Gigunda Group Goes to the Dogs with Eukanuba at the AKC Championships 125h anniversary event took place in Long Beach last weekend

Online, December 20, 2009 (Newswire.com) - (Manchester, NH) Gigunda Group went to the dogs last weekend at the AKC/Eukanuba Championships in Long Beach, CA. Gigunda created an experiential marketing program to engage attendees on the brand's behalf at this prestigious annual event.

Eukanuba wanted to do something special to showcase their deep knowledge of the varying nutritional needs of show dogs as well as the average pet. They engaged Gigunda Group to create an experience that would engage, educate and entertain event attendees.

The program, which targeted both dog owners and breeders, came to life in the arena's lobby, a high traffic area of the event. Gigunda created a three-pronged approach to engage visitors - Know, Grow and Show - that brought Eukanuba's deep knowledge of a dog's nutritional needs to life in an accessible way. In the centerpiece of the program, visitors could "go to the dogs" by experiencing life like a dog does.

In the Know area, visitors learned about the science behind the food as well as the company's history of innovation via a video display wall. The Grow area represented the stages of a dog's life and brought a dog's world to life through interactive areas that show how dogs interact with the world through four of their senses. In the Show area, visitors could watch videos and see live demonstrations.

About the Grow Exhibit
• Dogs see the world similarly to a human with red/green colorblindness. At the See station, consumers could get inside a dog's head and "see" the world as a dog would. While this is easy enough to compose using static video, Gigunda was able to create the effect on a live video feed of the area surrounding the exhibit. Visitors put on a pair of digital glasses that were connected to a camera mounted inside a fiberglass dog's head that panned the exhibit area in order to "see" the setting as the many dogs in attendance did.

• Dogs have the ability to single out an individual sound from the world's cacophony. At the Hear station, attendees donned headphones in front of a large screen showing a park scene. At first, consumers heard all the sounds of the scene as a human would. Then, using flash animation, Gigunda added "hot spots" that visitors could click on to single out a particular sound from the park setting just like a dog does.
• A dog's sense of smell is between 1,000 and 10,000 times greater than a human's. At the Sniff station, consumers sampled different concentration levels with the help of an oxygen bar. This was, by far, the most popular and engaging exhibit at the event. This station provided the show's great "a-ha" moment for human attendees.
• A dog's sense of taste is only about 1/5 as strong as a human's. At the Taste station, visitors can taste juice drinks that are fully flavored and then those that are diluted to what a dog would taste.
• The focal point of the Grow area was a machine - much like the nightly lottery number machine - in which different colored balls, representing the different good bacteria necessary in a dog's digestive system - bounced around. Visitors could win prizes for answering questions about canine nutrition.

About Gigunda
Based in Manchester, New Hampshire, Gigunda Group is an innovative experiential marketing agency that prides itself on being idea instigators and insight experts. Gigunda has activated experiential programs such as the groundbreaking Charmin Restrooms campaign in New York City and Tide Loads of Hope. In addition to P&G, Gigunda's client roster includes brands such as Sony, Yahoo, Activision, Kellogg's, Nike, GlaxoSmithKline, Mars Snackfood and Stanley.

Last year, Promo Magazine named them the most creative agency in the United States. The company has won more than 60 industry awards since 2007 and was honored with the prestigious P&G Family Care Inspiration Award in 2006.