Pet Influencers: Are They Legit?

You probably would have known and have heard of the different types of influencers such as beauty Influencers, fashion influencers, travel influencers, music influencers etc. But have you heard of Pet Influencers? The truth is this isn’t a concept that just sprung out of the blue. Famous pets have been around for a while now. For instance, the likes of the Grumpy Catwho was the official “Spokes-Cat” for the cat food brand, Friskies, date back to as early as 2012 when it first appeared on the scene. 

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In fact, pet videos are some of the top performing videos on social media. They have actually been so since the dawn of the internet. This is because cute and entertaining animal videos tend to make people happy and cheer them up. Hence, such videos always tend to gain high viewership and high engagement rates. Now, pet influencers have become so in-demand that they (or rather their owners) are now able to make big bucks from brand sponsorship and collaboration deals! According to AdWeek, our furry social media stars can engage 10 times as many audiences as human influencers.

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If you are thinking of exploring this niche, be it to look for potential pet influencers to collaborate with, or even to start your own pet influencer brand, then this article is for you! In this article we will explore if Pet Influencers are legit and why they are on the rise.

What Exactly Are Pet Influencers?

Pet Influencers, also known as “Pet-fluencers”, are actually pet owners who post content related to their pets on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube etc. The pet owners are the ones who are responsible for creating their pets' profile and personalities that embody their pets’ social media pages. Just as how regular influencers create and curate their own content, Pet Influencers do the same as well. They will post content aimed at a specific audience (e.g., dog lovers, cat lovers, or perhaps even specific breed lovers), and designed to invoke emotional responses and elicit conversations.

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Pets Influencers can also be categorized by the size of following that they have, which is in the same way as how human Influencers are categorized i.e., nano influencers, micro influencers, mega influencers and macro influencers. (To better understand this categorization of influencers, read this article.) Some of them managed to amass such a good following that they have millions of followers! Looking at these numbers, it is not hard to believe that these Pet Influencers legitimately have power and influencer over their followers!

1. Pet Influencers A Have Higher Engagement Rate

Experts say that Pet Influencers and Human Influencers with the same number of followers have different levels of engagement; Pet Influencers tend to enjoy higher engagement rates as compared to their human counterpart with the same following size. Furthermore, Pet Influencers usually do not even have to curate complex, how-to, informative videos to amass such following or to spark conversations around their content to go viral. Many of them simply showcase their pets’ cute faces, behavior, or entertaining personality. Think about it, in the years before her death, all Grumpy Cat did was show her peevish face and of course her unblinking stare to attract 2.5 million followers on Instagram and millions of hits on YouTube, which then led to dozens more endorsement deals and collaboration opportunities. 

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For the purpose of illustrating a real life comparison example, we will compare two IG accounts of similar following size, and we will derive the engagement rate using Grin.co’s Engagement Rate Calculator. As of May 2022, Pet Influencer @henrythecoloradodoghas a following of 2.2 million followers and an engagement rate of 14%. On the other hand, Travel and Lifestyle Influencer @gypsea_lust, who also has close to 2 million followers, only managed to rake in an engagement rate of 1.29%. Between the 2 of them, the difference in engagement is more than 12% percentage point! Of course, to say that this is the case for every Human versus Pet Influencer scenario would be over-generalizing. It should still be possible to find other 2-million-strong Human Influencers who are able to achieve engagement rates as high (or even higher) as the stated example, just that it may be incredibly rare. But the point is this; in general, Pet Influencers do indeed seem to have a higher engagement rate as compared to their human counterparts. And having a higher engagement rate signifies that these Pet Influencers can better evoke responses from their followers, and stronger influencer, power, and control over them.

2. Pet Influencers Can Humanize Non-Pet Brands

Pet Influencers also do not necessarily have to only work with brands related to the pet-niche, such as pet toys, pet food, animal welfare organizations etc. They can also work with non-pet brands, like skincare, makeup, clothing, video games etc. For instance, prominent car brands like Subaru and Mercedes Benz both have had some success in promoting themselves by leveraging on the popularity and likeability of pets. Subaru created an incredibly cute commercial featuring adorable dogs driving their cars, while Mercedes Benz collaborated with Pet Influencer @lokito showcase their all-new sports utility vehicles via featured Instagram shoutouts.

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There have been growing demands for Pet Influencer endorsements as brands have discovered the huge audience reach and high engagement rates that they are able to fetch. The truth is these pets are incredibly adorable and irresistible! Do you know that Humans actually generally care more about pets than with other fellow humans? And thisis the very reason why some businesses are willing to spend big budgets on these furry friends!

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Our furry-faced friends can appear and be presented with more authenticity and transparency with their audience as compared to Human Influencers, who may appear pretentious and a bit too “cringe-y” for taste. Pet Influencers just have this magic in them to make people happy and soften up, causing their human fans to end up following their channels and engaging with their content easily. Pet Influencers can make their content memorable and easily evoke emotions and responses from their followers. A simple gesture or pose may be all it takes to generate that warm and fuzzy feeling that their followers are craving for every time they visit their profile.

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The bottom line is animals and humans have a deep emotional connection. Therefore, humans' love for pets is not limited to just physical face-to-face interactions, but also on the social media space as well.

3. Pet Influencers Are Less Prone To Negative Backlash

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It is rather hard to make someone hate pets. They are so innocent and do not harbor underlying sly and crafty ill intentions like humans. Just look at this photo below, how can anyone bear to hate them?

Recent rise in “Cancel Culture” has been a cause of stress and concerns for Human Influencers. When these influencers say or do something offensive, or become associated with such connotations, they may face the risk of losing support from their sponsors and followers (aka getting “Canceled”). However, in the case of Pet Influencers, it does seem less likely that they will get canceled for any reason. It will take much more reason and justification to convince the public to cancel any Pet Influencers. Perhaps, the only times that Pet Influencers would get negative backlash would likely be because of very significant scandals or mistakes associated with the Pet Owner(s). But even so, sometimes, the public does not know the identity of the human behind the Pet Influencer account. Hence, in a way, for some Pet Influencer accounts, the humans can be shielded from public eyes behind their pets. This presents itself as good news for marketers, because marketers can be a little less wary about these Pet Influencers and can proceed with collaborations with a better ease of mind.

Conclusion

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There is a saying, that “the internet is ruled by animals”! The Pet Influencer niche has managed to amass huge followings and achieved high engagement rates in the recent decade or so. Like their human counterpart, Pet Influencers can be employed to promote anything from within and outside of the pet-niche, as many prominent brands have done so before and are still intending to do so. From the arguments laid out in this article, it is safe for us to acknowledge the legitimacy of Pet Influencers and recognize the power and control that they have over their followers and explore how you can leverage or tap on this opportunity to grow your personal branding or your business. 

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