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THE WESTMINSTER KENNEL CLUB HONORS ITS ICONIC DOG SHOW WITH ONLINE “WESTMINSTER CELEBRATION WEEK” IN FEBRUARY Sharing Fun Digital Canine Content for Loyal Fans and Dog Lovers Alike During the Club’s Traditional Dog Show Month Join the Westminster Kennel Club for Westminster Celebration Week, a social gathering around the #WKCDogShow with fun, interactive, dog-loving content across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Join the Westminster Kennel Club for Westminster Celebration Week, a social gathering around the #WKCDogShow with fun, interactive, dog-loving content across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Because the 145th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show presented by Purina Pro Plan® will not be held on its traditional February date due to the pandemic, the club is hosting this online showcase of livestreams, videos, behind the scenes features, and a Fox Sports Westminster television marathon from Saturday, Feb. 12 through Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.
Highlights include:
The annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show presented by Purina Pro Plan® is the iconic dog show experience known as the anchor of Westminster Week. The club’s inaugural event has grown from a 19th century, local dog show to three 21st century, globally recognized, marquis championship events highlighting conformation, agility, and obedience. Westminster’s events, an experience loved by all dog lovers, have thrived across the centuries because of the club’s dedication to, passion for, and commitment to dogs. Westminster’s stature in the dog world is highlighted by its recent success on social media growing from 2.3 million impressions in 2015 to more than 224 million in 2020. Here’s an update about what Westminster has been up to, socially speaking.
Westminster has been proactively engaging new, younger audiences on social media for many years to celebrate the love of all dogs and introduce them to the companionship we enjoy with our dogs in the sport. Last year, WKC launched an account on the social media video platform TikTok to reach the Gen Z audience aged between 14- and 22-years-old. WKC’s first TikTok video posted during the 2020 dog show reached 20,000 viewers within the first 24 hours on the platform, a sizeable debut for any brand. By the end of the dog show WKC’s TikTok account had 8.4 million video views and 35,000 new, younger followers exposed to Westminster’s premier event for purebred dogs for the first time.
As a follow-up to the TikTok success, the club last fall established a new account on Instagram tailored to the dog-loving public called WKC360. This full circle approach to the world of dogs focuses on tapping into a larger, younger demographic. Instagram is home to the Gen Z and Millennial generations. The club also has been expanding its social presence as a year-around brand, beyond its prestigious sporting event in February. Because of this recent and continued growth as well as the cherished place in popular dog culture that Westminster holds, all of the club’s social channels remain active for the entire year.
“Our Best in Show moment is world famous, and with the addition of our Masters Agility and Masters Obedience championships, which include mixed-breed dogs, the club has gained a larger following,” said Westminster Kennel Club President Charlton Reynders, III. “Launching WKC360 on Instagram allows the club to stay true to our past history while positioning ourselves for an evolving future.”
Westminster’s core values of integrity, passion and education, as well as its aspirational, distinguished, and iconic tone, is broadened with the content on WKC360. A primary message Westminster promotes through its dog show and on its social channels is the special bond between dogs and people in all its forms.
“To expand our service to dogs in today’s growing dog-loving culture, it’s important to reach a younger, general audience beyond Westminster’s annual dog show,” said Westminster’s Director of Communications Gail Miller Bisher. “By sharing content created by dog lovers both inside and outside of the sport, we can expand the celebration of dogs and the companionship they give us.”
Since we are inviting a broad community of dog lovers to share their content with us, there may be mixed-breed and purebred dogs on WKC 360 that don’t fully conform to a breed standard. A majority of the images and videos posted will be user generated content (UGC) from the public. In addition to UGC content from the public and the fancy, WKC will post more Westminster imagery to @WKC360 to engage all dog lovers.
Fanciers can continue to enjoy traditional Westminster Dog Show content, that they have come to love on other platforms, Facebook, Twitter, the official @westminsterkennelclub Instagram account and YouTube.
As Westminster gets ready for the 145th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, please visit our website to sign up for our newsletter with the latest updates about the events at Lyndhurst Estate on June 11-13, 2021.
Photo courtesy of C. Frausini for Westminster Kennel Club.
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