The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024
PetPace turns Lima's dogs into an earthquake warning system — Epica Innovation Grand Prix
Serviceplan and PetPace read stress spikes from dog collars across Lima and broadcast geotargeted quake warnings — 9M residents, zero media spend.
PetPace · Serviceplan Germany
What it had to solve
Lima, on the Pacific Ring of Fire, is one of the world's most earthquake-prone capitals with over nine million residents, yet no technology can predict quakes. Science shows dogs pick up pre-seismic phenomena with their heightened senses, but earlier animal-monitoring attempts used outdated, invasive tech.
How it works
Lima is one of the world's most earthquake-prone capitals, home to more than nine million people, and science has long noted that dogs behave abnormally before quakes, picking up pre-seismic phenomena with their heightened senses. PetPace, the animal-health monitoring company, and Serviceplan Germany turned that instinct into a warning system: Animal Alerts, the first earthquake early-warning network powered by pet health data, launched in Lima in March 2024.
At the system's heart is the PetPace 2.0 smart collar, whose electrode-free, non-invasive sensors stream pulse, heart-rate variability, temperature, respiration and activity in real time. AI algorithms from PetPace's data-science team convert those signals into a stress level per dog; when dogs across different Lima locations show anomalous stress spikes at the same time, the system reads it as a possible impending earthquake.
Warnings reached the city through geo-targeted digital billboards, mobile, online and radio channels secured as media partnerships by Mediaplus Group and Reset Media, while pet-nutrition retailers in Lima recruited more volunteer dogs to grow the network. The campaign page drew 150,000 visitors and the system reportedly detected 18 seismic events within its first month, giving residents early warning time to evacuate.
The idea won the Innovation Grand Prix at the Epica Awards 2024 and the Digital Craft Grand Prix at Eurobest 2024, with four Eurobest awards in total plus multiple Cannes Lions — proof that a brand's data stream could double as civic infrastructure.
Why it lands
- It reused an existing product — the PetPace collar — as infrastructure, so the warning network needed no new hardware.
- Anomaly detection across many dogs in different locations made a noisy biological signal reliable enough to act on.
- Broadcast and retail partnerships earned coverage and volunteer dogs, so nine million residents were reached with zero media spend.
- Earthquake preparedness is a genuine civic need, making a niche pet-health product feel essential to a whole city.
What it did
Launched in March 2024, Animal Alerts covered Lima's 9 million residents, drew 150,000 website visitors with zero media spend, and detected 18 seismic events within its first month. It won the Epica Awards 2024 Innovation Grand Prix and Eurobest's 2024 Digital Craft Grand Prix — four Eurobest awards in total, per PetPace.
What you can take
When a sensor network already exists in everyday life, lend it to a public need: the product's own data becomes civic infrastructure, and partnerships replace media spend.
Since then
After the March 2024 launch, Animal Alerts collected honors through 2025 — the Epica Innovation Grand Prix, Eurobest's Digital Craft Grand Prix, multiple Cannes Lions and four Eurobest awards in total, per the company. The volunteer-dog network in Lima kept growing through retail and media partnerships, and the project became PetPace's calling card for entering the South American market, demonstrating animal health data as a public benefit. The campaign is still cited as the model for using pet wearables in disaster preparedness.
Sources
- 2024 RESULTS: THE BIG PRIZES
- PetPace - Animal Alerts
- Global Ads Spotlight: How dogs became Lima's earthquake early warning system
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