An Interview with Latitude Collaborator and Pet Influencer, Dusty Dubs

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What’s going on? Is influencer marketing in trouble, or as Gen Z consumers drive social-led sales, do brands need to work more authentically with a different kind of peer-like influencer that appeals to consumers? To get to the bottom of it, and find insights, we connected with Dusty Dubs, Latitude brand collaborator – and leading pet influencer – on our recent work together for Post Consumer Brands' pet brands repositioning work now underway. Here’s how that went down.
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Lat: Dusty, we know you’ve worked on many different kinds of projects — from quick-hit content drops to announcing a major AOR win. What do you think brands underestimate about working with influencers?
DD: I think it depends on the influencer, but brands sometimes underestimate the value they receive from influencers who have very large audiences and consistent reach. Also, the credibility an influencer lends to a product when they endorse it, as opposed to a random advertisement with actors you don’t know or trust. It grabs a person’s attention when they see someone they like and respect getting behind a product or organization. It’s like word of mouth on steroids.

Lat: Any pet peeves (sorry) about how brands approach influencer work?
DD: Ha! You guys know me so well! That goes a long way when reaching out to influencers, knowing a little bit about what they do, as opposed to just a blanket solicitation for services. In that regard, Latitude is the cat’s meow. (Okay, now I’m sorry)

Lat: What are the reasons you either have or might turn down a brand collab?
DD: Well, another pet peeve for me is when brands reach out wanting to work with you, but then try and downplay your worth. It isn’t difficult for an influencer to do a bit of research online and see what kind of CPM (cost per mile) is appropriate for differing levels of influence or tiers of views. With that said, I have had brands reach out to me offering a CPM with a total sum not to exceed x dollars, along with a view guarantee within a certain timeframe (e.g., seven days). If the view number wasn’t achieved within that timeframe, I was expected to make additional ads/promos until that view count was achieved. When I inquired about ads/promos that perform very well and exponentially exceed the view guarantee, I was informed that there is always a chance of viral performance, but that these are considered “outliers” and the total sum mentioned earlier was the cap. Needless to say, I did not accept the opportunity.

Lat: You’ve become a bit of a case study in brand/influencer chemistry that feels genuinely fun. What advice would you give to marketers trying to replicate that?
DD: People like to be entertained. In the modern age of shrinking attention spans and competing content, grabbing people’s attention quickly and then holding onto it for the length of an ad is paramount. A great way to achieve this is by making an ad that doesn't even feel like an ad. If your audience can enjoy the ad in the same way they enjoy your native content, then logic dictates they will stick around for the entirety of it, increasing the likelihood of being moved to action by it. Just have fun! You and your audience will be better for it. 

Lat: What’s the future of influencer marketing look like to you?
DD: That’s a tough one. I could see it going a number of ways. On the one hand, the number of “influencers” in the world is increasing at an exponential rate, so I could see a kind of “influencer fatigue” setting in, where people [are] getting tired of being told what to buy, at least by people they don’t really consider to be of any real celebrity status. So, I could see some dilution of the effective influencer pool. On the other hand, I could be dead wrong. The increasing number of influencers could simply lead to more specialized influencers being a better fit and more credible voice for certain niche markets. Time will tell!

Lat: How do you know as a creator when the fit is right - what do you look for in a brand collab from your perspective?
DD: For me, I look for brands that align with my audience’s interests. For instance, my audience loves animals and positive energy. So, I look for a brand that aligns with those characteristics.

Lat: What kind of pet content do your followers love most?
DD: They tend to love the high-energy videos the most. Any time I voice a cat or dog with the zoomies, or an emu freaking out because he thought a car backfiring was a drive-by shooting, these are the shorts my audience can’t get enough of. They also really enjoy it when I take the look or movements of animals or insects in a video and create absurd original (or parody) music to sync up with it. I have built up a strong following on streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music as a result, which has been a pleasant surprise in my influencing journey, considering I was an avid musician long before I was a content creator.

Lat: What work with brands are you most proud of and why?
DD: I have done some really fun partnerships with CAPCOM, NBC, Peacock, for instance… but one partnership I did that I really, really enjoyed was working with Leonardo DiCaprio’s nonprofit, Earth Alliance. I’ve worked with them twice, both times providing content related to bee conservation, which is a cause near and dear to my heart. I love bees. And their importance to the environment can’t be understated. They utilized two original songs I’ve written, “Son of a Bee” and “Yass Queen”, in their campaigns, and I have felt immense satisfaction knowing I was able to contribute to something important, with a positive purpose, as opposed to just making an ad for a buck. Both of those campaigns did EXTREMELY well on my socials, resulting in tens of millions of views and visibility for their conservational effort. On “Yass Queen”, I also had the privilege of working with esteemed classical violinist Rebeca Nuez Suarez, which was a real treat, and I love the musical end result. Just a real highlight in my content creation journey thus far for sure.

Lat: If you weren't a creator/influencer, what would you be doing today?
DD: Well, before my creator journey revved up, I was a licensed civil engineer. I enjoyed that work, but entertainment has always been my passion. If I weren’t a creator, I would likely still be doing engineering, but I hope I’m able to continue doing this for the foreseeable future, because I really, really enjoy it.

How Latitude can help with influencer campaigns
To see our AOR announcement for Post Consumer Pet Brands with Dusty Dubs check this out. Or read more about our partnership with Caribou Coffee and Hannah Berner, TV comedian and rising TikTok star, to front Dream Date, a Caribou-branded TikTok dating show that became a big hit with Gen Z women and one of the most successful brand launches Caribou brought to market in years. Watch the full story.