Pet Influencer Partnerships: A Marketing Crash Course

Speaker A: Hey, y'. All. Today we are diving into a topic that we don't really talk about that often, and that's the world of UGC and influencer marketing. And I don't just mean regular human influencers and creators. I'm talking pet influencers. So in this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Colleen, the founder over at Pets on Q, to talk about what brands get wrong and right when it comes to hiring pet influencers, animal talent and UGC creators. We get into why follower count isn't enough, what brands should evaluate before paying pet influencers and and how demographics, usage, rights, platform choice, and the creator behind the pet can actually shape campaign success. This is a conversation all about influencer strategy, audience trust, brand awareness, creator partnerships, and what it actually takes to make a marketing campaign work in the pet space. So even if you aren't in this pet space, this conversation is still going to apply to you. So let's dive in.

Speaker B: Colleen, welcome to the show.

Speaker C: Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker B: So, Colleen, I introduced a little of the professional side of you, but in, uh, a sentence or two. Who are you as a human? What is bringing you joy right now?

Speaker C: Oh, uh, so many things bring me joy. I actually just, uh, adopted a new dog and he has gone through a health journey. And I just saw this puppy and he had a fractured paw in the shelter and he looks just like my other dog. And I was like, that's a 12 week old great Dane in the shelter and he had a fractured paw and like a broken hip in the back. And I like to collect, I like to collect dogs. Okay. I'm not a hoarder, I swear. But I just like, there's some that just like scream at you that they're like, you need to have this. So, yeah, he's, he's come a long way and he's doing really well. And I'm, um, just. And he's, he's big. Like, he's a big boy. So that's what's bringing me joy right now. Yeah.

Speaker B: Are all the bones repaired or recovering or where's that?

Speaker C: Yeah, he had surgery. Um, so his front paw fracture is good. His back leg still, we're still working on it. But he had no muscle in his hip. From his hip down to his leg, no muscle. He was like malnourished, beaten, like bad, and he's like the sweetest dog. Um, but his muscles have started to grow back and he's almost seven months now, so his muscle on the one side is still less than the other. Side. It's growing because he favors the other side. But we're like, I'm forcing him to use it, but yeah. Okay.

Speaker B: Oh, I love. How many dogs are you up to right now?

Speaker C: Oh, just two. Just two.

Speaker B: Just two.

Speaker D: You made it.

Speaker C: I usually like, I usually will foster and send them, you know, but this one, I'm like, done. Uh, and I'm, I'm getting, I'm definitely getting another one.

Speaker B: Okay. You made it sound like you may had. Have had six dogs and I'm like, how many dogs do. No, okay, two is fine.

Speaker C: I definitely did. But I would say I am really allergic to certain animals. So my, and my husband's not like a massive animal fan, which I don't know what I was thinking with that one. Um, but yeah, and we have, we have a lot of like animal allergies in my house, so I have to be very careful.

Speaker B: Oh, that's so hard. With everything that you do with work as well. Like.

Speaker D: Mhm.

Speaker B: There's a lot of overlap because, I mean, you're also a dog influencer as well.

Speaker C: Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker D: Um,

Speaker C: yeah.

Speaker B: You have 20,000 followers.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Your dog has. You don't have the following. Your dog has the following.

Speaker C: Well, I do too, but my dog has. He's far more than me. My, my dalmatian. Yeah, he's, he's deaf too. So I have a deaf dog and like a dog with a broken hip. It's fine. Yeah, he has more followers than me and he makes money and he's happy.

Speaker B: Oh my gosh, I love that. So speaking of animal influencers, you operate in a very unique niche that, uh, very few agencies, people, brands operate in. So all things animal talent, pet influencers, creators, animal actors. How in the world did you get into this space?

Speaker C: I fell face first, like hard. That's how it started. And I kind of, I was working in finance in New York City to like start it and I had adopted my, this deaf puppy, um, trained him because he was like a lunatic. He's a dalmatian. Like, he's one of the most difficult breeds to own. If anyone has ever trained or worked Dalmatians, I had one, like, totally a lunatic. He had multiple homes before me. Any who figured out he was deaf went through a lot of training with him. And people wanted me to train their own pets and I was like, guys, I work in finance. Like, this is not my job. Um, but I was good at it. So kind of fell into. My dog started booking animal actor work because he's a very pretty Dalmatian. And you know, we started making a lot of progress and changing kind of the industry a little bit with how I was treating and how I was communicating with him. And it was like people just wanted to work with us more. Um, so animal actors is really how I got into it because I love training and I love working different animals and I've been for horses to snakes, to rats, like cats. Love it, love it, love it, love it. And, um, influencers kind of started taking off around the same time that my company got started. Um, people wanted me to have their animals do it and it kind of started as a fun side project. Then I noticed in the industry that brands were hiring talent but not paying them. They would just send them food and be like, yeah, post my food a few times. You. And I was like, this is a marketing area. And this was like 10 plus years ago. This was all pre grumpy cat.

