• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 25, 2023

Few brands understand just how much people love their dogs better than Bark. So the D2C dog toy company is expanding its National Dog Day tattoo contest, encouraging people to share why they think their dog is especially ink-worthy.

The company introduced the contest for National Dog Day last year, and the effort drew a staggering 16,000 responses. "People just love this," says Dave Stangle, vice president of brand marketing for Bark. "We're nuts about dogs and know we're not the only ones. And one of life's greatest tragedies is that dogs don't live forever. Getting a tattoo of your dog is permanent."

If tattoos are the closest pet owners can get to forever, "we want to make that happen."

In its first few days, this year's iteration has already surpassed last year’s benchmark, and Stangle tells Marketing Daily he expects entries to top the 20,000 mark.

The company is promoting the contest with its usual canine punnery: "In honor of National Dog Day, we're gonna track down the ol' company credit card and whippet out for you to get some sweet ink of your sweet pup," the contest site says. "All you have to do is sit as well as they do."

After the Bark staff reads through the entries, the company will gift 100 of the most deserving with a free tattoo. And while many companies encourage people to get tattoos with brand logos, Stangle says this effort is entirely agnostic. "We don't expect or want anyone to get our brand on them," he says. "However, one of the things we've seen a lot of is that people get their dog's favorite Bark toys tattooed on them, and we've had tons of people send us photos of those. Those are special to us."

He's confident that level of freedom "leads to a great breadth of content for us. People will do huge tattoos and tiny pawprints. Some do faces, and some will do toys."

The effort isn't linked to sales in any direct way. "We work in the only industry in the world rooted in unconditional love," he adds. "We should be putting things out there for dog people to help celebrate that."

Still, the contest is tied to audience engagement. "We want to hear their stories," Stangle says. "We want to know about their relationships with their dogs and help them celebrate."