Paramount Sees Its Latest 'PAW Patrol' Flick as a Family Bonding Experience

Experiential creates goodwill and memories for fans. Pets get a movie makeover, too

A new experiential campaign for PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie isn’t just for kids—it’s a family affair.  Paramount Pictures sought to reach parents and youngsters, encouraging them to play together and bond over the film and its characters in a family setting.

The studio worked with digital marketing agency Pretty Big Monster. The duo fashioned a pair of interactive experiences. One lives on TikTok via pet recognition technology, the other in malls across the U.S., where fans can dance alongside some of the characters. 

“PAW Patrol is fundamentally centered around the bond between children and their pets, making pet-recognition technology a natural extension of the brand,” says Jason Steinberg, PBM’s founder and managing director. “The idea was to move beyond simply encouraging audiences to watch the movie and create an experience that allowed them to engage with the characters alongside their own pets.” 

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The mall-based hologram experience stemmed from the same desire to make the characters feel tangible and interactive. Here, audiences could create a more immersive and memorable connection with the film. 

For TikTok, the agency harnessed an AR effect powered by the short form online video’s pet-recognition technology. Essentially, the camera points at your pet, and the effect turns them into the newest member of the PAW Patrol, drenched in movie-inspired gear. A dinosaur “companion” tags along.

“The key is that it stars your pet, not a generic character,” says Steinberg. “People love showing off their animals, and that personal connection helped drive two to three times the video submissions we typically see from an effect like this.”

PBM partnered with the Hologram Media Network in nearly 50 malls across California, New York, Texas and Illinois. And more locations continue to come online.

“TikTok gave us scale and shareability, and by involving the family pet, it became a shared family experience,” Steinberg explains. “The hologram activation gave families a real-world moment that a phone can’t replicate. Together, they created two ways into the same adventure.”

Steinberg says an IRL activation was optimal, given its communal nature, that fits with families. It’s akin to grabbing a parent’s hand and running toward something—not someone scrolling alone, he says.

“When the pups appeared in the malls, kids ran over to join them, and that kind of instinctive reaction is hard to create on a small screen,” says Steinberg. “It felt spontaneous and real, which is exactly what we wanted.” 

This element made the execution most rewarding for Steinberg, because it was clear the experience was creating a genuine emotional response. And parents sharing the resulting photos and video added a new dimension.

While driving ticket sales is a main objective, a major goal is to deepen families’ connection with the film through joyful memories, rather than focusing on traditional ads, he says.

“The biggest takeaway for me is simple: technology works best when people stop noticing the technology and start feeling something.”