Adopt a Stray

FCB Chicago

Brand: Fresh Step

Year: 2023

For a brand with low involvement, little money, and a big purpose, Fresh Step cat litter had a lot working against them. To gain attention for the brand and help raise awareness of cat adoption, they had to think and act differently. So, they co-opted the trending game Stray, blowing up the gaming community and gaining more attention in two days than they could have earned in months of traditional communication — with a fraction of the budget. Suddenly, Fresh Step and cat adoption were at the front of the cultural conversation, and the impact on sales the following month proved incredibly effective.

Fresh Step designed exact replicas of 35 adoptable cats, from their fur pattern to their eye color even down to the exact movement of their tails, and built them into the game. For 48 hours, the brand let players choose a real cat to play Stray with, putting Fresh Step and Best Friends central to the story of finding cats a home, both in the fantasy world of Stray and in the real world, with the campaign driving +124% increase in adoption applications by serving applications within the Twitch platform in real time.