Last Thursday was National Cat Day and the well-known taxi service Uber gave their loyal customers the chance to ‘hail a kitten’ a brilliant media event to promote kitten adoptions.

The company sent their most dedicated users an email with information on how to hail a kitten, having it delivered to their home or office for $30, for a 15 minute play session for National Cat Day. To build anticipation they used the hashtag #UberKITTENS, blasting out the service over social media. After the cuddle session, users had the opportunity to adopt a kitten which was of course their ultimate goal. The company made the service available in 55 cities on Thursday from 11 am – 3 pm.

Cats and kittens in particular, have been a big internet craze for years now. People love seeing the newest cat video and every week there is a new Buzzfeed Post on “10 crazy cats who are just like…” So taking advantage of a holiday like this is a prime example of a great way to garner media coverage. Was it successful?

This story was picked up by major publications, including The Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider, CNET and Jezebel. All of the 55 cities that had the opportunity to have kittens delivered also covered the story, making it widespread across media platforms and social media as well. The hashtag #UberKittens was trending nationally in the United States, reaching the #2 spot and only losing out to #NationalCatDay. It also reached the #16 spot in Canada, which was probably only that low because there were less cities offering this adorable luxury.

Media Publications themselves had a little fun merchandising the story by creating their own internal story of the event with the use of video.  Vogue rocked it with this video featuring the #UberKittens visiting Grace Coddington’s office at Vogue. This is just another great example of how a company can set their image apart by taking hold of opportunities like small holidays,  and inviting the media to participate. Bravo!

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