Speaker D: Um,

Speaker C: yeah, like, so we've been around for quite a long time. We're one of the oldest agency in the pet space. Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: So m. We started recognizing that, you know, we as an eye started recognizing that influencers and pet influencers were an actual thing and brands were pay to hire them, work with them. So there are a few people who found out about what I was doing and wanted help. And I just started as a side business to help people. And it just grew and grew and grew until it is what it is today, which is over 10 years later.

Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. Okay, I want to go back to something you said. So you, you've also. Are snakes trainable?

Speaker C: You can manipulate snakes behavior with knowledge and experience and with the right skills? Yes.

Speaker B: Uh, okay. I mean, I've worked in the dog training industry for a couple years. I've avoided. I don't do snakes, so that's fascinating. Okay.

Speaker C: Um, I work with really good reptile people. I've only worked on, um, set with a few snakes. And there's, it's, it's quite fascinating how you work them. Um, heating pads are used having a hiding place that they recognize or use to get them to move to a certain location. Food is not used as much as you would use it with other animals because you don't want them to bite an actor. You don't want them to bite something else. So you typically are working with them a little differently. And there's a lot of like temperature to make sure that they're good. And yeah, there's just quite a lot of criteria to make sure, like it's ethical too, because they can't verbally and like you can't. It's harder to read their behavioral language than it is a dog.

Speaker B: That is so fascinating. Okay. I've learned a lot already in the first seven minutes. Love, uh, that. So when it comes to brands working with pet influencers and animal talent, what were you seeing 10 years ago kind of as the deep default line of expectation.

Speaker C: Oh God, it was such a different industry. It was a pay to play one post. There were no like long term partnerships at that time. Like licensing wasn't really a thing. Like with what Grumpy Cat had done. Um, it was a one post photo, video and like that. That's kind of how it started. And it was all on Instagram for the longest time. Um, yeah.

Speaker B: So what do brands typically nowadays misunderstand about working with pet influencers or animal talent?

Speaker C: Um, their value, their. And I don't mean that in the way that people will expect. They don't understand their audience and demographics. Um, I think that that's an area that a lot of people mess up on both sides, on the talent side and on the brand side, where they just don't understand. Um, and I mean this in a nice way that like a brand will come in and be like, I want to hire a cat that has a million followers. And you don't realize that two cats with a million followers are very different accounts. One of them, their entire audience is in Bangladesh. Ah. The other one pays for followers. So where actually it's better for them to hire the 500,000, um, cat account that's authentic in a US audience and has higher engagement and has higher, you know, so there's, there are things that the brand doesn't understand and things that creators don't understand as well. Where like again, two accounts with a million followers are charging very differently. And in a human account with a million followers is a different price point than a pet account with a million followers. We have different analytics, we have different criteria. We have. It's just an. A little bit different. Because our conversion rate in the pet industry is lower. It's like 67% lower than a human influencer. And that converts over to rates. And people don't realize that. Not everyone, but overall, yeah.

Speaker B: Okay, tell me more about that of like the, of conversion rates, analytics, demographic insights. Tell me more about that. Because that's, I don't know, I'm more drawn to like, I like dogs more than I like people. So it's kind of surprising that the. You would say that the conversion rate is 60 plus percent lower. Tell me more about that.

Speaker C: When you're looking at a social media account and it is a human and dog, let's say they're both promoting like a Purina or pack provisions or like a dog food. Right. Um, and you, you have a dog that's going on a hike and posting like try out. I tried this new pet provision, doggy. And then on the other side you have a, you know, this just the dog telling you to try it out versus a person telling you I switched over to this food because of XYZ reason. And like you follow not just the dog, you follow the person too. And you're more likely to trust that person and make a purchase over just a dog.

Speaker B: So that's true. I.

