Grumpy Cat and Friskies: How a Cat Turned Internet Meme Became a Corporate Sponsor
Remi C. Leibovic
School of Communication and Information Technology, Rutgers University New Brunswick
Business to Consumer Relations
Dr. Mark Beal
July 4th, 2022
Abstract:
Tardar Sauce was just a cat with an underbite and feline dwarfism which caused her to
look grumpy. Her owner was not the one who caused her unexpected rise to fame though, in fact
it was Tabatha Bundesen’s brother, Bryan Bundesen who posted a low quality photo to Reddit’s
page “lolcats” with the caption “Meet Grumpy Cat”. The Reddit users immediately loved Tardar
Sauce or what they deemed, “Grumpy Cat” and created image parodies of her. The humor was
dark, critical, and cynical. Yet an internet star was born and Tabatha Bundesen had to quit her job
at Red Lobster to manage all of the press and attention. Meanwhile her brother Bryan, managed
all of the social media accounts for Grumpy Cat. The internet bestowed the name, “Grumpy Cat”
but still loved her real name Tardar Sauce. The 2010s were an interesting time for the internet.
Memes were being made and the youth that spent time on the internet via Reddit and Imgur
could understand and communicate with them. The Grumpy Cat Meme was a projection of that
communication. In actuality, Tardar Sauce was a sweet house cat like any other but her unique
features gave her that resting judgemental face. The internet meme communities were not the
only one noticing Grumpy Cat’s rise but so were advertising companies. For the sake of this
research, Tardar Sauce will be referred to by her internet name, Grumpy Cat. This research and
analysis will look into how Friskies successfully made her their sponsor and how an internet
sensation gained enough popularity for a corporation to make a marketing campaign off of her.
Reddit calls itself, “The front page of the internet” for a reason. It is a discussion forum
where anyone can post anything about anything and other users can comment on it. When Bryan
Bundesen posted a picture of his sister’s “grumpy” looking cat to the forum/thread “lolcats”
everything changed. Grumpy Cat became the biggest internet sensation and her real name, Tardar
Sauce was not used as much as her new meme name, “Grumpy Cat”. Before the corporate
sponsorship came calling, Grumpy Cat was gaining popularity online via users posting custom
made memes of her on websites such as Reddit, Imgur, and Facebook. According to Sanjana
Varghese of wired.com she was valued at $100 million. (Varghese, 2019) She captured the hearts
and minds of cat lovers, internet users, and meme makers from around the world. Varghese states
in her article, “How Grumpy Cat went from feline obscurity to internet sensation” that “She has
2.4m followers on Instagram, 1.5m on Twitter and 8.5m likes on Facebook, and memes about her
were ubiquitous on the internet between 2012 and 2014.” (Varghese, 2019) Any advertising
agency could see by these numbers that there was a huge opportunity to market to a niche
audience that was full of willing consumers full of pet owners and non pet owners.
In addition to internet fame, Grumpy Cat was also seen on the Today Show and Ellen.
Also, Grumpy cat had gained an agent to help manage her fame. “She was represented by Ben
Lashes, a “meme manager” who has made his career in managing the schedules and media
appearances of other internet famous animals, such as Keyboard Cat (arguably, the original
Grumpy Cat).” (Varghese, 2019) The owners of Grumpy Cat knew that they had to act quickly
and accordingly as many t-shirt companies and random merchandise makers wanted to use her
image on T-Shirts and other brand items. Getting an agent helped secure Grumpy Cat’s image
and establish a brand for her. It also kept the Bundensen’s assets well managed.
In fact, the biggest deal that Grumpy Cat landed was with Friskies to be their spokescat.
Aaron Smith of CNN News reported in his article, “Grumpy Cat signs endorsement deal with
Friskies” (Smith, 2013) Smith stated that, “The cat's first official duty will be a live appearance
at the annual Friskies cat video contest awards on Oct. 15, where she will receive a lifetime
achievement award.” (Smith, 2013) Grumpy Cat had a lot of duties to fulfill after becoming the
official spokescat for Friskies. In addition, she had many meet and greets with fans and
appearances for sponsorships. She even had her own coffee company line, her own toy
merchandise at the store Hot Topic, and even a book deal. (Varghese, 2019)
In 2017 Forbes listed Grumpy Cat as a Top Influencer in the Pet Category. In some way
Grumpy Cat was the internet’s favorite cat. What makes Grumpy Cat different from other feline
stars is the fact that she was internet famous and also a mixed breed cat. The owners had to go on
YouTube to prove that they did not photoshop Grumpy Cat’s face and that in fact it was just her
natural face. According to Jim Salter of Insider Magazine, “The frown-faced Internet sensation,
real name Tardar Sauce, is now the "spokescat" for a Friskies brand of cat food, Nestle Purina
PetCare announced Tuesday. The St. Louis-based company didn't release terms of the deal.”
