INSIDE
dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 BCBusiness 61
Animal
Magnetism
illusTRATiOn: kAGAn MclEOd
How inuencer
marketing relies on
celebrities who are
regular folks—and
irregular pets
by Steve Burgess
check your virtue ... enjoy the art of wine ... stay on the edge ... create a better business school ... + more
D e C e m b e r / J A n u A r Y 2 0 1 8
"We all want our graduates to be
financially successful, but that's not
the ultimate measure of success" –p.70
Off lıne
E v E R Y B o D Y ' S TA l K I N '
WATERCoolER
influencer marketing—as millennial buzzwords
go, it may be as hot as the phrase "millen-
nial buzzwords." The marketing game has
changed. Once upon a time, Chicago Black-
hawks superstar Bobby Hull told you to buy
a certain brand of motor oil and you did,
because Hull could score goals like nobody's
business. And while it is still true that Edmon-
ton Oilers player Connor McDavid could con-
ƒdently proclaim that a particular brand of
digestive biscuit tastes best and many would
believe him, the new breed of inuencers
have typically neither scored a single
NHL goal
nor won a single
MTV award. They are You-
Tube channel performers, Twitter moguls,
reality TV stars. So how did these inuencers
become the new arbiters of which dog food
you simply must purchase? Sometimes it's
because the endorsement comes from a dog.
Animals are big stars on social media. And
while being beautiful and/or graceful is a big
plus for a human star, in the animal category
what you really want is bad teeth. Animal
inuencers often gain their followers by
looking like real-life cartoon characters.
There's Grumpy Cat with her perma-frown;
Tuna, a little dog with a big goofy grin; and
Toast, a spaniel with a tongue that hangs out
like a dangling seat belt.
All of these popular and inuential
quadrupeds have massive online followings,
and all owe their distinctive looks to some
