The ad industry has a new vertical: “animal influencers,” reserved for celebrity pets with millions of Instagram followers.
![Pet “influencers” confirm what we always knew: we trust dogs more than ourselves](https://20627419.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/20627419/hubfs/The%20Hustle/Assets/Images/2125910278-pet-influencers-dog-agency.webp?width=595&height=400&name=2125910278-pet-influencers-dog-agency.webp)
The market first came to prominence with the promotion of pet startups like Barkbox, and now companies from Google to Ralph Lauren are using pets to sell human brands — because as it turns out, animal influencers get more engagement than human bloggers.
People are raking in $1k per pup post
With 100k followers, Mochi, a 3-year-old “Maltipoo” has deals with Ralph Lauren, The Ritz-Carlton, Amex, Google, and Disney, and her owner (who works about 3-5 hours a week on Mochi’s brand) says advertisers pay around $100 for every 10k followers.
By those numbers, that means heavy-hitters like Marnie the dog (2.1m followers) and Tuna (1.9m followers) are bringing in $200k a pop.
There’s even a talent agency to manage them
The Dog Agency has 100 clients — all “influential animals,” including dogs, cats, pigs, and hedgehogs, with hundreds of thousands of followers.
And TDA’s brand doesn’t stop there: it also has its own arm of pet content called “Pet Insider,” as well as a line of high-fashion clothing items called “Chewsy,” designed “for the discerning pet.”
Among this season’s looks: a $55 “Catty Velour Pullover,” and a $42 “Sunday Brunch Long Sleeve.”
If these animals only knew…