EPISODE 78: What might 2025 look like for the pet food market?

Host Lindsay Beaton talks with Nicole Hill, executive director of MarketPlace, about novel proteins, biotic benefits, pet parent shopping trends, and the top social media platform to watch next year.

Beaton Headshot New Headshot
Sound Cloud Cover Art 800x800 Nicole Hill
Transcript

Host Lindsay Beaton and MarketPlace executive director Nicole Hill recap 2024 and dive into 2025 pet food industry trends, discussing novel proteins, toppers with biotic benefits, pet food shopping habits, and an overlooked social media platform on Trending: Pet Food


Transcript

The below transcript is from Episode 78 of the Trending: Pet Food podcast, where host Lindsay Beaton and Nicole Hill, executive director of MarketPlace, take a look at what trends panned out in 2024 and what the pet food industry might be facing in the coming year. You can find the episode at Trending: Pet Food Podcast, on SoundCloud or on your favorite podcast platform. This episode originally aired on January 22, 2025.

We want to thank AFB International for sponsoring this podcast. AFB is the premier supplier of palatants to pet food companies worldwide offering off-the-shelf and custom solutions that make pet food treats and supplements taste great.

Lindsay Beaton – Editor, Petfood Industry magazine and Host, Trending: Pet Food podcast:  Hello, and welcome to Trending: Pet Food, the industry podcast where we cover all the latest hot topics and trends in pet food. I’m your host and editor of Petfood Industry magazine Lindsay Beaton, and I’m here today with Nicole Hill, executive director of strategy at MarketPlace. Hi Nicole, and welcome!

Nicole Hill, executive director of strategy at MarketPlace: Hi Lindsay, thanks so much for having me today.

Beaton: In case you’re unfamiliar with Nicole or MarketPlace, here’s what you need to know.

In more than 12 years at MarketPlace, Nicole has worked with global B2B companies and national consumer brands in the pet and human nutrition categories to inspire innovation, launch new products, and develop and market major brands. Nicole also leads MarketPlace’s ready-to-use research storefront: NextinResearch.com.

As a source of ready-to-use data and consumer insights for supplement, pet, food, and beverage ingredient companies and brands, Nextin provides turnkey access to MarketPlace’s highly valued consumer research and insights. Rooted in consumer trends, Nextin helps pet professionals anticipate what’s next in the category. MarketPlace is itself a leading firm that specializes in strategy, research, branding, and marketing for pet and human nutrition companies.

Nicole’s pet food market experience and consumer insight expertise are why I’ve brought her on today to answer this question: What might 2025 look like for the pet food market?

So, Nicole, before we start looking a future focused, what do you think was the big news of 2024 as far as the pet food industry is concerned?

Hill:  I think in 2024 we saw on the B2B front, a lot of brands looking very future focused, but really investing today in the novel protein space, trying to figure out where that can go, what consumers are up for, but in terms of what actually was in the market and what consumers were looking for, it was that cat focused innovation. For many years prior, we've seen a lot of the innovation in the pet space really lean into the canine category.  This year, we saw a lot more innovation focused on the feline space and cats.

We also continue to see fresh pet food growing among consumer interest -- 16% of dog parents report having purchased fresh pet foods for their pet this past year and globally, we really saw a lot happening in the acquisition space, which I know isn't necessarily about product innovation, but it can spark new directions in a category. You know, a new company ownership can reshape innovation goals. It can inspire new product development possibilities as companies benefit from shared resources and capabilities, and we can also see some of the innovations that maybe didn't quite take hold in years past   fall out.

I'm really interested to see how the fresh pet food space continues to grow in the coming year. I'm also really interested to see how consumers thirst for variety in all aspects of their pet product purchase journey, the items they select, the benefits they seek, the food formats they purchase, how that will all continue to shape their journey. This year, we saw people more than ever, were multi-channel shoppers. They purchased multiple pet food formats, and they sought multiple benefits. There was this desire for variety in the pet products they purchased and where they purchased them, and again, in the benefits they sought from the pet products they bought for their dogs and cats.

Beaton: Now we covered the cat space quite a bit in 2024 just because of what you said, it seemed like cat was finally getting its due in terms of product focus and development. What do you think changed that made companies who weren't already super focused in cat begin taking a look at that segment? Do you think it was consumer driven? Do you think it was the desire to find some holes in the industry that hadn't been filled yet. What do you think the driving force was behind that?