Speaker C: Right. Okay. When you're buying something, you're buying it from the people. You're getting brand awareness and recognition from the pet account, but the actual conversion of when it happens is typically from that. So you're. It's just a little bit less.

Speaker B: So essentially the pet itself is more top of funnel brand awareness compared to hiring the human influencer, which is more bottom of the funnel to some degree.

Speaker A: Ish.

Speaker C: To some degree. It's, it's very similar. It's just like it's a little bit of a lower percentage.

Speaker B: Okay. I love it. So on the other side of the spectrum, you have pet owners, creators who have dogs, animals, pets, reptiles, you name it that they love built up a following. What do they tend to misunderstand about getting their animal booked or paid to work?

Speaker C: Oh God. How long do you have in this?

Speaker B: We have plenty. We. You have plenty of. You got 30 minutes. Ish.

Speaker C: Yeah, no, I think it depends on the account. I mean I get emails every day, um, saying, you know, I can't walk down the street because everyone thinks my dog is so cute. So I get like from both sides, the animal actors and the influence influencers.

Speaker D: Ah.

Speaker C: And it's great to get going. But a lot of people I think don't realize that the sometimes animals don't love doing what they're doing. If they don't love doing what they're doing, it shows up. Uh, you can see it and eventually it's going to be bad news. So we tend to like make sure in the photos or videos that the animals like look like they're happy. I would say first because if you're. It shouldn't feel like a job for them. They should be your pet first and foremost and that. So like, I think that's the biggest misinterpretation that you're like, you, uh, want to be pimping out your animal, making all this food. But like, brands don't want to work with people that the animals don't look like they're having a good time. I get that all the time from brands. When they're looking at accounts, they're like, eh, either their content creation isn't good enough or, you know, the dog just doesn't look happy doing this. And I want to work with someone who's happy. So I feel like that's a massive misconception that people don't recognize. Um, I think the analytical side as well, kind of the same thing that people don't recognize. They, they will go on ChatGPT and say, I have, you know, 10,000 followers and I have this engagement rate. What should I be pricing out at? Uh, and you know, while those things are great, your US audience base is at 20 and the brand is US audience IT account and they, they want it to go out to a US audience. So they're not going to pay for your audience in Canada. They're not going to pay for your audience in other places anymore. People don't recognize that. And that's a really big part. When I go to someone and say, you know, your, your value is not at $4,000, it's really at 600. Like I'm so I have to be the bearer of bad news quite a bit and like, be the middle person of like, these are the numbers. Here's where we're at.

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Speaker C: Um, and like, vice versa. Same goes to the brand as well. Like I can go to a brand and say, you're undercharging this creator. We need to Bump up the rate because their engagement is too high and you know, those kind of things.

Speaker B: So what should a dog influencer account with 10,000 followers all in the US what is, what does that fee structure look like?

Speaker C: Um, depends on their, the platform that they're marketing. It depends on. It's like if I take each, like starting just Basic, each platform, YouTube charges more than TikTok charges less than Instagram charges more than, you know, Pinterest. You know, there's so many different social platforms out there. So let's say equally, someone has 10,000 across.

Speaker A: Huh?

Speaker C: Each one, they're gonna make more with 10,000 followers on Facebook and YouTube than they are on the other platforms. Okay, yeah, let's say their engagement and everything is the same across each one. Um, so just when it comes down to the platform number one, then when it comes down to the type of post they're doing, photo is worth less than a video, it's worth more than stories or so also the platforms have various things that you can do. Then you go down to exclusivity, usage rights, other things that would go into the contract. How do they want to use this as an absent? Are they whitelisting on the account?

Speaker B: Are they.

Speaker C: So there's, we kind of go through the different steps and like the different prices for each one and it changes all the time because their followers change all the time. So it makes it really complex that we have to do this math over and over and over again. And someone said, well, I thought my rate was 4,000. Like, well, you went massively viral. So we get to bump up that right now. Congratulations for a little bit until like your numbers even out a bit more. Because usually when they're going viral, they continue that trend and they'll. And the brand's getting a lot from it as well. So not to say that going viral is like really does that that often? It doesn't, but it's a great thing.

Speaker B: Awesome. So a bunch of different criteria that you're looking at and this is just because I don't do influencer marketing. What do those. If it was like an Instagram post and a tick tock post, what do those numbers tend to look like compared to humans?

