels in the body which can severely attack a person's immune
system. Exercising with your dog can combat stress by releasing serotonin and dopamine which
can create a relaxing effect and combat stress. (WebMD, n.d). We figure that we can help our
audience become more physically active by encouraging them through their key communication
channel which is social media. We have a short video showing examples of workouts with your
pet along with a flyer and several articles on the subject imbedded on our Facebook page. We
have no specific gender being targeted, as we have decided to focus on both male and female.

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

We did this because after reviewing the data and came to the conclusion that both genders have
an equal percentage of being stressed and overweight.
Messaging Goals
Keeping in mind the purpose and objective of this campaign, as well as including the
demographic and psychographic profile of our audience, this team has set the following ideas for
our objective:
Think
Understand

that being healthy is a lifestyle change and working out with a

pet is one way to achieve this lifestyle.

Understand the mental and physical health benefits of becoming more
active with your pet.
If you currently do not own a pet, we hope this will inspire adoption for
the purposes of achieving a healthy lifestyle, while saving a life and creating
motivation with your new workout buddy.
Get creative and become inspired by new and fun ways to incorporate
your furry friend into your workout routine.
Feel
Adopting
Adopting

a pet can increase self-esteem and personal well-being.

a pet can reduce stress and give you purpose. (Huffington Post,

Adopting

a pet can increase physical health by getting you moving and

2013)
spending more time outside. (WebMD, n.d.)
Do
Exercise

all of the tips and advice about health and fitness with your pet

conveyed in this campaign.

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Increase awareness about

Incorporate exercise with

the health epidemic in the millennial generation.

your pet into your daily routine.

Key Messages
The three key messages we want the target audience to remember are:
Exercising with an animal decreases stress and improves personal well-being for you and your
dog. (WebMD, n.d.)
Maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle with your pet creates a better sense of self and self
confidence. (WebMD, n.d.)
Working out with your pet can be fun and as challenging as you want it to be, and instead of
doing the same old boring workout routine, you can exercise while building a bond with your
animal companion. (Vetinfo.com, n.d.)
Channels / Media
We have selected these specific channels for our audience to be able to communicate and
deliver our message. We have taken into consideration the fact that millennials spend a lot of
time in front of the computer or on their phones logging into social media sites. We have decided
to stay with the trend but keep it simple and original as well. We want to be able to provide our
audience our information by channels they are accustomed too. Based on this criterion, we as a
team have selected the following channels:
Instagram
Instagram is one of the most popular apps for Smart phones and carries a great amount of flow to
our audience. We are able to deliver our message to them without having to do much work while
making it easier on our audience to access information they might be seeking. Instagram will
inspire our audience through various photos of exercising with pets.
Facebook

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Facebook is another social media that is trending a lot for business to promote their companies
and products. There are over million users that are on Facebook on a regular basis. The
information we are able to deliver compared to Instagram will contain the majority of our
content. We have attached photos, made a video as a group, and attached a few articles on the
subject for our audience to view. Facebook gives us the option to not only deliver message

through visual and emotion but through context and facts.

Flyers
We want to be able to target all of our audience and we have got to consider that not everyone is
on social media, although the majority of millennials do use social media in some form. In order
to solve that issue, we have decided to go the old fashion way and create flyers. This channel
might not reach the most people, but it does allow us to target a specific area and those
millennials that come from poorer areas and may not have easy access to the internet.
Tactical Planning
An effective communications campaign is all about giving good information to our
audience at the right time and through the appropriate channels. Below is how we plan to meet
this requirement:
Who (Audience) What (Message)
Millennial

Inform
generation along
people of the benefits of
the Wasatch Front
exercising with a pet

Inform
our audience that reducing
stress levels is important.
Working out with pets
declines stress levels. This
is important for a
generation that has elevated
stress.

How (Channel)

Face
book

Insta
gram

Vide
o (embedded
into Facebook)

Artic
les(embedded

When (Timing)
Two weeks before
due date.

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Millennial
generation along
the Wasatch Front
who may not
have internet
access

Inform
people of an event to
encourage activity with
your pet.

If you
do not own a pet we will
encourage adoption
services and retirate the
health benefits to owning a
pet.

into Facebook)

Flyer
s

One week before

due date.

Conclusion
By educating our target audience about the benefits of being more active with their pets
we can develop a healthier and happier generation for ourselves and for our beloved animals as
well. We know that it is very difficult to stay on top of being physically active day in and day
out. So we are hoping that we have provided a few tips and pointers on how we can maximize
our motivation with a little helper. This will open doors for our audience and create a new found
lifestyle and bond with their pet companion and a new feeling of self worth.

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

References
Alexander, Rachel (April 19, 2013) Why are millennials unhealthier than their parents?
Retrieved form http://mic.com/articles/36321/why-are-millennials-unhealthier-thantheir-parents#.hGN7P5we8
Business Insider (n. d.) Heres how much millennials are earning annually across the U.S.
Retrieved from http://www.levo.com/articles/lifestyle/salary-of-millennials
Huffington Post (n.d). 12 ways your pet can improve your mental health. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-hark/pet-ownership-health_b_3187960.html
Jacobsen, Morgan (June 24, 2015). A Changing face of Utah. Census estimates show
diversity among large millennial population. Retrieved from
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865631389/A-changing-face-of-Utah-Censusestimates-show-diversity-among-large-millennial-population.html?pg=all
Snowder, Tracy (May 22, 2015). Millennials, the Largest Generation Group in Utah.
Retrieved from http://www.ksl.com/?sid=34754493&nid=148
Sweeney, Richard (December 22, 2006), Millennial Behavior and Demographics
Retrieved from
https://certi.mst.edu/media/administrative/certi/documents/Article-MillennialBehaviors.pdf
The Benefits of Dog Exercise, (n.d.), Vetinfo.com, Retrieved from
https://www.vetinfo.com/benefits-dog-exercise.html

A Pet a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

WebMD (n.d.) 5 ways pets can improve your health. Retrieved from
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/healthbenefits-of-pets?page=3

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