Hill: I think it's both parts. It's consumer driven. Cats, as we know, are their own specific creatures. They have a reputation for being finicky in some regards, or, as I like to say, being discerning, being selective and sometimes getting bored with the same old, same old, and wanting something new, a food that a cat might have eaten for weeks or months one day they might turn up their nose at.

Pet parents in the cat space tend to want to deliver on that variety for their cat. There's also what I would consider the second wave of experiential focus in the pet space that is focused on cats. When we think back to 2020-2021, where there was that soft chew boom in the dog supplement space. Now how that connects to food is people were trying to give their pets supplements that had more of a satisfying sensory experience that made their dog happy to take it. It wasn't just about delivering the benefit, and I think that same driver is now applying to cats.

There was so much focus on dogs with soft chew supplements and food toppers and functional treats and all those things. With that focus came an over saturation of new entrants to that category as some of those, again, new brands that entered fell out if they didn't quite gain the traction they needed.

That area has flattened out a little bit, where in the cat space, people re-shifted their focus, because the cat category is smaller in terms of volume. Cats are generally smaller animals. They consume less by volume, but it's also slightly fewer households have cats than have dogs. That said it's still an area ripe for innovation, as I mentioned, on the consumer front, cat parents want to deliver on that experience for their cat at the end of the day, we all want our pets to like us, and a big part of that is selecting items that our pets respond positively to and also deliver on those nutritional needs and benefits that meet their life stage or other needs state.

For the cat category, I think a lot of it is driven by there's been a lot of consistency in the cat space with certain brands that have really focused there offering some new product innovation, new flavors and alternative formats. But really, there hasn't been as much of a light shown on it as you mentioned. The cat category really hasn't gotten its due relative to other segments of the pet space.

Ultimately, we've known since marketplace has been around, which is since 2002, that cat parents want cat-specific products. While there are many things in the dental category, for instance, and in other categories where the same product can work equally for dog and cat, cat parents want cat specific products. They don't want all pets to be treated the same because they obviously have different need states, whether it's a greater need in the cat category for urinary and kidney health products or a driver, in the dog category for joint health, for instance.

When I talk about what was one of the trends this year, we were seeing consumers wanting variety and purchasing multiple food formats, purchasing for multiple channels, speaking multiple benefits, as much as they thought variety. I think some of that is in the interest of customization of that experience or their pet, whether it's the nutritional benefits or whether it is that sensory experience that keeps their pet engaged and pleased.

Beaton: Now, a lot of the trends you're mentioning we're going to talk about in a little bit more depth, in a little bit as we get into the conversation about 2025 but before we do that, you also mentioned acquisitions, and that is always a topic of interest in the industry, because it can often show you what investors think is worth hanging their hat on in terms of trends in the industry, as well as what larger companies in the industry think is worth gaining ground in in terms of segments. What was the most interesting acquisition activity you saw in 2024 and was any of it focused on a specific trend? Or was it more overall, just people wanting to be more involved in the pet space?

Hill: I think that one that's maybe just driven a little bit more by recency that I find interesting is the General Mills acquisition of Whitebridge, who owns Tiki Pets and several other brands in the pet space. I think that we're seeing big brands like Mars and Post and General Mills get in to the pet space or invest more deeply in it, because it has been for years a category that's known for its stability and consistent growth. I think we all saw a bit of that in 2020. While there were some spikes driven by new pet adoption at that time, it remains a consistently sought category.

We did research a few years ago that was focused on spending habits of the pet parent, and when asked what they would be most likely to reduce in their budget if their income was not fully meeting all of their needs that they needed to cut their budget across the board by 10%, what would they be most likely to eliminate first? Pet products were one of the least likely things that pet parents would be willing to reduce spending on. They would be more likely to reduce spending on even their own health care and other needs for themselves before reducing spending on their pet so. I think that that is driving those bigger brands to get more involved in the pet space.

There are the economies of scale with ingredient sourcing that many of the ingredients that we're putting into pet nutrition products and pet food today are also used in human nutrition products. These are brands that are certainly in the human nutrition space. There are also shared resources from an R&D standpoint, but also just from an overall operational standpoint.

