Man’s Best (Marketing) Friend
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When my girlfriend Gillian and I started an Instagram account for our dog we thought of it as a way to share photos of our new pup without bombarding unsuspecting friends who may be allergic to cute animal pics. Then, one day we noticed that a video of Bertie sticking out his tongue was getting millions of views. Before long we were licensing videos and gaining followers by the thousands. His videos have since shown up in advertising campaigns and even an episode of Saturday Night Live in which Tom Hanks provides commentary. It’s been an unexpected ride.
Of course, as our audience grew, we began to attract attention from brands wanting to see their products endorsed by an oblivious italian greyhound and we were soon working with pet industry companies such as BarkBox and Rover. Here are a few things I’ve learned from the experience:
People Trust Dogs
As anyone who’s ever discovered a knocked over trashcan or a hole in their socks knows, canines have earned the title of “Man’s Best Friend” because they are terrible at lying to us. We don’t question a dog’s motives when it promotes a product or service because most of us see dogs as creatures sensitive to our needs. It’s also much easier to disarm people with content that is cute or funny and dogs know this.
Animals Can Promote a Lot More than Pet Food
While a dog is the perfect spokes-animal for a pet walking service or a new brand of dog treats, they can be great ambassadors for many different campaigns. Bertie’s audience is accustomed to him dressing up in outfits and hamming it up with funny poses. It would not seem at all out of place to see him in costume promoting a new movie, sipping a latte, or sporting a new pair of headphones. He’s even modeled human jewelry before.
It’s Important to Work with Brands that You Believe In
Most followers have no problem with the occasional sponsored post as long as you’re promoting something that doesn’t undermine the integrity of your brand. In Bertie’s case, we try to work with companies that would be relevant to the interest of his followers. This may be more trivial if you’re advertising a bad tv show or an ugly pair of sunglasses but can be especially important to people when the product involves the health and safety of their pet. If he were to promote products or services of questionable quality, his audience would soon become distrustful of anything he were to promote and that doesn’t do anybody any good.
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