Purina Pet Food Digital Influencer Summit – St Louis #ad

My pals, last month I visited a building I had passed by many times but never visited … the Purina world headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. I always thought the building had to be full of dogs and cats taste testing treats and food. Then maybe working a little bit by posting on Twitter and Facebook. I learned that their real job is to supervise all the humans to make sure the Purina food was made and delivered to the stores.

Ok, so the headquarters was a little different than what I expected, but it was still impressive! Purina was very pet-friendly and I was welcome almost everywhere. About the only places I couldn’t go was to lunch and to the manufacturing plant areas (yes they have a pilot plant onsite!). They said something about us dogs sampling food directly from the manufacturing line was not allowed … hehehe. I have no idea why.

 

I met a lot of great bloggers, Instagramers, YouTubers, and even a pro skateboarder  Joey Brezinski. Here he is giving me tips on staying on the board longer!

 

I sat in on a lot of great meetings to learn about the company, their history, and the company culture. I admit, I kind of fell asleep … because, well … honestly us dogs can’t pay attention long. Luckily, Mom was on top of things and gave me a full de-briefing when I woke up.

 

 

I saw my pal Angie Bailey from Catsparella who now works for Purina as a social media manager. She gave us a tour of “The Feed” where all their social media is run from. I met the dogs who actually run it!

 

Next up was a tour of the campus! I met the Purina fish (oh yes, Purina HQ isn’t just limited to warm-blooded pets), and even saw the campus dog park since employees can bring their pets to work every day!

 

Mom learned about Purina innovation and toured the research facilities. Meanwhile, I decided to go off on my own with the marketing team and “speak” to them about what us dogs really want.

Then was one of my favorite parts of the day. I got to go around and talk to all the brands! My favorite table? The treat table of course! I even brought back some treats for my dog and cat siblings. Purina also made me a custom food bag with my photo on it! Oh my dog, I so need to be on a food bag now since I am very handsome … hehehe!

 

• After an evening of rest, I was ready to go back.  The next day I learned about how they make their food and all the quality testing they do to make sure the food is safe for us.  I was very impressed.  They even showed us what they looked for when doing their quality tests. I liked this part because I got to smell all the food.  Now if they had just let me eat it all.

We also learned about how Purina helps the animal welfare community with their donation program and their community events to encourage adoptions. They actually run Petfinder.com which helps find us pets perfect forever homes! Then, it was our turn to help the homeless animals! We made blankets to donate to a St. Louis animal shelter. Ok, actually, I supervised Mom because she just was not making the blanket up to my quality standards … hehehe.

On a more serious note, I really enjoyed visiting Purina and getting to learn more about the company and meeting the people behind the brands. I can truly say that they really care about the animals that eat their food and treats because it is their pets too. It was also refreshing to see how much they care about their community (St. Louis) and how they help many area shelters. I hope I will be able to visit again some day. Speaking of which … Purina, if you ever need a product tester, I am your pup!

Your Pal,

 

 

 

(Disclosure: Purina invited me to their “Meet Purina – Digital Influencer Symposium” from Wednesday, June 24th to Friday, June 26th. This post, as well as the trip, was sponsored by Purina but all thoughts and opinions are my own.