The Meow Mix Café

Grand Central Marketing handles all consumer and trade public relations, promotional tours and events for The Meow Mix Company. When Meow Mix was ready to launch its product line of wet food, it turned to GCM to help build some buzz.

The result was The Meow Mix Café, the world's first restaurant for cats and their owners, located on 5th Avenue in the heart of Manhattan. The Café provided a 3,500-square-foot venue for Meow Mix to serve cats the seven new flavors of wet cat food in a restaurant setting, as well as a retail area showcasing the full line of Meow Mix dry food, and a host of Meow Mix licensed products—including cat toys, bowls, stuffed animals, t-shirts and hats. There was also a game area where consumers could play cat-themed games like "Feeding Time" and "Hairball Toss."

The Grand Opening was attended by Eartha Kitt, a standing-room-only crowd of people with their cats and more than 30 media outlets. Stories about the Café appeared in print and broadcast all over the world including NBC News, CNN and The New York Times. The Meow Mix Café generated more than 100 million media impressions in August 2004.

During the two weeks it was open, the Meow Mix Café sold or distributed more than 14,000 of its new wet food pouches, and took in over $20,000 in sales, all of which was donated to the ASPCA.

GCM developed the Café concept, managed and executed all promotion and public relations for the Café.