Speaker C: 60 to 70% less. Like it's nothing. It's nothing crazy. It's like no, 67 less, but 60, 70% of that. So let's say it's a thousand dollars for, for a human. What am I, what am I saying? I'm saying the wrong thing. It's a thousand dollars for a Human account. It could be between 650 to $700 for a pet account.

Speaker B: Okay, cool. Yeah. I just don't know how I. Influencer marketing is the one thing that I don't do. So I don't know like what the dollar amount.

Speaker C: It's nothing like crazy. I'd say that the best thing that people would focus on is like, focus on your engagement, focus on the quality of content that they can do, um, and improve that. And that's where. That's when brands are going to hire you more. So they're like, we get a lot more brands looking for human accounts now because they know it diverse better. Um, and the actual thought leaders of the industry, I think that that's where it's changed the most recently.

Speaker B: Okay. So essentially switching from like dogs to more vets or to like the trainers or.

Speaker C: And trainers, trainers, veterinarians, groomers, like those are kind of the top three right now. People in the veterinary space. Um, professional trainers. Professional, like people that working animals have working animals. I have a brand right now working for just working animal houses. Like that really focus on what they. What goes. What goes into their pet's body. Because they focus on what goes into their body, what goes into their pet's body and can explain that. Yeah.

Speaker D: Nice.

Speaker B: Okay. I love it. I'm sitting here thinking about my dog trainer friends who are wanting to become influencer influencers as we're talking. Yeah, they're not.

Speaker C: They are very influencers is changing because it's like, also they love a lot of brands look for UGC creators, like trainers in the space. So right now, like, for your friends, I'm looking for, um, potential trainers that are. They do a lot of hiking, camping, fishing with their pets.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: Like, that vibe is what I'm looking for for UGC creators. So they don't need to have a following. And all I need is content to go on the brand social media page. But the brand doesn't want to shoot all the content. And they're looking for people that like to go hiking with their pet, that like to do this, they like to do that. So we can, we can get content like that.

Speaker B: Okay, cool. This is, this is all fascinating for me because I've been in marketing, I've been in dog training. I don't get to talk to somebody who understands both worlds very often.

Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I'm the one. Yeah, you're the person. I go talk to you all day.

Speaker B: I'm sitting here, it's like, okay, how are we gonna make my Dog famous and her start earning her keep now, but she's getting old. So with. Hold on. So one of the things I hear a lot within the human influencer space and UGC is with the rise of AI, a lot of UGC creators are afraid they're gonna be replaced. And you see the rise of AI influencers. What are you seeing now in this world?

Speaker C: I'm not seeing that as much because pets and AI are much harder to do. I have been approached by like the AI podcasting, talking dog type accounts. Ah. Um, and I have no brands that want to hire them. So it's not really, it's, I mean it's something that will come around. But uh, and I know a lot of people are very fearful of it. And like I, I have in contracts that brands are like absolutely no AI. Like they're, they're afraid of it. So they, they're steering clear of it just for the controversy stance of it. And a lot of brands are fairly conservative when it comes to that. So if some people are concerned about it, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: And that's the one thing is like it's, it's relatively easy for me to go create an AI twin of myself. Like I, there's been enough research that's gone into AI for that. But then you think of like, for pets and animals, you would have to do the same amount of research and AI like scoping for each individual brand and every cross breed and every mutt. And I don't think that has the potential to happen anytime soon.

Speaker C: I mean, and if you've seen some of the AI variations that the hair, they don't get 100 accurate and some of their body language is really hard, especially the darker dog breeds, um, and the longer haired dog breeds. So it's just something that like it will come around. Like, I mean, we're preparing for it. Okay. It's, it's not something that's our um, what's like the best word to say? It's not like something we're so focused on that it's our North Star. Like it's not, it's not. We're, we're aware.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: But I think it would more so affect the human industry because the bulk that they're doing, especially like the beauty industry and um, even then I feel like the consumers recognize AI, at least a lot of consumers, not all. And I think it's something that the younger generation does not want to support.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: But I also love AI, so it's really Helpful in certain areas and it's like this love hate thing. But on, um, the pet side, I'm. Yeah, I wouldn't be concerned that it's going to take people's jobs because people are still very focused on dog trainers. And that's kind of hard to pull off training a Rottweiler when you're only for a YouTube video with AI because it. There's. There's so much context that's missed in body language and whatnot that's like, very specific to trainers.

Speaker B: Yep. And that's the thing is, like, having been from the training world, there's so much nuance that I don't think AI could ever. I think we're five years away before AI could capture that level of nuance.

