As of January 2009, the campaign has gone through six phases.

Phase 1 - Welcoming Buddy onboard
The master gathers the whole crew in the common area to explain the main points of the campaign and elect people for organising Buddy Time. On many vessel, one of the crew has dressed up like the cat and hands out different kind of material to the crew.

Second part of the first phase is to have a party! Buddy loves a good party. The crew is asked to use their creativity to make an image of Buddy and to plan activities that everyone can enjoy and participate in. The main goal is to involve as many crewmembers as possible, to help strengthen the team spirit onboard.

Phase 2 - Safety Stickers
A series of safety stickers are made for the use on the vessel. The idea is to engage the crew through discussions on how to appear and behave safe in various areas onboard. The PEC meeting is the starting point of this exercise.

Phase 3 - Risk Assessment (RA)
Every vessel is challenged to do Risk Assessments to exercise the technique onboard so that the whole crew gains experience in this way of thinking. A set of good examples are sent out to every vessel to help in this aspect.

Buddy Phase 4- Hazardous situations
The main goals were to increase situational awareness and ensure proper response when hazardous situations are identified. A new aspect with the phase was the Buddy Box which is a mail box onboard where everybody who encounters a hazardous situation can report this on a form and put it in the Buddy Box. Hopefully, this will increase the reporting of near accidents.

Buddy Phase 5- Safe Leisure Time
The goal with this phase was to make sure that everyone understands that being safe in leisure time is just as important as being safe during working hours. Each vessel received ten sets of knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards for use in sporting activities, in addition to information about safe leisure time.

Buddy Phase 6- Wash Your Paws

This phase focus on food hygiene and the aim is to improve food handling principles onboard, increase the level of hygiene during the daily work in the galley. The entire ships complement would benefit from this, as it will lead to a healthier environment onboard, reducing the risk for potential diseases from bacteria and food contamination. The phase also assists the vessels in following WHO’s Ship Sanitation Regulations.