A recently published study in the Journal of Advertising Research reveals that animal influencers, or ‘petfluencers’, can generate stronger consumer responses than their human counterparts, driven primarily by perceptions of sincerity.
The research, titled “Petfluencers, the Fur-Mula for Sincere Endorsements: Examining How and When Pets Exhibit Greater Persuasion as Influencers,” conducted by researchers from the University of Strathclyde, University of Louisville, and University of Edinburgh, examines empirical evidence on the growing phenomenon of animal social media influencers.
Sincerity Drives Petfluencer Effectiveness
The study’s authors define petfluencers as “pets that have, similar to their human counterparts, a significant social media following and may be compensated for endorsing brands on social media.” They distinguish petfluencers from pets merely appearing on their owners’ social media feeds, noting that petfluencers have dedicated accounts and established online identities.
Across four studies, including a field experiment using Instagram ads, researchers found that content featuring petfluencers generated higher engagement rates and increased willingness to pay for advertised products compared to identical content featuring human influencers.
“Participants who viewed the post featuring the pet SMI reported greater perceptions of sincerity compared to those who viewed a post featuring the human SMI,” the researchers state, noting that this increased perception of sincerity directly mediated the relationship between influencer type and consumer responses.
Pew Research Center reports that over half of Americans consider their pets just as important as the humans in their family.
Field Study Shows Real-World Impact
The study’s first experiment used Meta’s A/B testing functionality to compare two Instagram ads for peanut butter. While the images and text were largely consistent across ads, one featured a dog’s paws while the other showed human hands.
Results showed the pet influencer advertising reached more users (18,224 vs. 17,613) and generated triple the engagement (18 vs. 6 post engagements) at approximately one-third the cost per engagement (£2.29 vs. £6.86). Page engagement showed even more differences, with the pet influencer generating nine page engagements versus just one for the human influencer.
These findings align with real-world examples from brands utilizing specialized petfluencer platforms. As Tjeerd Korse, founder of dog-focused AI platform Dogfluence, recently told Net Influencers, companies like Buddy & Lola have successfully leveraged dog influencers to source thousands of authentic user-generated photos and videos, while Seaweed for Dogs reports consistent sales increases with each dog influencer campaign.
Consumer Willingness to Pay Increases with Petfluencers
In subsequent controlled experiments, participants consistently demonstrated a higher willingness to pay for products endorsed by petfluencers. In one study involving wine, participants exposed to a petfluencer’s endorsement reported a willingness to pay $58.08 for a case of wine compared to $40.57 when the same product was endorsed by a human influencer.
The researchers tested potential alternative explanations for these effects, including novelty, credibility, and attractiveness, but found that sincerity remained the only major mediator of petfluencer effectiveness.
According to the American Pet Products Association, the pet industry reached $147 billion in sales in 2023 and is expected to continue growing through 2030.
Anthropomorphism and Temporal Focus Matter
The study also examined how consumers’ propensity to anthropomorphize (attribute human qualities to non-humans) interacts with the temporal focus of marketing messages to impact petfluencer effectiveness.
For consumers with a high propensity to anthropomorphize, present-focused messages from petfluencers proved more persuasive. Conversely, for those with a low propensity to anthropomorphize, future-focused messages were more effective.
This aligns with Korse’s observation that certain content formats emphasizing anthropomorphism perform exceptionally well. For example, the “Talking Dog” video formats that use voiceovers or text-to-speech to give dogs a playful voice create highly shareable content that captures the audience’s attention.
“When opting for a petfluencer, practitioners may generally want to favor more concrete features (e.g., anthropomorphizing the pet, a message focused on the present) to reduce psychological distance and increase consumer responses,” the researchers advise.
Market Implications
When considering the pet industry specifically, with dog-related businesses growing 8% annually and influencer marketing expanding 15% yearly, the intersection represents a growth opportunity.
Petfluencers offer several advantages for brands beyond their perceived sincerity. The authors note that they typically cost less than human influencers, are less likely to become involved in scandals, and can transcend cultural differences, allowing them to communicate with diverse audiences.
Nala the Cat, for example, has 4.5 million Instagram followers and endorses products ranging from cat food to mobile games, with an estimated fortune exceeding $80 million.
The researchers suggest that petfluencers may provide a solution to growing “influencer fatigue,” where consumers increasingly question the sincerity of human influencers who are paid to endorse products they may not personally use or believe in.
Specialized Platforms Emerging for Petfluencer Marketing
The growing presence of petfluencers has led to the development of specialized platforms that facilitate more precise matching between brands and animal influencers. The aforementioned Dogfluence, for example, has created an AI-powered platform specifically for connecting dog-focused brands with canine influencers.
Unlike broader influencer platforms, these specialized services collect detailed pet-specific data points, enabling precise targeting based on breed, age, location, audience demographics, and engagement metrics. For dog influencers alone, with over 400 distinct breeds, four life stages, and countless individual characteristics from allergies to activity levels, this level of matching precision becomes invaluable for brands seeking authentic partnerships.
Practical Applications for Marketers
The study offers several practical recommendations for brands considering petfluencer partnerships:
- Match message temporal focus to the audience’s propensity to anthropomorphize
- Consider petfluencers as a viable alternative to human influencers, particularly for audiences skeptical of traditional influencer marketing
- Focus on concrete features when using petfluencers to reduce psychological distance
- Leverage petfluencers’ perceived sincerity as a key differentiator
- Utilize specialized platforms that provide detailed pet-specific data for more precise targeting
The authors note that their research does not suggest human influencers cannot be effective endorsers, but rather that “petfluencers bring new opportunities for more sincere endorsements.”