Speaker C: Yeah, sure.

Speaker B: At least it's coming. But I think it's going to come when the way, like, I think technology is going to work is like, we're getting to the top of the crest of the AI wave pretty quickly. Of like, it's more and more and more, but people are starting to recognize it and like it less and less and less. And once we crest, then we go back to, like, humans writing copy compared to AI. And I think we'll be on the downside of that AI crest by the time the AI gets sophisticated enough to create duplicates of animals that look realistic.

Speaker C: Yeah. Like, you know now when someone emails you and it's. It's from chat GPT. Like, it's so easy to pick it up. So.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker C: Like, it's, oh, oh, throw in another M dash. Great job.

Speaker B: Um, you know, as a copywriter, that kills me a little bit that they've killed on the EM M Dash.

Speaker C: But I know I have someone on my team that used to do EM M dashes all the time and they're so angry about it.

Speaker B: Yep. It's like, okay, no EM M dashes. And no, it's not this, it's this. And I'm like, that was a copywriting framework that worked for 15 years, but okay.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: So my last question for you. What's the question that I haven't asked you yet? What's the answer to that question

Speaker C: that's such a good. Oh, is it the future? I mean, for at least my company? I think there's, there's a few different ways because we work with influencers and animal actors. Right. Future for influencers is going to be more UGC based and relationship based, which is kind of good, I think, overall for the industry. Like, I've seen it go this direction I think, um, building relationships is very, very smart and very important. Um, with our tech, like we kind of made um, the Animalist, which is a marketplace for people to find and hire animal talent on their own. Um, I do think agencies are going to die out as an agency owner because of AI. Um, that I'm more concerned of than the other stuff. And it's definitely coming. So we built a marketplace for people to do it themselves because they use AI now anyway to figure out their prices. They don't need necessarily an agent, but they can ask AI to like act like my manager. And I got this email and how would you respond? And they're doing that. You know, AI doesn't have all the context of it. It doesn't know exactly, but it will get smarter, it will get better at it. I think it's going to go that way. So we built a marketplace for people to do it on their own and find brands and do it. And that's on the animal list. On the animal actor side, um, we've seen some. My whole goal in starting my company was to make it safer and better for the animals themselves. The industry is not known for being nice to animals. Many animals died on film sets over, you know, the past hundred years. Like many, many animals have and you know, different organizations have put, been put in place to help stop that. And what we've done, um, also with like we certify the animals for going on set, make sure they're confident enough to be on set, make sure they can handle stressful situations and all of that before going on set like you would a therapy dog before going into a hospital and being a therapy animal.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: We did that exact thing for the animal actor space. And it has improved the industry so much that producers that once they hire a certified animal, they're always working with certified animals to save know the quality that they're getting. Because a lot of times people lie about the animals that will go on set and they don't know anything, they just force them on set and it's just kind of like a bad thing to do. And then the animal stressed and all that. So those are like my two different sides. And that's what I think the future is going to be.

Speaker B: I like that. No, I love it. What goes into a certification?

Speaker C: Oh, so many things. Temperament's number one. And then the uh, the different types of tricks and stuff that they know. Um, we have like a whole list, it's like a two page list of the things we go through also, like there are verbal Cues. Um, that's why I saw pets on cue, because animals on cue, like, on set. Yeah. M. Their head control, like, being able. It's like, if it's a bird, can you look left, can you look right? Dogs, head down, head up. Can they speak on command? Can they growl on command? M. Marks being able to go to and from a mark, but like a bird flying to a mark is different from a dog or a cat walking to a mark. A cat is most likely gonna need to know jumping up and jumping down from marks where a dog's gonna need to know walk, run, slow walk. Two different marks. A, B, C marks. Um, and a horse is gonna need to know very different marks. So we kind of break it down per species. And. Yeah, like, that's really cool. I love it.

Speaker B: That's awesome. I love it. Well, Colleen, thank you so much for coming on the show today. If people would like to connect with you further, what's the best way for them to find you?

Speaker C: Email? No, sorry.

Speaker B: Going.

Speaker C: Going to our social media, like, so either Pets on Q, Pets O and Q or the Animalist. Um, those are our kind of two platforms that, you know, you can find us on media. Social. Social media and message us there, or you can email our team or go on our websites.

Speaker B: Love it. For everyone tuning in today, thank you so much for joining and we'll catch you on the next episode of Humans of Growth.