I was lucky enough to successfully plan a Dogs at the movies special Brunch Club for August 2019. We sold 211 seats, had amazing sponsor gifts for goodie bags and spot prizes and were able to donate the proceeds to the SPCA.
A first for New Zealand, where normally dogs aren't allowed in most stores, let alone being able to come to the movies! We had a lot of doubters once the word got out and lets just say the "non dog people" weren't too kind about it. Obviously I was nervous about having an entire cinema to try and fill but after a very kind friend of mine put me in touch with an interested journalist, the event just took off! We sold out quite quickly after that publicity and I was asked to do several radio interviews as well as having 2 news crews and a photographer coming along on the day.
The day went off with a bang, by 10 am we had a lobby full of humans and their dogs at the amazing little Academy Cinemas in Auckland's CBD, luckily we had the whole place to ourselves because it was pretty much chaos! In a good way of course! We had two news crews and of course the 211 guests along with our amazing pupparazzi taking photos of everyone on their way in. After doing a bunch of interviews, taking snaps and giving away our spot prizes we all settled in and enjoyed The Secret Life of Pets 2 which I was able to secure after persuading the nice guys at Universal Pictures New Zealand.
The event got such huge coverage we unfortunately had scammers who targeted some desperate ticket buyers once we were sold out. Thankfully we were able to secure a few spare tickets from some lovely people who donated ones they couldn't use. Read about it below in our article links.
Special mention to Kirsty from Dog & Co Photography who took our gorgeous pupparazzi photos on the day. And my very patient partner Steve and our amazing friends Taylor and Nick who all stood in the boiling hot stairwell and handed out every goodie bag we had. They were incredible!
Our sponsors were some pretty amazing Kiwi businesses (and one Australian, but we won't hold that against them) they all donated very generously, some for spot prizes and some amazingly donated items for all 211 goodie bags. If you would like to show your support or check out their stuff, I have linked them below:
- The Eatery and Keg Room - Doggyccino vouchers
- Amy's Secret Kitchen -Hand made dog treats
- NRG Plus Pet Products - Treat bags
- The Kirk Cafe - Vouchers
- Feed My Fur Baby - Food sample pouches
- L'Barkery - Puppaccino packs
- Yellow Lab Pet Photography - Vouchers
- Pampered Pooch - Shampoo Spot prizes
- Little Green Dog - Poop bag spot prizes
- Smack Bang Store - Treat bag spot prizes
- Share My Pet - Vouchers
- Raw Essentials - Food and vouchers spot prize
Our event was mentioned several times in the media:
- Our very first article on the event by Mandy Te
- Mandy Te's follow up coverage of our day incl photos
- Newshub coverage on the day incl video. (note the mention of our Poochie Mama and Dogfather tees on the news!)
- Newshub article in the lead up to our event
- Coverage of the scammers who targeted desperate ticket buyers for the event
- Kea Kids news team who were filming on the day (you can skip ahead to 4:43)
- Our very first radio interview about the event:
