Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry
The curation of accounts featuring one's dogs form a popular influencer subculture found on Instagram. While dog influencer Instagram accounts avidly portray a branded character, multiple other forms of media have the potential to support anthropomorphised personalities in similar ways. This paper e...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Centre for Film and Media Studies
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613280013385728 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Liss, Isabella |
| author2 | Irwin, Ronald |
| author_browse | Irwin, Ronald Liss, Isabella |
| author_facet | Irwin, Ronald Liss, Isabella |
| author_sort | Liss, Isabella |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The curation of accounts featuring one's dogs form a popular influencer subculture found on Instagram. While dog influencer Instagram accounts avidly portray a branded character, multiple other forms of media have the potential to support anthropomorphised personalities in similar ways. This paper explores links between narrative branding, transmedia storytelling, multimodal media, and framings of agency within the South African dog influencer industry. Through six qualitative interviews with different players in the Cape Town dog influencer industry, the relationship between narrative branding and anthropomorphised personality is examined. These are creators who make use of alternative mediums instead of a traditional influencer Instagram account to promote an anthropomorphised personality for their pets or related business. Most creators incorporate multiple mediums into their work, rather than personifying characters on social media exclusively. These mascots therefore make a case for harnessing the power of multimodal and transmedia narrative structure in advertising, dispersing the canine character across a range of platforms. It must be noted that in this paper, the term “dog influencer” has been extended to anthropomorphised personalities with mediated influence. This is an influence upon the audience which transcends mediums of delivery, so “influencer” is not used solely in reference to social media personalities. Unconventional dog “influencers” include television personalities without adjacent Instagram accounts, and book characters who use social media as a tool to extend their narrative universe. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41720 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:37.862Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Centre for Film and Media Studies |
| publisherStr | Centre for Film and Media Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41720 Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry Liss, Isabella Irwin, Ronald Anthropomorphism Narrative Branding Transmedia Storytelling Multimodal Media Instagram Pet Influencer Dog The curation of accounts featuring one's dogs form a popular influencer subculture found on Instagram. While dog influencer Instagram accounts avidly portray a branded character, multiple other forms of media have the potential to support anthropomorphised personalities in similar ways. This paper explores links between narrative branding, transmedia storytelling, multimodal media, and framings of agency within the South African dog influencer industry. Through six qualitative interviews with different players in the Cape Town dog influencer industry, the relationship between narrative branding and anthropomorphised personality is examined. These are creators who make use of alternative mediums instead of a traditional influencer Instagram account to promote an anthropomorphised personality for their pets or related business. Most creators incorporate multiple mediums into their work, rather than personifying characters on social media exclusively. These mascots therefore make a case for harnessing the power of multimodal and transmedia narrative structure in advertising, dispersing the canine character across a range of platforms. It must be noted that in this paper, the term “dog influencer” has been extended to anthropomorphised personalities with mediated influence. This is an influence upon the audience which transcends mediums of delivery, so “influencer” is not used solely in reference to social media personalities. Unconventional dog “influencers” include television personalities without adjacent Instagram accounts, and book characters who use social media as a tool to extend their narrative universe. 2025-09-08T11:14:26Z 2025-09-08T11:14:26Z 2025 2025-09-08T11:04:23Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41720 en eng application/pdf Centre for Film and Media Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Anthropomorphism Narrative Branding Transmedia Storytelling Multimodal Media Pet Influencer Dog Liss, Isabella Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| title_full | Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| title_fullStr | Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| title_short | Narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality: A case study of the South African dog influencer industry |
| title_sort | narrative branding in support of anthropomorphised personality a case study of the south african dog influencer industry |
| topic | Anthropomorphism Narrative Branding Transmedia Storytelling Multimodal Media Pet Influencer Dog |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41720 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lissisabella narrativebrandinginsupportofanthropomorphisedpersonalityacasestudyofthesouthafricandoginfluencerindustry |