I think when these brands are looking to share motivating news for both their shareholders, but also looking at the bottom line, and they see pet as an area that continues to innovate and that they can participate in that and they can also meet some of their business goals, and for over a decade, we've seen the pet space be influenced by human nutrition trends.

There are also that shared knowledge base that I think within those larger organizations has the potential to be an advantage if they communicate and share those resources and insights internally and across business units and teams.

Beaton: Was there anything that really surprised you about 2024 -- whether it was a trend that started off strong and then fizzled out, or one that came out of nowhere, or where companies put their money? Was there anything that the beginning of 2024 you were like, “Oh, yeah, this isn't going to be a thing,” and then suddenly it was, or the other way around?

Hill: I admit I've been a little surprised about the continued growth of the fresh pet food space, even though people have reported interest there and are less likely to cut pet costs. There are moments where people don't cut their overall pet costs, but they might have to trade down or start mixing and matching things because of some of the just the supply chain, and especially for fresh pet food that must consider like a cold chain distribution.

I thought that that might be a slower growth space. I thought it would grow, but I thought it might be a little slower, given also some of the economics that pet parents are facing, and again, how do they spend their total household budget and where the areas they spend more?

I think that segment has also, in part, been able to grow because of that multi-food feeding that's happening in both the cat and dog categories. That is where people might be purchasing fresh pet food, but they're also purchasing maybe a kibble, and they're using the fresh pet food as a topper.

That's an area where there's certainly been a lot of energy and investment dollars behind that. I think that it's still one that obviously commands a more premium price and has some nuances in terms of consumers personal experience with it, in terms of how they handle it, what they like and dislike.

That's some of the information that we'll be seeking to gain from the 2025 pet parent research that we have slated to really dive into. What is it about fresh pet food that pet parents like? What are the things that maybe are opportunities for improvement, and where might the category go from here?

Beaton: Let's transition into talking about 2025. We are recording this in December of 2024, so this is the perfect time to do a retrospective, and then some predictions for the coming year. What are you expecting will be the hot topic of 2025 – the overarching stuff. Then we'll get more granular.

Hille: Overarching, I think, in the B2B conversations. Novel proteins will continue to be a hot topic that businesses in the pet nutrition space will be having continued conversation about and looking for opportunities to grow in the areas of insect proteins, cultivated meats and other alternative proteins. I think in the consumer space, that topic is still a little early. In that space, I think it's going to be more on the wet and gravy-like and fresh-food toppers -- ways that people can add additional sensory experiences and variety of flavor to their pet's nutrition without necessarily switching foods.

Overall, I think they'll also be looking for ways to get some of the benefits that they might typically seek from supplements into those delivery systems. I know that a gravy-like food topper that offers joint health support does not a supplement make, but I do see a trend towards just like in the functional treat space, where consumers are considering those as alternatives or additions to what they're already feeding their pet in the food and or supplement space.

I see those liquid -- what I would consider indulgent or premium food formats -- to be taking hold as toppers and adding to that sensory experience and the enjoyment that pets have at every meal.

Beaton: In terms of the novel proteins, I'm expecting it to be a big topic in 2025. Just because it has exploded in terms of what a novel protein is and can be. So, you know, several years ago, when I was covering novel proteins, it was more like, “oh, kangaroo is a novel protein, or boar is a novel protein.” Then insect came on the scene, and it was okay, Black soldier fly larva is novel protein.

Now, like you said, there are cultivated proteins, there are fermented proteins, there are all these options, a lot of them still very much in the research and scientific and academic phases of things.

Do you feel like novel proteins are more of a “long game” category right now, while people figure it out because there's so many different directions it could go?  I feel like you can't necessarily tell just by looking at something right now how any of it is going to play out, other than insect protein, which is getting its footing and has its footing more in the European market than in the North American market. Does it feel like a long game to you?

Hill: It feels like a long game. I think the industry remains very enamored with this topic, and rightfully so in the US specifically, however, again, along with the ongoing trend of humanization of pets, sometimes it can be really challenging for people to get over their own perceptions and feelings about consuming insect protein, about consuming a cultivated meat, and so even when they're looking at those options for their pet, there can be a lot of emotional barriers for that.

I think again, the industry is going to continue to innovate there, to identify benefits of that that are even beyond the sustainability play and acknowledging that innovation comes from exploring new frontiers, and certainly this is one that's been explored for several years now. I'm not sure the US pet parent audience at large is ready to make the shift yet, but I think with the right amount of awareness building and proactive education, consumers could get on board with that today.

According to Nextin 2024 Pet Parent Research, 31% of dog parents consider protein type when selecting a dog food as one of the top considerations when making their selection. Motivating them to make a switch to a protein source they're unfamiliar with is likely to be a tall task. In addition to that, when we're thinking about some of the cultivated options, all natural ingredients, which I know is a bit of an intangible term at times, but all natural ingredients remain the most frequently reported attribute that dog parents seek.

About a third noted it within their consideration set above other attributes that they consider when making a pet food selection.

I suspect consumers will perceive cultivated meats as a less natural path, regardless of origins or process. So again, I think there's substantial consumer education and awareness work that will need to be undertaken for pet parents at large to be comfortable with these alternative proteins. And really, I think that's going to be the biggest hurdle, and that's why three, maybe five years, it might even be longer than that to get pet parents not only comfortable but motivated to seek those proteins and to consider them as an option for their dogs and cats.

Beaton: Now, the other thing you mentioned for 2025 is the growth of toppers and anything that enhances the customizable experience that pet owners seem to increasingly seek for their animals.

Do you think that is going to help bolster the premium space despite potential economic challenges or whatever might be coming down the pipe in the next couple of years? Do you feel that is going to bolster and continue growth in the premium and even the super-premium space? Because lots of freeze-dried companies came out and realized that customers were using their stuff as a topper, then they turned it into a dual marketing opportunity. How do you think all that interplay is going to happen in the premium and super-premium spaces in 2025?

Hill: In the premium and super premium spaces, I think of it as an opportunity for brands and frankly, retailers as well, to merchandise products in a way that encourages that packaging. If you are a brand that offers your dog food in an air-dried format, which I would consider an upgrade from kibble but a more accessible price point than raw or fresh, packaging and merchandising those alongside each other -- some may trade up. Frankly, the more conventional options can give consumers an opportunity to trade up in small ways that are friendly to their pocketbook while still allowing them to add some premiumization to their pet meal.

When I talk about potential for growth in toppers, I'm talking about what I'll call “little I” innovation. It's not something that's never been seen or done before but taking the things that pet parents like and are motivated to purchase in that topper space and incorporate additional upgrades.

When we're talking about some of the more need state oriented things, or even more gravy oriented, like wet formats that have a lot of those nutraceutical ingredients, those functional ingredients, I feel like that's the area where, if you can do that and merchandise it along your core food products, that's where in the dog food space, I see there being an opportunity for innovation.

In the cat food space, cat food purchasers are already variety purchasers when it comes to food. They're purchasing multiple types of cat food for their cats, and presumably mixing and combining them in one way or another to either change up flavors or give them variety in terms of their proteins, or just create a different sensory experience, I perceive that behavior will continue, and I think topper or topper adjacent items our way in to continue to cultivate that with maybe some of the functional ingredients that consumers are also expressing more and more interest In, like postbiotics.

Beaton: Do you think that pet food companies have done a fairly good job of speaking to those consumers who want to use their products as part of a customizable option, or is the industry still catching up with what consumers are doing with their products? How good of a job do you think they're doing and sending that messaging out, “Hey, you can use this product for this and then throw this product of ours onto a topper.”

Where do you think they're at in terms of creating their own systems and making sure that their consumer has an option within the brand for every part that they want to do for their pet?

Hill: I think the education and communication there could stand to be improved. Right now, it seems like consumers are making a lot of those choices themselves and taking it upon themselves to build their own variety pack or bundle, so to speak.

That said, I don't think that products necessarily need to be formally bundled in all cases. As we know, if you ever bought a variety pack of, let's say, a wet food, and there's a chicken option, a turkey option, a beef option, a bison option in this variety pack, and your pet likes three of the four then you have this imbalance. It's like in the human space, the ongoing joke of shampoo and conditioner bottles are never completed at the same time. That's one of the challenges you can get into when you're packaging things in bundles.

