BeFriend Case Study. April 2019.

June 2018. World Cup in Russia. The number of visitors and viewers beat the records. But there was something else going on behind the scenes...

Our country leads the world in its number of homeless animals. In the run-up to World Cup in Russia massive numbers of dogs were caught and taken to shelters. And shelters could not host them all which meant the lives of thousands of animals would be on the line.

On the eve of the championship we could not miss an opportunity to make everyone aware of the problem and give friendly support for as many shelter dogs as possible. At the moment when the attention of billions of people was drawn to Russia, we launched a global campaign: #befriend.

The campaign started with a heartfelt movie, shot by famous film-director, Ilya Naishuller. Russian stars supported the initiative and took part in the BeFriend challenge on social media and in the streets of Moscow. The campaign’s web-site befriendrussia.com offered a variety of simple ways to support shelter dogs.

The results were above any expectations. 73 dogs in just one month found their new home!

That has been our dream. And our dream came true.