Abstract

Pet influencers, or petfluencers, are a flourishing phenomenon on social media marketing in recent times, but research often forgets the human owners behind the camera. This study explores how seeing the owner with their pets changes consumer reactions by conducting an experiment with 352 participants viewing an Instagram petfluencer account. The finding reveals a trade-off: when the human owner appears in the post, people feel it is more authentic and trustworthy; but simultaneously, the Owner Presence also makes the post feel less cute. They, at the same time, respectively increase and decrease the desire to buy from customers. Therefore, brands and influencers must carefully balance showing the human and the pet to get the best results.

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