pupfluencer

Specific animals who's owners are active on social media sites and have "influence" over other users. Just as with a human influencer These other users are considered potential buyers by online marketers who then create marketing campaigns, usually memes in the hope of going viral, around the "pupfluencers" (rather than the target market as a whole). 

Historical perspecitve: By July of 2017, Fido’s new trick was product placement as brands like American Express and Target were inking lucrative endorsement deals with social media famous critters, as seen in The Week. Cute animal photos were enormously popular on Instagram (see doggo) and a pop-up promotion for Scotch-Brite lint rollers in New York City offered fans the opportunity to take selfies with top “pupfluencers” like Toast, a spaniel with a hanging tongue and 377,000 Instagram followers. Toast works with the Dog Agency, a New York talent firm for animals whose clients include a pair of finger monkeys with more than 1 million followers. A pet celebrity can make as much as $10,000 for a piece of branded content, says Loni Edwards, the agency’s founder, and companies love that they don’t have to worry about the animals going off message whereas a human influencer might get drunk at a party, or do something offensive.