After taking home three awards at the 2026 YouTube New Zealand Marketing Awards, Greyhounds as Pets public relations coordinator Daniel Bohan has penned a heartfelt thank you to the marketing industry – and everyone who helped make the campaign a dream come true.
Dear marketing industry,
Greyhounds as Pets is a little overwhelmed. And for once, it isn’t the adoption inbox.
We went into the 2026 YouTube New Zealand Marketing Awards as the joint fourth most nominated brand in the country. We came home with three awards, tying as one of the most awarded organisations in New Zealand.
We are a team of just 14, alongside some really wonderful volunteers. Somehow, this small but stubbornly hopeful crew found itself standing among some of the biggest brands in the country, holding awards for two campaigns that Greyhounds as Pets spent exactly zero dollars on.
So how on earth did that happen?
Special New Zealand came knocking.
Big ideas, but an even bigger heart
They came to us with big ideas, an even bigger heart and the kind of generosity that makes you need to sit down for a minute. They threw the full weight of their creativity, strategy, talent, relationships and reputation behind our mission to find loving homes for retired greyhounds.
I’ve worked for Greyhounds as Pets for more than 10 years. A partnership like this is a white whale. You dream about it. You approach companies with bright ideas and a pocketful of hope. Sometimes there’s an optimistic conversation, a flicker of interest, then everyone gets busy and nothing happens. Eventually, you start making your hopes a little smaller.
Then someone turns up and wants to put your dogs on a catwalk.
A fever dream
With Greathounds, Special took our loving, lazy and elegant yet goofy cuddlemonsters to New Zealand Fashion Week, dressed them up in glad rags and put them on a runway.
Animates put tens of thousands of dollars behind the event and some of New Zealand’s best designers gave their time and talent. Partners across media, social and out of home helped carry the message far and wide.
Then came New Zealand’s Little Helper, where Special had the simple audacity to approach The Simpsons. The actual Simpsons. And The Simpsons actually said yes.
Personally approved by Matt Groening, The Simpsons partnered with Greyhounds as Pets – the first charity they have ever partnered with like this. Santa’s Little Helper became an ambassador for real retired greyhounds in New Zealand. Even Bret McKenzie, a certified national treasure, got behind it too, filming a promotional video for the campaign, because apparently this story had not yet become surreal enough.
And then, just to complete the fever dream, the campaign was actually referenced in Parliament.
Big thank you
To Special Group, Special PR, Together, MBM, The Simpsons, Go Media, JCDecaux, Lumo Digital, NZME, Outdoor Network, Flux Animation, MetService, oOh!, Phantom, ShopTalk, Shout Media, Animates, New Zealand Fashion Week, and every designer, media partner, maker, wrangler and wildly generous human who helped carry these campaigns into the world: thank you.
Particular love to Karen Walker, Bendon, Sylvester, Stolen Girlfriends Club, Twenty Seven Names, Penny Sage, Caitlin Snell, Swanndri, Nom*D, Sonnie, Kowtow and Trelise Cooper, and to Bret McKenzie, Dan Ahwa, Mara Sommer and Leah Mitzahi for their individual magic.
The work did not just look good. It worked. Adoption applications, completed adoptions, public interest and social engagement all surged. Better still, more people saw greyhounds as we have always seen them: funny, gentle, couch-loving souls beginning their next chapter.
Demand grew so much we had to talk about slowing our marketing down, which is a very strange problem for a small charity to have. A beautiful one, but strange.
Plea to the industry
So this is my little heart-on-sleeve plea to the industry: find a cause you believe in. Ask what they need. Bring what you have. Your ideas, your craft, your people, your platforms, your nerve.
Don’t underestimate what happens when talented people care out loud.
Just ask Special. They have three Greyhounds as Pets awards in their office.
We have more greyhounds in loving homes.
Thank you, from the bottom of our very full hearts.
Daniel Bohan
Greyhounds as Pets