I do think there are merchandising opportunities, and I know a lot of stores have clean store policies, but even in trays and other merchandising areas where that communication can be there. Air-dried food, particularly those savory jerky pieces, are a great way for people to say, I can feed this to my pet as a whole meal, maybe as a special occasion or occasionally, but I can also use this to top their food. One day, I’ll use a turkey and pumpkin option, and another day a beef air-dried food as a topper, or another chicken, and add that variety to their menu. If that air-dried food company is positioning itself only as a topper, then people might not be aware it meets that complete meal standard, and vice versa.

If it's positioned only as a complete meal, then you're leaving it up to the consumer to make that call, and potentially your products getting combined with a product from another brand. If you're a brand and want to gain all that share, I think pairing it as like an intentional pairing, almost like you're creating a plate for your pet.

Let’s say air-dried turkey food with maybe a freeze-dried topper with antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables that give that whole food component to it. Bring in some other elements that could be a great way for people to not only again, upgrade that sensory experience of that pet's meal, but also the pet parents experience. If I'm putting whole foods into this, they're getting these nutrients that I am prioritizing in their diet while, of course, meeting the standards of a complete diet for their pet.

Beaton: Now we're not explicitly saying it, but this category and what we're talking about is both a challenge and an opportunity for the industry, right? The challenge is getting the right messaging out there, making sure that your products are where they need to be. It's also an opportunity, because you could shift the industry and reach more consumers in ways that they might not realize they could use your products. What are some of the other challenges and opportunities you see coming down the pipeline for 2025?

Hill: With the acquisitions in play, seeing how those product portfolios change. It's not unheard of for those lower volume products to be discontinued or cut, which, frankly, could open some opportunity for smaller brands to gain share in the space, because maybe they just don't make sense to a larger brand. But that need is still there, and even though that subgroup of people who seek those products might be small, a large company might not be best positioned to serve them.

I think it's a challenge in some case, for consumers who might go to get their favorite product and it's no longer on the shelf, and they must make a pivot. Switching a dog food, switching a cat food can be a fraught decision, and especially if you have a discerning dog or discerning cat who only likes certain things. If you find things they like, having to make that switch can be challenging for a pet parent.

It's also going to be harder for brands to show up in all the places that pet parents are shopping. As I mentioned this year, they are shopping more channels than ever. The same pet parent who's shopping mass retail is also shopping pet specialty is also shopping on Amazon or Chewy.

there are very few pet parents that are getting all their pet products from a single retailer, which, once again, can make it challenging, especially for those smaller, midsized brands to have that type of mass distribution across both specialty and mass retailers online and brick and mortar.

Pet parents are shopping online and brick-and-mortar, which I think sometimes you can think, “Okay, we have our e-commerce shoppers, and we have our brick-and-mortar shoppers,” but most of them are shopping both.

As brands try to deliver those pet food experiences, knowing that pet parents are increasingly incorporating variety into their pets’ meals, having those auto-ship programs are great. But how are you allowing for those upgrades to happen with those variety components, beyond treats, beyond toys, beyond supplements? The retail channel strategy and marketing strategy for that is something that brands should consider.

Beaton: Do you think there are going to be any major shifts in the mix of what omnichannel shopping looks like? Do you think there's going to be continued growth in e-commerce? Are people going to go back to looking for that in person experience in-store? Are people just going to want to drive up and have it put in the back of their car? How do you think that's going to shift in 2025?

Hill: One of the interesting changes that's happened in the past four years has been the surge behind online channels like Amazon and Chewy. In 2020 and 2021 particularly, there was a bump in grocery. We saw pet specialty get a little depressed in that time, as people were trying to consolidate their shopping trips. Since then, we've seen a resurgence.

If we take mass retailers, your Targets, your Walmarts, and combine both the in-store and online purchases made at mass retailers, 50% of pet parents are making pet product purchases at a mass retailer, whether it's in an online capacity, an in-store capacity, or an app -- order and drive up.

We're seeing when you combine both in-store and online channels, mass is where most pet parents are shopping. Now that doesn't mean that they're spending the most there, necessarily, but it's where 50% of pet parents across the U.S. are purchasing pet products. In mass. That’s the opportunity for brands to show up to half of that U.S. pet parent audience.

