June 20, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2013
Contact:
Lauren Christ
Moxley Carmichael
865-544-0088
[title]
The 15 finalist cities in the PetSafe “Bark for Your Park” contest are “barking” to win funding for local dog parks. City supporters can vote twice daily – once on www.petsafe.net and once on Facebook – to “bark” for their park. Five of the top vote-getters will win a share of $200,000 to build off-leash dog parks in their communities.
With just over five weeks left to log votes, where do the 15 finalist cities stand and how can they rally their pet-passionate supporters? The leaderboard is updated in real time on www.petsafe.net and changes regularly. Some cities are hoping to make big shifts in the coming weeks.
“With more than 175,000 votes cast, these cities have shown us that there is a lot of great enthusiasm and commitment for their dog parks,” said Randy Boyd, president and CEO of Radio Systems Corporation, maker of the PetSafe brand. “There’s plenty of time left for cities to make a move for the ‘top dog’ spot by organizing inventive voting campaigns and community voting events. We can’t wait to see what creative ways these 15 cities will ‘bark’ for their parks in the coming weeks.”
While cities are encouraged to find unique ways to promote daily voting, PetSafe also is offering some opportunities for the competing communities to earn extra votes.
First, city supporters can take advantage of the weekly “7 Vote Sniff Out.” Every Friday, voters who are logged into their Bark for Your Park account and visit www.petsafe.net will be offered an opportunity to participate in a brief online scavenger hunt. Voters will be prompted to find a specific product on the PetSafe website and answer a question. By doing so, they’ll earn seven votes that day for their favorite finalist city.
Finalist cities are also working on 30-second videos that will show the world why they deserve to win a dog park. The videos must be submitted to PetSafe by June 26 and will then be posted to YouTube. Each city whose video receives at least 1,000 views will earn an additional 1,000 votes. Local TV stations are encouraged to support the city’s efforts by airing the video as a public service announcement, and all local media and community businesses can share the video on their websites and social media pages to increase viewership and encourage votes.
The 15 “Bark for Your Park” finalist cities, which are divided into three groups based on relative population size, are:
Small
Brighton, Tenn.
Mountain House, Calif.
Pontiac, Ill.
Safford, Ariz.
Silver Cliff, Colo.
Medium
Auburn, N.Y.
Mason City, Iowa
Oxford, Ala.
West Columbia, S.C.
Wheeling, W.Va.
Large
Conway, Ark.
Corpus Christi, Texas
East Hartford, Conn.
New Braunfels, Texas
Texarkana, Texas
Voting daily continues through July 26. The finalist city with the most votes will be named the “top dog” and win a $100,000 PetSafe dog park. The city with the highest percentage of votes to its population will receive the “Bark from Your Heart” award and earn $25,000 toward building a local dog park. This year, the top vote-earners in each size category of small, medium and large will also each receive $25,000 toward building a PetSafe dog park.
“Bark for Your Park” contest winners will be announced on July 31. Stay tuned for more details about live streaming of this year’s winner announcement on www.petsafe.net.
About PetSafe®
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, PetSafe leads the industry in the development of innovative pet behavior, containment, lifestyle product solutions and services. Visit: www.petsafe.net.
