Looks like The Home Depot has caught on to the whole cats on the Internet thing.
The home improvement brand has created a grumpy cat personality, Richard, and his own personal Tumblr where he can complain about his humans and their annoying holiday season practices.
The Tumblr features meme-style Richard pics with his complaints about humans around the holidays, like them not changing his litter box but having time to put up Christmas lights. There are also Q&A type posts of people asking for advice for holidays, like how to outshine the neighbor’s front lawn lights. Of course Richard the cat has knowledge about the best LED lights that you can buy at The Home Depot.
It’s not easy for brands to figure out what to do with Tumblr, if anything at all. Tumblr CEO David Karp is preaching the gospel of creativity, which can be a tough sell to brands that churn out things like toilet paper. Hey, if Home Depot can do it, why not? That’s not to say Richard is perfect. The whole thing feels a bit forced, with Richard just doing the stereotypical “I’m Mr. Smarty Cat and these humans are annoying and silly” thing. But I’m sure people who like generic, cheesy cat humor will appreciate it.
More in Marketing
Future of Marketing Briefing: Memes used to be a joke. Now they’re a strategy
This Future of Marketing Briefing covers the latest in marketing for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Friday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series → Last month, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was indicted for insider trading — not on stocks, but on a prediction market. He had detailed knowledge of […]
Digiday+ Research: Marketers’ AI use rises, but tech skills stall
Marketers’ adoption of AI technology has risen significantly in recent years, but training employees on using these tools lags behind overall adoption.
Possible expands to Lisbon in 2027, keeping its focus on marketing, tech, culture and creativity
Digiday caught up with Carolina Cespedes of GoGo Squeez, Remy Stiles of agency Kepler and Oz Etzioni of Clinch, as well as Possible’s co-founder and owner.