What PATS 2026 tells us about the future of pet marketing

The headline lesson from this year’s event is that our furry friends are now considered to be on an equal level to the rest of the family, thanks to the ‘humanisation’ of pets.

Here’s what caught our eye, and what it means if you’re marketing anything from kibble to harnesses.

How we shop is constantly changing

Shoppers are increasingly turning to AI assistants to help them choose what products are most suitable for their situation, and the results they get depend entirely on the prompt and the person asking it. That’s a big shift from the old world of typing a keyword into Google and scrolling through ten blue links. Add to that platforms like TikTok (increasingly used as a shopping search engine), and you can see how the landscape has changed.

The twist is that thanks to all the AI-generated content bloating social media, consumers have become suspicious and wary of brands. People want to buy from people, and, as Omni Pet’s Dr Guy Sandelowsky highlighted, it’s not unusual for customers to double check they are speaking to a human, rather than a bot. The brand offers affordable premium pet food built on genuine nutritional science, and thanks to AI, customers are now asking more technical questions and checking the answers are coming from genuine experts.

That’s good news for companies willing to show the faces behind the business and to share their stories and expertise. Authenticity has been the best form of marketing in 2026, and it will be even more important the more AI advances.

We know Meta labels graphics which have been made with generative AI, so it’s worth brands who are using this approach considering what impression that gives to cautious consumers.

Misinformation is dominating socials

Everyone’s an expert – at least that’s how it seems whenever you open your feed these days. Unfortunately, there’s been a huge rise in confidently-delivered nonsense, including plenty of unqualified advice on anything from pet behaviour to what to feed your pet.

Brands who invest in getting third-party and expert voices onside will be the ones who stand out when people cash in their receipts, and you better believe consumers are keeping those receipts. This is no longer just a case of good PR, it also directly helps with how AI search tools decide what to trust and recommend. Find out more about Google’s E-E-A-T principle here (it’s now even more relevant for AI search).

If you want to cut through misinformation, credibility and authenticity must be baked into your content strategy, not bolted on as an afterthought.

There will be more dogs than children in the UK next year

That’s according to Leopard Co’s Pet Insight Report. It really shows how central pets have become to modern family life. On the plus side, standards of pet healthcare have risen fast, and wellbeing and pet anxiety are the next big themes on the horizon, particularly as attention shifts toward cats too.

However, Dr Sandelowsky quite rightly cautioned that consumers must remember that pets are not humans, so brands have a responsibility to let pets enjoy being animals too.

The shelves are still important in a digital age

Digital selling might be dominating the headlines, but don’t write off the shop floor. Brands that are clear and authentic on the shelf are performing brilliantly; proof that having genuine products in physical stores still counts for a lot. Grassroots, in-store influencer activity is proving a great way to build real community connections too.

Smaller brands are also making the most of working with emerging micro-influencers who receive free products in exchange for content creation, and if a video takes off organically, the brand may purchase the rights to use it in paid ads. It’s a low-risk, high-authenticity way to build a content pipeline without a huge production budget.

Cats are big business

While the toy aisle at any pet store will usually favour dogs, there’s a missed opportunity for cat brands. One of the neatest observations from the show floor was that the cat follows the dog, who follows the human, meaning trends that take hold in the dog world tend to trickle down to cats a little later.

Which pet is actually more popular in the UK depends entirely on whose data you trust, and that in itself tells you the honest answer: it’s now close to even. FEDIAF’s Facts and Figures 2025 report, drawing on 2023 data from 41 European countries, counts 108 million cats to 90 million dogs, with 26% of households owning a cat against 25% owning a dog.

There’s no shortage of cat food on the shelf, but there is a shortage of design-led cat brands giving cat products the same visual identity and shelf presence that dog brands take for granted. With more Gen Z and millennial owners choosing cats, that’s a gap worth paying attention to for any brand willing to give cats the same design attention dogs have enjoyed for years.

With wellbeing and anxiety support already gaining serious traction for dogs, expect the same conversations, and the same appetite for well-designed products, to land in the cat category next.

From the catwalk to the dog walk – fashion follows the same trends

Pantone’s colour of the year for 2026 was Cloud Dancer (white) with a supporting palette of pastels. Colour predictions for 2027 are still coming in, but there are quite a few blues and earthy neutrals in there, and from speaking to designers at PATS, that echoes trends they have been seeing.

We know fashion trends tend to start with the catwalk and filter down to the mainstream, and those trends are what fashion-forward pet brands are watching like hawks. From forest greens to neutral beiges, pet owners seem to be seeking palettes that are more casual or earthy, striking a nice balance between feminine and masculine styling.

Key lessons from PATS 2026

Pet brands which invest in showing their authenticity – really showing it, rather than generating it – are going to be the ones which attract loyal customers for years to come.