Amazon, though, is still very close behind. Amazon, even being online, only 49% report having purchased a pet product on Amazon, 45% on Chewy. So those are still some of the big retail channels to contend with.

What's important to note is that pet specialty has bounced back quite a bit. When you combine both in-store and online shopping, 47% report having shopped pet specialty in the prior 12 months. From there, it drops down to about a quarter for grocery and for club. Again, those channels are still very valuable and very valid, but really pet specialty, Chewy, Amazon and mass retail are all drawing about 50% of the U.S. pet parent audience.

When you think of that multi-channel shopping, clearly that's happening not just among those channels, but others as well. I expect that the multi-channel shopping will likely continue.

I think part of it is likely shopping for specific products. If you're doing your brand work well, and you're drawing people to certain retailers and that product, your product is delivering on that expectation. There's less of a barrier to being a multi-channel purchaser today than there has been in years past. On top of that, the convenience factor driving up and having them loaded into your car or picking up a pet product while you're also purchasing other products for your home.

In all of that, when we look at those shopping behaviors, it's more opportunities for brands to show up in front of pet parents, but it's also likely fewer touch points, because they're not just going to one retail channel repeatedly. Unless you're in all of them, you might be getting less share of those pet parents brand awareness level, because they may not be having as many touch points with the brand as they would if they were going to one or two stores.

Beaton: I think the touch points conversation is one that has been really interesting in the last few years, not just from an omnichannel shopping perspective, but also from a customer communications perspective, in terms of where you can get your product in front of consumers, but also where you have the opportunity to speak to your consumers or hear from your consumers. Where do you think brands need to sit in 2025 if they really want to have a relationship with their customers?

Hill: “Relationships” a big word. There are opportunities for brands to help their audiences become aware of them, and then there's, like you mentioned, the relationship piece, where it's a mutual connection and where mutual benefit is received.

In terms of where brands can connect with pet parents in more meaningful ways, obviously, social media is a great place for that. From an awareness standpoint, a mistake that a lot of brands make is assuming I'm promoting on social media, therefore I should be selling more product. But social media is a place to be social. It's a place to bookmark or like those things that you're like, “Ooh, this is interesting.” It’s where you get small bites of information quickly in a way that should not be disruptive to the reason that someone's on a social media site, which is typically to be entertained, to stay up to date, to get information, ideas, inspiration.

When brands say they want to be full-on marketing in that social channel in a very self-promotional way, that tends to not connect so well. That can be a barrier to a relationship. When you are connecting with pet parents from a relational level and weaving in some of that information and inspiration, social media can be an effective place to see those relationships.

There are also brands who do the customer service piece of things very well, and then benefit from the user-generated content that is an outcome of that. That’s when people are not just brand loyalists, but also brand advocates. That carries a lot of weight for other pet parents.

If a pet parent says, “This worked for my pet or this didn't, but this brand was so helpful, and they got me something that did,” that holds more weight than just the brand saying it themselves.

In terms of channels for connection, we are seeing so much opportunity than we have for a few years. Not as many brands have taken hold of this opportunity; it’s good of for connecting with pet parents -- YouTube. YouTube is part of Google and has so many great targeting opportunities. You can make sure you're really speaking to the audience, that your products and your brand are intended to serve to meet those needs and be educational and have dynamic content with things like pre roll ads and whatnot.

When you think of who's researching things, who wants to know more, who's maybe an early adopter in the pet nutrition category, I think of people who have researched biotics, prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics, that are wanting to know, what's that about? How does it benefit my pet? When we look at the subgroup of people who have researched biotics, 48% said they seek pet health and wellness information on YouTube.

That's again, almost half of those who say they've researched biotics in the prior 12 months, which was 14 points more likely than the overall pet parent audience, which is still a sizable percentage. That's still 34% of pet parents who have sought pet health and wellness information on YouTube. YouTube is a great channel for demonstrating benefits, for speaking more conversationally, in a way that can be received by the pet parent on a channel that, yes, they're seeking pet health and wellness information, but they're also getting their news or watching a clip or a trailer from the latest blockbuster movie.

It's a great way to be part of that pet parents’ ecosystem in a way that is not purely promotional, but again to educate and build awareness. When we talk about things like novel proteins, to me, that's a great channel to have that time, those few seconds of pre-roll ad content before their content that they have elected to watch turns on, where that can be explained in a more accessible way. To me, that's a big untapped opportunity for brands in the pet space.

