2nd Most Watched Program This Sunday…

The ultimate showdown. 

The fiercest competitors. 

The battle for glory.

That’s right. I’m talking about… THE PUPPY BOWL.

You may think that the Puppy Bowl is a joke, but it’s actually very serious business. Last year’s Puppy Bowl had 12.6 MILLION viewers tune in, and for brands like Chewy, PetSmart, and Petco, that’s prime Marketing real estate. 

But that real estate didn’t just spring up overnight.

In fact, it’s a story 20 years in the making. 

This is the story of… THE PUPPY BOWL.

The year is 2005, and if you’re working in television, you’re dreading that big red circle on your calendar.

The Final Huddle.

The Gridiron Grand Finale.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY. 

It’s the TV event of the year.

Like clockwork, millions and millions of Americans tune in to watch the best of the best duke it out for the Lombardi Trophy.

If you weren’t a network chosen to air “The Big Game,” then your viewership was in the dumps.

And if you had to guess, Animal Planet was NOT one of those channels.

But after getting word from up top (the scheduling department) that they needed “counter-programming material” (AKA when a TV channel shows something completely different from a big, popular event to attract people who aren’t interested in it), the team had to get scrappy.

PUT IT IN PRACTICE Animal Planet didn’t try to beat the Super Bowl at its own game. They stole the moment.  They took something that was already massive (football fever) and flipped it into something fresh (puppy chaos). Here’s your homework: Jack a trend.  What’s everyone already paying attention to? How can you remix it for your brand or audience? How can you get eyeballs on your brand?

It was the ultimate challenge for Animal Planet: How do you compete with the Super Bowl when you don’t have the budget, the spectacle, or even the type of audience that would normally be drawn in by a major sporting event?

1 word: Puppies.

It was a running joke around the Animal Planet office: whenever the team hit a rough patch, the solution was always the same: throw a box of puppies on air and call it a day.

After all, who doesn’t like puppies?

Little did they know, this playful idea would be the key to their Super Bowl Sunday success.

The team got to work. They built a mini arena to house the pups, put together a roster from the Washington Animal Welfare League, bought plenty of chew toys, and even hired Harry Kalas, the voice of NFL films, to give play-by-play (paw-by-paw?) analysis. 

In short, this was a bare-bones operation. The setup only cost $88K and a day or 2 of filming. To put that number into perspective, Animal Planet paid $450,000 PER EPISODE of Steve Irwin’s New Breed Vets.

For a nationally-televised event, this was NOTHING.

But they got it done and the Puppy Bowl was born.

And it was a HIT.

The event brought in 5.85 million viewers and it was a HUGE win for a non-football program airing against the biggest game of the year.

And not only did viewers like it, advertisers LOVED it. 

Brands like Pedigree (the pet food brand) and Bissell (the vacuum brand… for obvious reasons) ate up the TV spots. 

From there, the momentum only grew.

While the next year’s numbers may have been lost to history (or possibly chewed up like my homework that one time in the 4th grade), by 2007, the Puppy Bowl had skyrocketed to 7.5 million viewers.

The year after that? 8.5 million. 

Animal Planet quickly realized they had something special on their hands and started adding all sorts of new features and gimmicks to keep the excitement rolling.

In 2006, they introduced the Kitty Half-Time Show, where kittens took over the field for 30 minutes, batting at yarn, chasing lights, and of course, trying to catch laser pointers.

Then in 2009, they took it to the next level by hanging a model blimp over the stadium (which is known as the Geico Stadium…shoutout to the salesperson who cooked up that deal) with hamsters inside, adding a whole new layer of quirky entertainment.

By 2015, they decided to add some structure, putting the puppies into teams and even keeping score, making it feel more like an actual game.

But the real heart of the Puppy Bowl isn’t its antics. It was the program’s unwavering commitment to its “players.”

Every animal involved in the show is adoptable, and the core mission was always to raise awareness about adopting pets from shelters. It wasn’t just a fun spectacle: it had a real, heartwarming cause behind it.

Now, shelters and rescue groups from all over the country send in animals to “compete” and it’s been a massive success leading to thousands of pets finding loving families. 

This genuine, feel-good element is what keeps viewers coming back year after year, turning the Puppy Bowl into not just a TV event, but a movement.

So before you start prepping that Buffalo Chicken Dip or make your bet on what color the Gatorade will be this year (my money is on red), I leave you with one question:

Are you Team Ruff or Team Fluff?

Marketing Cheat Sheet (WHAT TO LEARN FROM THIS GUIDE):

1️⃣ . Steal a Trend: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find a trend that’s already buzzing and put your unique spin on it. The Puppy Bowl didn’t try to compete with the Super Bowl. Instead, they played off of the event, taking something already massive (football fever) and turning it into something true to their brand, and that everyone could enjoy. 

2️⃣ . Build the Lore: Great marketing doesn’t just happen. It’s built over time. The Puppy Bowl didn’t stop at cute puppies. It added fun features like the Kitty Half-Time Show and hamster blimps. Over the years, they’ve created lore that makes the event even more special, drawing in viewers who crave the familiar, quirky tradition.

3️⃣ . Do the Right Thing: When you align your marketing with a cause that matters, it resonates deeply. The Puppy Bowl’s mission to promote pet adoption isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s central to the show’s identity. By doing the right thing, Animal Planet built a loyal following that comes back not just for the spectacle, but to support a cause they believe in. 

IN A MEME