Here are a few InfoStream highlights (in order of top page views) from 2014:
The Top Dog Store™ re-invents retail for dogs: Calgary's Robert Church opened the doors to a new store offering a redesigned look at the retail sale of pets. The Top Dog Store™ produces a unique dog-centric experience directed at property homing the animals. Measures include certified and inspected sources of animals; mandatory vet visits, animal warranties and national identification and return-to-owner services; and follow-up services for clients that support behavior and ongoing health.
Career networking in the Urban Animal Industry: During the Backers Total Pet Expo in September, pet industry veteran Jamie Damato Migdal launched a new online platform to help pet industry professionals find qualified and dedicated employees. FetchFind.com, which is in Beta form, will offer the opportunity for aspiring pet industry professionals to increase expertise through online learning modules as well as locate job opportunities by browsing job postings on the site.
2014 Social Media Trends: An article on Business 2 Community (B2C) forecast that in 2014, Twitter would surpass Facebook, marketing would transition from monologue to dialogue and that images would outrank content for user engagement. Hashtags were also predicted to become the leading online search tool as every social media channel accepted and encouraged its use.
Atlantic Innovation Showcase Spotlight Paws Fur Thought - Service dogs for veterans battling PTSD: Since being paired with his service dog, Thai, in 2012, retired Canadian Armed Forces Captain Medric Cousineau has been working to raise awareness and funds to help other veterans achieve success and peace through their own service dog pairings. Cousineau was introduced to the Urban Animal program thorough the Innovation Showcase and received the 2014 Innovator of the Year as well as the 2014 Health and Wellness Summit Awards.
Mars to buy most of P&G's pet food business for $2.9 billion: In April, Mars, Incorporated and the Procter & Gamble Company announced that Mars agreed to buy the IAMS®, EUKANUBA® and NATURA® brands in major markets for $2.9 billion U.S. This was a strategic move for Mars Petcare to complement its large and growing global Petcare business.
iAdopt unveiled - An interview with OSPCA's Tanya Firmage: Introduced in 2013 as iAdopt for the Holidays, the campaign was quickly refactored to offer several sub-campaigns throughout the year for various national holidays. This avant-garde campaign shows promise as an industry-wide and international initiative as it caters to all sectors of the industry and is available to everyone. More than 3,000 pets were adopted as part of the 2014 Christmas campaign. iAdopt was featured at the 2014 Regional Conferences as well as the 2014 Summit for Urban Animal Strategies in the Innovation Showcase program.
An interview with Cheryl Herperger, City of Calgary's Off-Leash Ambassador Program: This pilot program launched in 2013 with ambassadors frequenting two Calgary off-leash parks to help spread educational messages and park etiquette to dog owners and walkers. The program experienced tremendous success and grew to 70 volunteers covering 12 of the city's parks in 2014. The Off-Leash Ambassador program was also featured in the Urban Animal Innovation Showcase.
InfoStream Guest Author Program welcomes Patricia Cameron: Saskatoon SPCA Executive Director Patricia Cameron joined the Guest Author program in March with her "SWOT" series (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Patricia's extensive background in the urban animal industry as well as in creating a sustainable environment have given her a unique perspective to create healthy communities for pets and people.
Thank you to everyone who made this a successful year. Your collaborative efforts, forward thinking and commitment to the industry will undoubtedly lead to an even more successful 2015.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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