Beaton: That is fascinating, because we talk so much about social media and short form video content like TikTok and Reels. I think YouTube, being more of a legacy content creation platform, is getting overlooked in terms of what it might be capable of. That's incredibly interesting to hear you say, and that it might be something that companies want to investigate and be like, “Hey, how much of an active versus passive presence do we have on YouTube? Is there something we're missing there? Is our audience trying to engage with us there?” That's interesting to me.

Hill: Yes, video content at large is meaningful across platforms and across channels, YouTube being one, and TikTok. With the rise of vet talk over the past several years, where veterinarians were providing their insights, advice, perspective, partially in a way to just connect with people, but also in a way to combat some less credible information.

There are multitude of channels that are valuable, but there's a really large percentage of pet parents that do see YouTube almost as their primary media source. In many ways, they're getting their entertainment information, of course, how-to videos, and that extends to the pet space. It really has become a resource for all aspects of information seeking, almost to the degree of search engines that are the more conventional types, where you're talking about Google with organic and paid search.

Beaton: This last question might be a little bit unfair, because we've covered a lot of ground, and it sounds like there's a lot of interesting stuff that is going on right now that is going to carry over into 2025 and beyond. But what do you think is going to be the most interesting area to watch in 2025?

Hill: The most interesting area to watch is going to, from an ingredient standpoint, be postbiotics. We serve both B2B and consumer brands, and a topic can feel old hat or fatigued in B2B before it even has a chance to gain ground in the consumer space because of product development cycles and the like. To me, postbiotics overcome formulation challenges for product developers and nutrition scientists and meet many of the need states that pet parents are prioritizing for their pet.

Given what I call the biotics bump that has happened in the past several years across probiotics and prebiotics, we're finally seeing postbiotics emerge in terms of consumers feel like they're familiar and are starting to research them more. To me, that's the area that is most accessible in terms of connecting those two areas of innovation within the supply chain.

While the B2B space has been talking about postbiotics for years, I still feel like it hasn't really made its debut in the consumer pet space. Because of the potential benefits related to gut health and immunity, which are big motivators for pet parents, and the formulation friendliness that allows it to be incorporated in formulations that maybe probiotics can't be, I think that's one of the more accessible areas for the category to see development and growth, not just in food, but in supplements, treats and beyond.

Beaton: What do you think is going to be the importance of the consumer education component in ensuring that segment continues to grow? Probiotics have had their thing for a while on the human side. We're more or less familiar with it. Then prebiotics came out, and people were like, “Okay, maybe kind of, sort of like probiotics.” And now postbiotics are out, and there's no way the average person has a grasp just yet on the differences among those three different types of products. Do you think education from the industry side is going to need to be woven throughout that trend just to ensure its solvency?

Hill: Yes. I think education is needed. I also think there is an amount of correlation that consumers make in their own minds when they see biotic on the end of any prefix. One of the things that we looked at this year were probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics and phages and what people have researched, what they reported either a general or deep familiarity with and how positively they perceive it to be in pet nutrition.

Probiotics probably no surprise -- 74% reported a general or deep familiarity and 71% of pet parents that perceived it to be somewhat or very positive in pet nutrition.

Pretty close to the same with prebiotics -- 58% reported that level of familiarity, and 59% reported that they perceived it to be somewhat or very positive in terms of its value in pet nutrition; that is for prebiotics.

Postbiotics -- only 35% -- but still a third -- say, “I think I'm generally or deeply familiar with what postbiotics are.” In pet nutrition, 42% perceived it to be somewhat or very positive, so seven percentage points higher. When you think of not quite half but approaching -- to me the fact that a notable difference between familiarity and positive perception means there is room to continue gaining ground.

We also looked at phages, which no surprise, quite a bit less familiarity, but it's still percolating and emerging there. In my view, those data points are just a few of the things that show that for people who are looking for “biotic benefits,” even though I understand that different strains of probiotics offer different values -- in the consumer space, they can sometimes be generalized for those products and formats, especially when we're looking at some of the wet formats that are trending.

