Pets Clubs connect love of furry companions with support for public media
Montana PBS
Bjorn, a member of Montana PBS' Pets Club, as featured in a promotional spot that aired on the state network.
Dogs of all sizes, cats of many colors, a spooky tarantula and even a bearded dragon are members of the Montana PBS Pets Club, a special membership program that has helped convert pet owning viewers into donors.
The club started in January 2024 as a unique fundraising appeal connecting viewers to “the wonderful feelings that they have about their furry family,” said Kris Fedro, a coordinator on the membership team.
Montana PBS airs interstitial spots featuring photos of Pets Club “members” after PBS NewsHour and throughout its schedule, helping to spread those warm and fuzzy feelings far and wide.
“It’s a nice dopamine hit,” said Kyle Sorenson, director of marketing and communications, who said the club also boosts morale among station employees.
Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, N.Y., also started a Pet’s Club last year, inspired in part by a presentation at a PBS Annual Meeting.
“The idea was really born out of a simple truth,” said Maria Smith, director of development at Mountain Lake PBS. “People love their pets. They love PBS. So why not bring the two worlds together?”
The idea sounds like a win-win but is challenging to turn into a stand-out success. PBS Reno, which presented its Pets Club program at the virtual 2020 PBS Annual meeting, has ended its program, according to PBS Reno VP of Development Emma Glenn.
Montana PBS suspended social media posts for its Pets Club on Facebook and Instagram because they didn’t perform well, Sorenson said. He thinks that introducing animation and creating a sense of anticipation to social media posts will improve performance.
At Mountain Lake PBS, interest in the Pets Club initially spread quickly through a small group of animal lovers, but social media engagement did not meet expectations. Interest in the program dropped weeks after the launch.
Serotonin boost
At Montana PBS, the on-air spots featuring photos of the pets are a big draw. Each Pets Club spot features multiple pets and runs throughout the week.
The memberships cost $15 monthly or $180 annually. Each member receives a network-branded bandana; they also get discounts at a local pet store that has a partnership with the station.
People who purchase the memberships for their pets will host watch parties on the day that Fido or Fifi’s photo debuts on the station, Fedro said. “What other vehicle for raising money does that for PBS?” She constantly hears from club members about how much they love seeing their pets on TV.
“It’s very satisfying,” Sorenson said. “What kind of photos did people send in? Is it a cute dog? Is it an ugly dog? Is it a beautiful photo? Is it just, like, a poorly lit photo with a cat on the floor or something like that? We got all of those kinds of things.”
Montana PBS recently ran a “Happy National Pet Day” promotion on social media that featured Pets Club members, but the post didn’t perform any better than earlier ones, Fedro said. She’d discovered that boosting posts or turning the content into a paid ad helps a lot. A boosted Facebook post of a “handsome, self-possessed Doberman” reached about 2,300 Facebook users and received 1,100 likes, she said in an email. It cost less than $10 to boost it.
“We want to boost people’s serotonin levels when they think about their relationship to public media and to Montana PBS,” Fedro said.
The initial response to Pets Club pitches in January 2024 drew a lot of memberships, but they have been declining, Sorenson said. As of April 17, 113 families participate in the club, Sorenson said in an email. That includes 143 dogs, 45 cats, two horses, a pigeon and the exotic tarantula and bearded dragon.
Though the club hasn’t yielded significant revenue, it did drive sustainer upgrades, according to Fedro. Since so many Montana PBS viewers struggle with technology, the membership team is thinking about creating an easier way for people to submit their pets’ photos, she said.
She recommends pets clubs to public media stations that are looking for new ways to connect with viewers.
“It is a delightful thing that brings us and our members a lot of joy and just that alone makes it worthwhile,” she said.
‘We really know our viewers’
Though Mountain Lake PBS is not actively promoting its club this year, viewers can still join. Smith of Mountain Lake PBS said she would love to bring it back, but the station is trying out different ways to connect with viewers and donors.
Smith created her station’s Pet’s Club with a different audience in mind. “I lovingly refer to myself and my partner as ‘DINKWADS,’ which is ‘dual income, no kids with a dog,’” Smith said. So many people who have young children think of themselves as “PBS parents” because they love PBS Kids, she said. Smith asked herself if there was a way to appeal to younger adults like herself through their beloved pets.
The Pet’s Club membership requires a $5 monthly donation or $60 annually. Members receive a $25 gift certificate to a local independently owned pet store, Tails of the Adirondacks, and bandanas with the Mountain Lake PBS logo. PBS Passport is included too.
When Mountain Lake PBS first started the club in April 2024, the response was overwhelmingly positive, Smith said. The club succeeded in resonating with a younger audience in a lighthearted and an accessible way, she said.
“One of the advantages of being a smaller station in a rural region is that we really know our viewers,” Smith said. “As a local dog owner myself, I immediately recognized many of the pet parent names and even the furry faces that were submitted. That familiarity, along with the social media engagement and demographic insights we gathered from digital metrics, confirmed we were reaching younger viewers.”
Smith said the Pets Club membership is available for anyone who wants to participate. She sees it as a meaningful entry point for engagement. And it may get another push into the spotlight down the road.
“Public media is a part of people’s everyday lives, even the cuddly parts, I guess,” Smith said. “The biggest thing I learned was really engaging different communities and figuring out how that translates to their love of the community and their local PBS station.”
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