(Salter, 2013) It was certainly a new venture for the food brand and showed the potential that
internet stars could have as brand representatives. The deal was made with Grumpy Cat’s Agent
and Friskies Advertising Agency. While the details were not released there was a clear ROI that
was shown. The online fans wanted more Grumpy Cat merchandise and Friskies was willing to
give that to them.
Friskies even had a special birthday party campaign for Grumpy Cat. In fact, she made an
appearance on CBS New York to announce her birthday party plans. The CBS New York
Website stated that “Friskies Party Mix is throwing a big party for Grumpy Cat in the city on
April 29, Grumpy Cat's owner, Tabatha Bundesen, said. Fans can enter for a chance to attend
the party by taking an Instagram of themselves with their own cat while sporting their best
grumpy face. The picture must be posted with the hashtag #1MMGrumpyFrowns before April 9.”
(2014) Now this was a successful marketing campaign and one of the first of its kind. As it
displayed a hashtag that fans could enter a giveaway with, free promotion from the fans, and
involved Instagram a new and rising social media app at the time. Instagram had not been used
like that at that scale back then. The promotion from CBS was a milestone of achievement for
Grumpy Cat as it marked her brand being legitimized in the corporate world of branding. She
already had validation from the internet and her fan base but now it was time to gain corporate
validation and that sponsorship revenue.
Grumpy Cat’s public relations strategy is a prime example of following the PESO
Method in advertising and communications. According to Forbes’s Curtis Sparrer’s article,
“Paid, Earned, Shared And Owned Media: Making PESO Work For You” he states that, “Value
from shared media comes from engagement with your content and publicity. When end users
interact with social posts and content, it adds an extra dimension of third-party validation and
grants you credibility. Even a simple “like” can provide this validation, and the additional reach
and impressions — at no cost — help increase value. The same goes for engagement with your
brand and content across channels like forums, user groups and review sites.” (Sparrer, 2021)
Grumpy Cat’s Birthday Party Campaign did exactly that. Fans engaged with the brand via social
media and even added their own content to the campaign via the hashtag. Grumpy Cat’s brand
was validated by her fan base and still is even after her passing. The Birthday Party campaign not
only took place in person in NYC but was celebrated by fans all over the world online over
social media platforms.
Examining the Campaign under the PESO method can give researchers a better look at
how this campaign was successful. In the first place, the campaign content was sponsored by
Friskies carried out by Grumpy Cat. The fan acquisition part of Grumpy Cat’s brand was not
through paid media but by organic reach by fans. Yet there was affiliate marketing through
Grumpy Cat and Grumpy Cats fans promoting the product. Also, Grumpy Cat did achieve the
earned media aspect of the PESO model as well. The brand of Grumpy Cat achieved media
relations, influencer relations, blogger relations, word of mouth, and link building. Of course all
of the before mentioned was achieved off different platforms across social media. Which is why
Grumpy Cat followed the PESO Model so well, even if she did not intentionally do it at first the
organic fandom that emerged from that first post followed her throughout her career. In fact, she
is still gaining fans to this day and her merchandise still sells at stores and online.
It is an understatement not to mention that Grumpy Cat had a huge community backing
her. This community was full of pet owners and non pet owners, which was a perfect opportunity
for Friskies. Across all platforms there were partnerships and collaborations with different
internet celebrities and influencers. (Sparrer, 2021) Both shared and owned media were
successful as well for the fact that the audience was mainly based off of organic metrics. Also,
SEO was pretty strong for the fact that if one Googled Grumpy Cat one would be able to find
her. Even across multiple platforms her iconic stare could be found on images, memes, gifs and
other forms of shareable media. To say that she is an influencer is underscoring her as she is an
internet icon and at one point was the very example and embodiment of the power of internet
obsessions and fandoms.