While the study shows that petfluencers can be effective across product categories beyond pet-related items, the researchers acknowledge that petfluencer-product congruence may impact effectiveness, suggesting an area for future research.
The full study is available here.
A recently published study in the Journal of Advertising Research reveals that animal influencers, or ‘petfluencers’, can generate stronger consumer responses than their human counterparts, driven primarily by perceptions of sincerity.
The research, titled “Petfluencers, the Fur-Mula for Sincere Endorsements: Examining How and When Pets Exhibit Greater Persuasion as Influencers,” conducted by researchers from the University of Strathclyde, University of Louisville, and University of Edinburgh, examines empirical evidence on the growing phenomenon of animal social media influencers.
Sincerity Drives Petfluencer Effectiveness
The study’s authors define petfluencers as “pets that have, similar to their human counterparts, a significant social media following and may be compensated for endorsing brands on social media.” They distinguish petfluencers from pets merely appearing on their owners’ social media feeds, noting that petfluencers have dedicated accounts and established online identities.
Across four studies, including a field experiment using Instagram ads, researchers found that content featuring petfluencers generated higher engagement rates and increased willingness to pay for advertised products compared to identical content featuring human influencers.
“Participants who viewed the post featuring the pet SMI reported greater perceptions of sincerity compared to those who viewed a post featuring the human SMI,” the researchers state, noting that this increased perception of sincerity directly mediated the relationship between influencer type and consumer responses.
Pew Research Center reports that over half of Americans consider their pets just as important as the humans in their family.
Field Study Shows Real-World Impact
The study’s first experiment used Meta’s A/B testing functionality to compare two Instagram ads for peanut butter. While the images and text were largely consistent across ads, one featured a dog’s paws while the other showed human hands.
Results showed the pet influencer advertising reached more users (18,224 vs. 17,613) and generated triple the engagement (18 vs. 6 post engagements) at approximately one-third the cost per engagement (£2.29 vs. £6.86). Page engagement showed even more differences, with the pet influencer generating nine page engagements versus just one for the human influencer.
These findings align with real-world examples from brands utilizing specialized petfluencer platforms. As Tjeerd Korse, founder of dog-focused AI platform Dogfluence, recently told Net Influencers, companies like Buddy & Lola have successfully leveraged dog influencers to source thousands of authentic user-generated photos and videos, while Seaweed for Dogs reports consistent sales increases with each dog influencer campaign.
Consumer Willingness to Pay Increases with Petfluencers
In subsequent controlled experiments, participants consistently demonstrated a higher willingness to pay for products endorsed by petfluencers. In one study involving wine, participants exposed to a petfluencer’s endorsement reported a willingness to pay $58.08 for a case of wine compared to $40.57 when the same product was endorsed by a human influencer.
The researchers tested potential alternative explanations for these effects, including novelty, credibility, and attractiveness, but found that sincerity remained the only major mediator of petfluencer effectiveness.
According to the American Pet Products Association, the pet industry reached $147 billion in sales in 2023 and is expected to continue growing through 2030.
Anthropomorphism and Temporal Focus Matter
The study also examined how consumers’ propensity to anthropomorphize (attribute human qualities to non-humans) interacts with the temporal focus of marketing messages to impact petfluencer effectiveness.
For consumers with a high propensity to anthropomorphize, present-focused messages from petfluencers proved more persuasive. Conversely, for those with a low propensity to anthropomorphize, future-focused messages were more effective.
This aligns with Korse’s observation that certain content formats emphasizing anthropomorphism perform exceptionally well. For example, the “Talking Dog” video formats that use voiceovers or text-to-speech to give dogs a playful voice create highly shareable content that captures the audience’s attention.
“When opting for a petfluencer, practitioners may generally want to favor more concrete features (e.g., anthropomorphizing the pet, a message focused on the present) to reduce psychological distance and increase consumer responses,” the researchers advise.
Market Implications
When considering the pet industry specifically, with dog-related businesses growing 8% annually and influencer marketing expanding 15% yearly, the intersection represents a growth opportunity.
Petfluencers offer several advantages for brands beyond their perceived sincerity. The authors note that they typically cost less than human influencers, are less likely to become involved in scandals, and can transcend cultural differences, allowing them to communicate with diverse audiences.
Nala the Cat, for example, has 4.5 million Instagram followers and endorses products ranging from cat food to mobile games, with an estimated fortune exceeding $80 million.
The researchers suggest that petfluencers may provide a solution to growing “influencer fatigue,” where consumers increasingly question the sincerity of human influencers who are paid to endorse products they may not personally use or believe in.
Specialized Platforms Emerging for Petfluencer Marketing
The growing presence of petfluencers has led to the development of specialized platforms that facilitate more precise matching between brands and animal influencers. The aforementioned Dogfluence, for example, has created an AI-powered platform specifically for connecting dog-focused brands with canine influencers.
Unlike broader influencer platforms, these specialized services collect detailed pet-specific data points, enabling precise targeting based on breed, age, location, audience demographics, and engagement metrics. For dog influencers alone, with over 400 distinct breeds, four life stages, and countless individual characteristics from allergies to activity levels, this level of matching precision becomes invaluable for brands seeking authentic partnerships.
Practical Applications for Marketers
The study offers several practical recommendations for brands considering petfluencer partnerships:
The authors note that their research does not suggest human influencers cannot be effective endorsers, but rather that “petfluencers bring new opportunities for more sincere endorsements.”
While the study shows that petfluencers can be effective across product categories beyond pet-related items, the researchers acknowledge that petfluencer-product congruence may impact effectiveness, suggesting an area for future research.
The full study is available here.