Online printing company Parrot Print asked Motive to come up with a digital PR campaign which would deliver lots of high authority media links into their website.

Canvas prints of family photos are their main product but we saw with interest that prints of family pets were also popular.

We came up with a contest to find the UK's ugliest pet dog and created a landing page on the website calling for entries.

We then issued a press release linking to the entry page and secured our first round of coverage.

After the coverage started to appear we began to receive entries from dog owners who claimed their dog could be the ugliest in the country.

‍Too Cute

But there was one huge problem - the dogs entered were all far too cute! We knew that for this campaign to work in the way we wanted it to we had to find a truly awful looking dog.

We issued a second release stating early entries had been far too pretty and called upon owners of hideous looking hounds to get in touch.

This secured us a second round of coverage and we were then able to shortlist entries and issue a third release. By now we were picking up TV coverage as well as online attention in the likes of The Mirror, The Sun, Evening Standard and Daily Mail.

When we received the entry for unique looking pug / Chinese crested cross breed Peggy, from East Yorkshire, we instantly knew we'd found our winner.

When we announced Peggy as our winner coverage went ballistic and we had journalists on the phone from as far away as Australia and New Zealand trying to line up interviews.

Peggy and her owner Holly appeared on ITV's This Morning, BBC Breakfast and Channel 5 News among others and we were able to secure a follow link from BBC News online.

We created a second page on the client's website telling Peggy's unique story and again attracted yet more links.

All told this campaign delivered 830 new high authority links into Parrot Print's website. We also logged 706 coverage items and a total of 12 TV spots.

Peggy enjoyed her prize of a pamper session at a doggie spa and seemed to revel in the media attention, becoming something of a celebrity in her own right.

Motive MD Steve McComish said: "The success of this campaign shows how even the simplest idea can generate huge amounts of media coverage and backlinks.

"Peggy's owner Holly was a great sport and lovely to work with and the media loved them both. It was fantastic to see the link numbers climb close to a thousand for this campaign and the results generated will have long lasting benefits for Parrot Print's website."

Hollywood Comes Calling

After the success of the campaign things took an unexpected turn for Peggy when Hollywood got in touch asking her to audition for a major movie.

Actor Ryan Reynolds later explained that producers had been looking for a unique looking dog to play Dogpool, the canine sidekick to Deadpool in the Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine.

He said: "We were looking for a unique looking dog to play Dogpool. We did a Google search and there she was all over the internet, Peggy, the UK’s ugliest dog. I guess she really is the ugliest dog in the UK but she’s also the sweetest thing."

Peggy was cast in the movie alongside Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and she appeared on billboards across the world promoting the film and on many magazine covers including Empire.

This led to more media coverage for our campaign with publications including The New York Post naming Parrot Print and the contest and explaining how it had led to Peggy becoming Marvel's new movie star.

Reflecting on her dog's new found fame, owner Holly told us: "I'm so grateful for the contest and everything that's come since."

© MOTIVE