Nearly 4,000 pet retailers across the United States—including superstore chains—are using resource materials from the Dive In! Aquarium Fish marketing campaign to boost sales of tropical fish and aquariums and to educate consumers about aquarium-keeping as a hobby.

For example, Petco Animal Supplies Inc. (San Diego) recently agreed to use the Dive In! logo on fish bags and to include the campaign’s Web site address in graphics inside fish tanks, according to the Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association (Winter Haven), one of the program’s sponsors. The retail chain also has used Dive In! Web site cards during its Aquatic Splash promotions.

PetsMart Inc. (Phoenix) has used posters, Web site cards, shelf-talkers and a custom-designed hobbyist brochure during special promotions.

Pet Supplies “Plus” (Farmington Hills, Mich.), which has used Dive In! materials for more than a year, orders a full resource kit for each new store it opens.

Petland Inc. (Chillicothe, Ohio) has used Dive In! materials in all of its stores for more than two years.

Even Wal-Mart Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) has jumped on the bandwagon with a request for 2,500 resource guides. Wal-Mart also requested educational brochures for all of its stores, but campaign organizers could not accommodate that request, according to FTFFA.

Additionally, All-Glass Aquarium Co. Inc. (Franklin, Wis.) and Perfecto Manufacturing Inc. (Noblesville, Ind.) continue to include Dive In! Web cards in all aquarium kits sold through the nation’s three largest pet retailers.

Now in its fifth year, the Dive In! Aquarium Fish campaign is supported by FTFFA, the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (Greenwich, Conn.), companies in the aquatic industry and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

For more information about this campaign, call (850) 488-0163, e-mail fish@doacs.state.fl.us or visit www.diveintofish.com. [February 2005 PET AGE]