November 11, 2024, 12:12 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Last weekend, the German Petfluencer Awards 2024 for cats – something like the Oscars for catfluencers – were presented in Solingen. Around 300 cat fans, with a total of more than 10 million followers, were there to celebrate the best German cat content. PETBOOK was also there.
Adorable cat content never fails to charm. It gets clicked millions of times on the internet and is becoming increasingly popular on social media. Some even say that cat videos hold the internet together. Therefore, it’s no surprise that German catfluencers have been celebrated with the German Petfluencer Award for the fourth time.
“Tears immediately welled up in my eyes”
Host Jana Azizi, along with the expert jury, chose the five winners. Carolin Neumann and her two handicapped cats and the account “liah_und_luna” won the title of Petfluencer of the Year. She shared the significance of this honor in an interview with PETBOOK, expressing it as a major milestone. “I couldn’t believe it and really didn’t expect it. I was relatively relaxed, and when my name came up, tears immediately welled up in my eyes. But I’m overjoyed.”
Nevertheless, it’s all about the big picture for her, says Carolin Neumann. “I think it would be great if the award brought the topic of ‘blind cats/cats with visual impairments’ even more into focus. If more people could simply see how well the cats manage. So I hope that this award will give us a little push.”
“Comments like that make my cat mom heart bleed”
In front of an audience of over 300 invited cat enthusiasts, the jury explained that the award was also a recognition of the excellent educational work done on this topic. Most people still have no contact with visually impaired cats. Although most reactions to her cats are positive, she occasionally receives nasty messages.
“Liah, for example, has already been called ugly, and I’ve been told that nobody wants to see ‘that kind of cat’ on Instagram,” Carolin explained in an interview with PETBOOK. “While I wish I could respond to these comments with poise, they give me pause and truly hurt my heart as a cat mom.” But that’s not all: people have also suggested that Carolin should have her cats put down. Yet, her content impressively demonstrates how capably her animals navigate daily life despite their disabilities. There are actually no hurdles, explains the proud cat mom.
These 5 prizes were awarded
“Liah really likes to climb. She gets to the top quite well because she uses the whole length of her body, but she only dares to go down the length of her paws. That’s actually the only thing about it.” It can happen that Liah sits on the washbasin in the bathroom and doesn’t dare to go down on her own. “Then she screams for me and wants to be picked up and then she waits patiently until I get there. But apart from that, there aren’t really any hurdles.”
In addition to Carolin Neumann, four other catfluencers also managed to get their hands on one of the coveted trophies. Lea Lichtner was honored with the “Purpose Award of the Year” for her advocacy work with street cats in Hamburg through her Instagram account @croatiancatcrew. She campaigns for street cats in Hamburg. While the “Audience Award of the Year” went to five-time cat dad Michael Martin with his account @catzarelove. The prize in the best video creator category went to Nils Jacobi with his TikTok account @furryfritz. The Austrian Lukas Hintersteiner was celebrated as Newcomer of the Year with his account @lilly_lotti_cats.
The path to becoming a petfluencer
“Seeing so many satisfied guests fills us with joy,” shared Petfluencer Award founder André Karkalis during his interview with PETBOOK. “I think we have great winners who really deserve it. They are all very individual with their content and some of them stand up for animal welfare.”
But how do you actually become a catfluencer and at what level do you become one? “I think it always starts like this: people don’t actually want to become petfluencers,” explains Karkalis, who runs his own petfluencer agency. “In the past, you’d welcome a new family member and compile their photos in an album. Nowadays, that album is more often than not Instagram.” The best profiles are usually created by chance when people take photos and videos of their cats for their friends and families, says the expert.
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You can be nominated as a newcomer if you have 5000 followers or more
“It’s always interesting when people have authentic profiles, reveal a lot about themselves, and talk about their everyday lives. This creates like-minded people, so-called communities. People exchange ideas. People also want to see this content. I think that’s something that works very well there.” According to Karkalis, proud cat parents could be nominated for the Newcomer Award at the Petfluencer Award with just 5,000 followers.
Once you reach this level, you can begin to collaborate with companies and brands on a smaller scale. “And then from 10,000 followers, it starts. However, it has to be said that the number of followers is no longer as decisive as it used to be. With the advent of the content graph, pioneered by TikTok and now similarly employed by Reels, even individual accounts with fewer followers can create and share widely viewed content.”