
New York City has a reputation for being a tough place where neighbors don’t know neighbors, but one local company is working to change that by cultivating a new sense of community in the concrete jungle with people who are all united by one thing: their love of dogs!
BarkBox is a company that’s all about celebrating Fido. BarkBox offers monthly subscription boxes for dogs and their owners. The boxes come filled with fantastic goodies like treats, toys, and new products for subscribers’ beloved pooches.
BarkBox is also a company that firmly believes in the value of developing a strong connection with their community. Over the last six months, this relatively young startup has begun investing in live events designed to bring pet lovers together with the ultimate goal of creating a tight-knit group of dog enthusiasts in New York City.
Before we started our creative partnership with BarkBox, they’d already hosted several community events, including Open Bark Night and painting classes where folks can come out and paint portraits of Rover that they get to take home. Recently, the company decided to expand their events and reached out to us for help designing activities that would capture a wider audience.
BarkBox’s First Hack: A Company Team Building Tour
We first made our way onto BarkBox’s radar when we designed a custom company team building tour for their employees just before Christmas. Our team of expert researchers uncovered the craziest, most surprising stories about dogs hidden in the amazing collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We decoded the secret symbols behind Renaissance paintings and even showed off a Rococo dog bed that was once owned by Marie Antoinette. Before sending BarkBox’s group home, we took them on an awesome photo challenge where team members competed to see who could find the worst pet owner in the Met.
BarkBox loved the way we were able to customize one of the most famous museums in the world to their specific company needs and interests. Our methods of storytelling and engagement had captured their attention and they wanted to know if we could do something similar for them outside the museum.
The Second Hack: A Custom Event For NYC Dog Lovers
Not long after their tour, BarkBox invited us to present at a staff lunch to put our methods to the test in their Chinatown offices. And when BarkBox decided they were ready to supercharge their community events, they asked us if we could help. We couldn’t wait to get started digging even deeper into the fantastic world of dogs.
We sat down with company executives to really understand what BarkBox wanted to get out of their redesigned community events. With clear goals in mind, we set to work creating custom activities that would help make the events more awesome and more attractive to new audiences who had yet to attend.
That’s how Trivial Pawsuit was born!
Once a month, two dog-loving Museum Hack researchers and tour guides travel to BarkBox headquarters to lead an evening full of dog-themed trivia, interactive activities, and challenges. Much like a standard trivia night at a local bar, attendees are broken down into teams who compete to see who has the highest dog IQ. Our goal for each event is to get dog lovers mingling with each other and with the company.
Our team’s questions included a healthy mix of fun, silly, serious, historical, and New York-based trivia, including things like:
- What presidential privilege did James Garfield name his dog after?
- What street food is named after the pups of New York?
- In what city do dogs routinely use the subway?
Of course, the evening’s festivities wouldn’t be complete without featuring the stars of the show – the dogs themselves!

Attendees are encouraged to bring their pooches with them, and with that in mind, our guides crafted several interactive games that involve the dogs. The most popular? Our Instagram photo challenge that involves performing a tableau vivant with the dogs and their owners. Each team can choose from one of several different well-known pieces of art featuring dogs, and whichever group reenacts the photo the best earns trivia points for their team.
At the end of the night, the team that’s amassed the most points from our challenges and trivia questions goes home with a prize.
So what do dog lovers of New York City think of Trivial Pawsuit with BarkBox and Museum Hack?
They loved it! Guests who had attended past community events raved about trivia night, calling it their favorite activity so far, and newcomers loved the fun tableau vivant photos of their dogs that they got to take home. The social media response to the event was fantastic, with attendees tweeting and Instagramming photos from the sold out event.
It truly was a night for the dogs at BarkBox headquarters.
Do you have an upcoming event that you want to make even more awesome with our creative powers? We’d love to talk about how we can partner with your brand. Send us an email at info@museumhack.com or give us a call at 1-800-210-9676.