Dewar Gaines | CEO & CMO of Gaines Family Farmstead

We caught up with Dewar Gaines, the CEO and CMO of Gaines Family Farmstead.

In this conversation, we talk through the low-budget 4th of July campaign that crushed, why one influencer partnership failed on conversions but revealed a goldmine in retention, how live selling is becoming their secret weapon for engagement and sales, the underused tactic that drove foot traffic to more than 200 retail stores, and why Dewar still swears by email marketing—sometimes sending up to 15 campaigns a month.

‍

Can you share one marketing campaign you’ve executed (in the pet industry) that you're especially proud of? What made it successful or meaningful to you?

‍

The 4th of July 2024 Holiday META campaign. I took a picture of my barefoot, shirtless son, standing on top of a 4-wheeler, at the top of a mountain, at sunset, waving an American Flag and holding a bag of our best-selling, single-ingredient, Sweet Potato Bones.

I won’t share specifically who we targeted, but it CRUSHED.

Obviously, I am partial to the picture of my namesake, but the simplicity of it is what I love. A picture of a happy kid, celebrating our country and holding a bag of dog treats. No influencer to manage, no UGC, cheap CPM, high conversion rate…. Homerun.

‍

Conversely, can you walk us through a campaign or initiative that underperformed and why you think it happened?

‍

2025, Q1 influencer campaign. We partnered with a very popular influencer who has around 3 million followers across all channels. She has been a long-time user of our product, and her content is perfect for our brand. The content she created was fantastic. Impressions, reach and exposure metrics were all through the roof but conversion rate wasn’t what I projected.

We have a couple more pieces of content rolling out, so whether or not the entire campaign underperforms is to be determined, but I think I likely set my expectations too high for conversions given we are a new brand to her followers.

‍

‍

‍

Was there a part of your marketing funnel, like acquisition, onboarding, retention, or reactivation, that performed better or worse than expected? What did it teach you?

‍

I thought CAC was going to drop by 20–25% with the influencer… It almost doubled. However, over 50% of the people who purchased once from that campaign purchased a second time in 60 days. Our normal repeat purchase average on Gaines Pet is that 50% of first-time customers make a second purchase within the next 12 months.

So, we think we have the right demographic; now it’s about refining our messaging, driving CAC back down, and dialing in.

‍

Tell us about a campaign or idea you were excited about but had to pivot from. What signals led to the decision, and what did you do instead?

‍

We are always testing something new—daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. But one in particular was in Q2–Q3 of 2024. We sponsored “Bark in the Park” for the local minor league baseball team. Eight times throughout the summer, folks were allowed to bring their dogs to the ballpark.

We were looking to grow our existing stronghold in the Birmingham pet parent market, and we thought this would be a great way to engage. It was a flop. After three weeks, I told the team to keep the cash, but sending two members of our team up there for several hours wasn’t a good use of their time. Lesson learned.

‍

How do partnerships, whether with shelters, influencers, retailers, or other brands, fit into your marketing strategy?

‍

In May of 2025, we launched into over 200 Pet Supermarket stores across the Southeast and were the “Treat of the Month,” meaning all 16 of our SKUs were discounted 25% in every store.

We partnered with an influencer who had a strong Southeast-based audience to announce the launch.

The video was fantastic, drove a lot of attention, and resulted in great volume. I had seen brands work with retailers for promos, retailers work with influencers, and brands work with influencers—but I hadn’t seen a brand hire an influencer specifically to drive retail foot traffic before. It’s a strategy we’ll definitely use again.

‍

‍

‍

What common mistakes do you see from marketers new to the pet space?

‍

Being afraid of abject failure. Recognizing failure and pivoting quickly is so important. Set minimum baseline KPIs for launch success, and if you aren’t hitting them in the desired timeframe, kill the campaign.

‍

How are you using AI in your current workflows, and what use case do you think will become standard in pet marketing next year?

‍

Every member of my team has ChatGPT Pro. I encourage everyone to use it as much as possible—spell check, to-do lists, process improvements, cash-flow analysis, market segmentation research, SEO research, competitor keyword research, and the list goes on.

I’m not at the point where I have it “always listening,” but I could see myself being there one day.

‍

What’s your desert island marketing tool? And how do you wring the most value from it in your day-to-day?

‍

Email marketing… period. I think we currently have seven or eight different flows set up, each with five or six multi-step funnels. We send at least eight custom emails a month, but sometimes as many as 12–15, especially when we need to churn a specific product.

We analyze and segment our customer base weekly and test continuously.

‍

‍

‍

What’s one proven marketing tactic that early-stage or bootstrapped founders can use effectively without a paid budget?

‍

Boots on the ground… FOUNDERS BOOTS. There is no better way to tell your story than to do it yourself. If I could go back to our early days and film us making treats by hand in the mornings and then hitting dog parks, breweries, door-to-door sales, etc., I’d have days of content I could still be blasting today.

‍

What type of content is working best for your brand right now?

Live selling. We are in the absolute infancy of live selling right now, and it WORKS. Not only are you creating great clippable content, but there’s something subconscious about the engagement consumers get from live selling that has crazy high conversion rates—with no customer acquisition cost. It’s definitely the future.

‍