Postbiotics are a way to add that biotic bump, that advantage for the consumer and for the pet in a way that also formulas find to be a little bit more friendly in terms of ability to deliver it in some of those more challenging formats that may be not conducive to as an environment for probiotics.

Beaton: Given everything that we've talked about and everything you know about or guess about, what's going on in 2025? Are you feeling optimistic about the space? Are you feeling that it's going to be a strong year? Is it going to be a “hold your own” year? What are you anticipating we're going to be talking about at the end of 2025 about how the year went?

Hill: I think at the end of 2025, we're going to look at a retrospective of the innovations that went to market in the cat space -- what made it, what didn't, what gained traction and gained ground, and what maybe was a worthwhile attempt, but maybe consumers weren't ready for it yet.

I think we'll look at a flood of entrepreneurial brands, or venture-backed brands, trying to enter the cat space, similarly to what we saw in the dog supplement space, specifically in soft chews around 2021, when we saw this flood of new entrants, and then many fell out a year or two later after that market became oversaturated and folks weren't quite prepared to support the brands they launched effectively. I think we'll be looking back at 2025, in the feline space, and what that looks like.

We're going to see a continual convergence of pet food, pet treats and pet supplements in terms of the inspiration each subcategory gleans from the others. In food, trying to get, again, more variety, different textures, different benefits, a way for people to build their own menus for their pets.

In the dog space, we'll continue to see innovation in the fresh, freeze-dried and air-dried spaces. Air-dried is one that's been flying a little bit under the radar, in some respects. Air-dried is an accessible step up from kibble for dog parents that brands might have some luck with if they get into some of those broader retail channels, especially mass market, because they don't see as much of that happening there, as I do with your kibble, wet and even fresh.

Those are the things we'll be looking back at the end of 2025 and saying, “What happened in these spaces?” I also recognize that some of the opportunities are already set, as those categories have already been set by retailers for what's going in for the next six months, and we'll just have to see what midyear pivots are made at the retail level. That will tell us a lot about where the category is going.

Of course, the consumer research, which really helps indicate where the poll is paired with what decisions are being made at the retailer level, so looking at that past data will help us form that hypothesis and test it at the end of 2025.

Beaton: Thanks for coming on today, Nicole. It’s the beginning of the year and I think everything we discussed today is on the collective industry mind, so it’s great to pick some of that apart a bit and consider what we might be in for this year. Before we go, let’s do a little plug: Where can people find more information about you, MarketPlace and Nextin?

Hill:  Absolutely. Thank you for having me. If you are looking for ready to use turnkey research, meaningful insights reports covering some of the topics we covered here, as well as a full set of PowerPoint charts and raw data in Excel, that would be nextinresearch.com/pet.

If you want to specifically look at our pet research, we have data published going all the way back to 2022 so you can look at year-over-year data, purchase single year reports, and even pre-order data that's not yet published. For the coming research we're doing in 2025, we will do a deeper dive into novel proteins and some of the other topics we covered.

Nextin is a great for when you have that pitch presentation or innovation session, and you need data now and don't maybe have time or budget to do custom work. Nextin research is a great resource for that.

If you're already in the brand space and you have your product innovation developed, and now you need a brand, or maybe you have a brand and need marketing, marketplacebranding.com covers our strategy, research branding and marketing services, which are all custom services that we have been offering since 2002 focused exclusively in the pet and human health and nutrition spaces.

We'd love to get in touch. If you have specific questions for me about any of the data we talked about today, you can just send a contact form or on either of those sites or find me on LinkedIn, Nicole Hill, would be the best way to get in touch with me, and I'd be happy to chat further if anyone has questions.

Beaton: That’s it for this episode of Trending: Pet Food. You can find us on PetfoodIndustry.comSoundCloud or your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow us on Instagram, @trendingpetfoodpodcast. And if you want to chat or have any feedback, or if you have stories that you would like to tell and make sure we get to David, we can do that as well. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me an email: [email protected].

And of course, thanks again to our sponsor, AFB International, the premier supplier of palatants to pet food companies worldwide, offering off-the-shelf and custom solutions that make pet food treats and supplements taste great.

Once again, I'm Lindsay Beaton, your host and editor of Petfood Industry magazine, and we'll talk to you next time. Thanks for tuning in! 

Page 1 of 7
Next Page