Other than the birthday party campaign, Grumpy Cat promoted Friskies events and new
products. For example the press release from Friskies, “Grumpy Cat Introduces NEW Friskies
Cat Concoctions at Austin-Based Festival by Giving a Glimpse of What’s on Her Mind” in 2016
mentioned meet and greets with Grumpy Cat herself. Yet if fans could not attend, they were
given the option to follow along with the event via Snapchat and Instagram via the hashtag
#CatConcoctions. This gave fans that could not be there in person the opportunity to join the
conversation. This strategy is a perfect example of the use of the PESO method. As Grumpy Cat
stardom was born on the internet, that is where her fandom would appreciate her the most.
Once again, there was never anything like this happening before this campaign. It
shocked the advertising world as a random upset cat took the internet by storm and then scored
major brand deals. (Varghese, 2019) The content was organic and original. It authentically
connected with audiences and quickly established its fan community based on it’s brand. Even
after her death in 2019, the Grumpy Cat website, www.grumpycats.com, is still selling her
merchandise and posting pictures of Grumpy Cat that no one has seen before. The success of
Grumpy Cat is a combination of internet obsession and excellent public relations. It can be
argued that her continued success is because of her public relations and branding team.
According to Claire O’Connor of Forbes, “You put a cute, grumpy face out there and people are
going to stop what they're doing and pay attention," Bundesen said from Arizona, where the
famous kitty is based. "I think that's a huge part of the marketing with Grumpy." (O’Connor,
2017). Her face certainly had a powerful effect on people for the fact that it is what the meme is
based around. Adding it to merchandise only strengthened the connection to the fans and the
community that rallied behind Grumpy Cat.
In conclusion, Grumpy Cats partnership with Friskies led her to have a successful
corporate and branding career. The internet alone could not have taken her to the level of brand
establishment that she gained after the partnership. It was the first of many commercial brand
deals and partnerships for her. While Grumpy Cat is no longer with us her brand is still going
strong. In fact, her legacy has paved the way for other internet pet stars to follow. Maybe they
will not ever be as big as Grumpy Cat, for the algorithms are more reliant on paid sponsored
content vs organic but it was all chance. Now it can be seen that other internet pet stars are
following the PESO model and trying to start off organically and build up to sponsored
partnerships and content. Organic growth seems to be the best way to establish a fan base for the
fact that organic is usually authentic. Unlike paid media which can come off as planned and
unauthentic. Grumpy Cat was 100% authentic and true to her natural face. No one could have
predicted just how far a cat with feline dwarfism and an underbite would go. That is why the
success of her strong brand still remains to this day with a growing fan base still loving that
iconic stare.
Works Cited:
Smith, A. (2013, September 18). Grumpy cat signs endorsement deal with friskies. CNNMoney.
Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://money.cnn.com/2013/09/18/news/companies/grumpy-cat-friskies/
Sparrer, C. (2021, July 6). Council post: Paid, earned, shared and owned media: Making peso
work for you. Forbes. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/07/06/paid-earned-shared-andowned-
media-making-peso-work-for-you/?sh=2e8f950fc38e
CBS NEW YORK. (2014, April 4). Happy birthday grumpy cat! friskies to throw big party for
internet sensation in NYC. CBS News. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/happy-birthday-grumpy-cat-friskies-to-throw-big-party
-for-internet-sensation-in-nyc/
Salter, J. (2013, September 17). Internet-famous 'Grumpy cat' just landed an endorsement deal
with friskies. Business Insider. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.businessinsider.com/grumpy-cat-endorsement-friskies-2013-9
Forbes Magazine. (n.d.). Grumpy cat. Forbes. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/profile/grumpy-cat/?sh=50f42416bc55
O'Connor, C. (2017, September 26). Forbes Top Influencers: Grumpy Cat, the internet's original
pet superstar, reigns supreme. Forbes. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/09/26/forbes-top-influencers-grumpy-cat-the-in
ternets-original-pet-superstar-reigns-supreme/?sh=3de4bc85287a
Varghese, S. (2019, May 17). How grumpy cat went from feline obscurity to internet sensation.
WIRED UK. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/grumpy-cat-dead-history
References:
https://spinsucks.com/communication/peso-model-breakdown/
https://newscenter.purina.com/press-releases?item=122556