Meow Mix: The Cutting Edge Cat Food

In dramatic movie-announcer voice:

THIS SUMMER...
CATTY...
GOES...
TO...
A...
WHOLE...
NEW...
LEVEL...

(hyper-fast montage of cats scratching each other, hissing, chasing each other, cuddling, screaming at each other, with drum music, playing faster and faster until...)

-- fade away --

THE MEOW MIX HOUSE
June on Fox

Ok, maybe it's not on Fox. Maybe it's not even on TV, but Meow Mix has done it again. Say what you will about the quirky brand, it's hard for me to think of another CPG, let alone a pet food brand, that has done as much as they have to experiment and really push the boundaries in the name of brand and marketing.

They created Meow TV, the Meow Mix Cafe in New York and now they have created the Meow Mix House, apparently a real house that will have 10 cats (selected from shelters) living in it from June 13-23, to love, laugh and scratch each other's eyes out. It will have webcams in every room and America will vote for their favorites. The least favorite will be voted out and the top cat "gets" to be a taster for the company.

Ok, I'm not going to comment on whether or not this will sell cat food for Meow Mix or whether they should measure response and all that (of course they should). It seems as if Meow Mix has made a commitment to make their brand about being out there, about going where the people are and giving a cat-twist to things. I think their relatively bold moves in their field represents the chutzpah of the brand and that's probably translating to consumers who identify with fun and quirky (and may be a little nuts to boot -- hey, they're cat people after all).

I hope they do track it and they have been somehow tracking their other efforts, but my guess is that they are creating more buzz and PR hits than similar budgets would be able to generate. Most importantly, they are trying things and (hopefully) learning from them.