When Amberly Zamora's video first went viral, she was filming her husband David trying to sprinkle salt on their driveway.
Amberly is from Bolivar and David is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the video, David carefully maneuvers down the icy driveway and tries to throw salt behind the tires, causing the bag to slip and fall down the driveway and onto the street. He turned to look at Amberley.
It has been viewed over 1 million times.
“Amberley loves capturing random moments,” David said. “I'm in a dangerous situation and she's there waiting for me to fall.”
The video happened to capture a comical moment, but it gave the couple the confidence to start filming more. That's when TikTok followers fell in love with Storm and Gia, two Doberman pinscher dogs with polar opposite personalities. Currently, Amberley's TikTok page has her 58,500 followers and her 3.8 million likes, and the dogs are social media sweethearts.
But they're not the only canine celebrities in town. Winston the Pug has 76,000 followers on his Facebook page and is well known as the town's favorite, or Pug. Both owners say they do it as a hobby and have no plans to quit their day jobs, but they love showing off their pets.
Arashi and Gia
Amberly and David met at the College of the Ozarks. He played baseball and worked security. She noticed him on campus, and one night she finally worked up the courage to bring him a cup of hot chocolate.
“He asked me out right away the next day, and the rest is history,” she said.
David said he didn't have time to spend with the girl between baseball and school, so he was glad she gave him cocoa, and that's how they started their romance. He graduated in 2014 with a degree in criminal justice. She graduated the following year with a degree in field biology and ecology.
David had graduated a year before her and didn't want to leave Missouri, so he applied for a security job at Big Cedar Lodge and quickly started working his way up the ranks. Currently, Amberly is the regional sales manager for Big Cedar Lodge and David is the senior operations manager who oversees logistics. They have been married for eight years and have two dogs, Storm and Gia.
Storm is “at her own pace” and Gia is full of energy
Storm looks like a traditional Doberman with pointy ears and a more menacing look, but Amberley describes him as “at his own pace.” Gia has a red color and floppy ears and looks friendly, but is more courageous. Storm was so named because when we brought him home, it was raining constantly.
“It rained for a week straight,” David said. “He didn't want to go outside because he was afraid of the storm, so we went along.”
Zia is named after the red sun symbol on the New Mexico state flag. Gia is very vocal and she tries to speak. A video of her hemming and hawing shows her trying to alert her mother that there is a squirrel at the bird feeder.
Their best video was 'completely random'
Their best video, which has been viewed 14.3 million times, happened when David and Amberley were at work when one of their dogs knocked over a plant.
“It happened completely by chance,” Amberley said. “When I got home, I saw the factory and decided to shoot a video, but I didn't expect it to get so much attention. Gia talked about (Storm) right away. What's interesting is their personalities. and their interactions.”
When Amberley asks Gia who killed the plant, Gia barks and Storm bows her head guiltily and stalks off to the other side of the room.
Once the video went viral, their message and social media exploded.
“When that video went viral, there was an uproar,” Amberley said. “My phone, social, TikTok, Instagram were all broken. Companies contacted me saying they had an opportunity to monetize and to call me for more information. Until someone called me. , I ignore them.”
Samoras has no interest in full-time content creation
The Samoras have sold the rights to the video to a licensing company for an undisclosed amount and have the option to upload it further. Then, as their popularity grew, free dog beds, treats, food, and other products started appearing. Companies expected to showcase some of their products on their own channels. For a while, dog beds were piling up.
We don't know which dogs are more popular with viewers, but they love them all the same. Amberley doesn't post much these days because she posts when she's inspired or has actual content she wants to share. If they wanted to make a living doing this, they would have to quit their jobs and do content creation full time, which is not interesting to them.
Still, it was fun and I learned a lot.
“That wasn't my intention, but it was just cool to see how that world worked,” David said.
Find Storm and Gia: Follow Amberly Zamora on TikTok
pug winston
If you've dropped your iPhone, you may have met Dan Griffin, owner of Springfield iPhone Repair, downtown.
If you've been to ArtsFest or any other festival in Springfield, you may have seen Griffin's fur baby, Winston the Pug. This regal pug joined the Griffin family six years ago.
“He's been a star ever since,” Griffin said.
Griffin said it was originally named after Winston from the TV show “New Girl.” His expression is dramatic. He has a human expression of being grumpy and sad. ”
Contest, viral meme helps Winston grow Facebook followers
Griffin, who has a background in graphic design and video, opened the repair shop 12 years ago because it was more rewarding. When he and his ex brought Winston home, they started posting on Facebook and Instagram.
At first, it was just cute photos and videos, mostly for friends and family. Then a pet drawing contest was held in Springfield. The pet with the most likes on Facebook will win and an artist will get to paint it. That's when they started trying to get people to like Winston's page, and eventually he got 500 likes. It seemed like a lot at the time, but Griffin laughed.
In 2018, one of Winston's memes went viral. Griffin posted a meme with four photos of Winston's girlfriend's feet taken from different angles, with the caption: “A man with feet like this has a 125% chance of stealing your girlfriend.” was.
He posted it on Dec. 26 and it went viral “ridiculously quickly” over the new year. Several viral sites grabbed the content and posted it on their websites.
“By the time it finished airing, it had 6 million views, and that was just his post,” Griffin said. “Some of the things that went viral had hundreds of thousands of likes. That was his first major breakthrough in fame. The number of accesses to the page has increased rapidly. ”
Winston can participate in “mutual shut-out” with Springfield companies
Advertisers contacted Mr. Griffin and offered to pay him to promote their products, but he did not feel that was appropriate.
“It reminds me of 'The Truman Show,'” he said. “If I was told that I would send you a harness for free, and that I could post an honest review of the harness, I would. We didn't want to monetize it in a way that would do all the advertising. We do it every day. , we get a lot of ads targeted to us, so we didn't want to mess that up.”
Winston's popularity grew, and Facebook eventually offered to pay Griffin. Although he indicated that he did not want to promote or endorse products, an agreement was reached where Facebook would run ads immediately before or after his posts and make money from them.
Locally, Mr. Griffin engages in trade and “mutual cooperation” with Springfield businesses. Fetch Pet Supplies is one of his favorite spots in town, and Winston will receive free snacks and other great items, and the two companies will tag each other on her Facebook page. Griffin made deals with veterinarians, Golden Girl Rum Club and Springfield Brewing Company.
we know what you're thinking. No, Winston doesn't drink beer, but he did a photo shoot when the brewery released a new beer. Winston took a picture with the merchandise and in exchange Griffin received a gift card to SBC. He enjoys working with local businesses and helping each other.
Griffin combines planned content with spontaneous posts
Griffin posts daily and 50% of his content is spontaneous. The remaining half is planned. He saved thousands of memes that could be tweaked for Winston. His influence has spread all over the world as people all over the world are obsessed with this pug.
“Winston has the funniest laugh sometimes,” Griffin says. “I'm happy to share this. This is purely for fun.”
Find more local social media pets
Wrigley and Theo are two Golden Doodles who have garnered the admiration of their 48,100 followers on Instagram. The locally made fur balls are so cute. Find us on Instagram by searching “wrigleyandtheo”.
If you love dachshunds, this cream-colored long-haired wiener dog will win your heart. Dachshund Cashew, also known as Cash, has 46,500 followers on TikTok. Search @cash.the.dach.
