No, it’s not celebrities with pets. It’s pets that have amassed 30,000 followers on social media and found a celebrity status that draws marketers to them, reported Priceonomics, a content marketing company. And it’s becoming big business.

Marketers are urging consumers to connect with charismatic animals such as the Geico gecko, the Aflac duck, or the Taco Bell Chihuahua, reported Priceonomics.

Why the draw?

“People are much lonelier than they used to be,” Kurt Gray, PhD, at the University of North Carolina, told Priceonomics. “So what do they do? They get a pet, or if they can’t, maybe because of their landlord, they spend all their time on YouTube looking at other people’s pets acting human.”  

It’s paying off.

Not only do marketing deals surface at 30,000 followers. When a pet celebrity hits the millions, “[i]t’s a whole other world,” Loni Edwards, managing partner of The Dog Agency, a pet influencer agency, told Priceonomics.

Edwards, a lawyer turned entrepreneur, also happens to be the owner of Chloe, a female mini Frenchie with a website, a blog (yes, really), a product line, and “love[s] collaborating with fun brands,” notes her website.

But celebrity pets do more than sell brands. They also support causes. Chloe throws charity bashes. And Esther the Wonder Pig, featured in the video above, is a spokesperson for vegetarianism.