The first time one of Amberly Zamora’s videos went viral, she was filming her husband David trying to salt the driveway.
Amberly is from Bolivar and David is an Albuquerque, New Mexico, native. In the video, David carefully maneuvers an icy driveway, trying to throw salt down behind his tires and the bag slides away from him, down the driveway into the street. He turns back and gives Amberly a look.
It got more than 1 million views.
“Amberly loves to film random moments,” David said. “I find myself in precarious situations and she is there waiting for me to fall.”
That video just happened to capture a comical moment, but it gave the couple the confidence to start shooting more. That’s when TikTok followers fell in love with their dogs Storm and Zia, Doberman pinschers with opposite personalities. Now Amberly has 58,500 followers and 3.8 million likes on her TikTok page and the dogs are social media sweethearts.
They aren’t the only canine celebrities in town, however. Winston the Pug has 76,000 followers on Facebook and is frequently recognized as the man — or rather pug — about town. Both sets of owners say they do this for fun and have no intention of quitting their day jobs, but they love showcasing their pets.
Storm and Zia
Amberly and David met at College of the Ozarks. He played baseball and worked in security. She noticed him around campus and finally worked up enough courage to bring him a cup of hot chocolate one night.
“He immediately asked me on a date the next day and the rest is history,” she said.
David says between baseball and school he didn’t have time for girls, so he was happy she gave him that cocoa and it sparked a romance. He graduated in 2014 with a degree in criminal justice. She graduated the following year with a degree in field biology and ecology.
Since David graduated a year before her, he did not want to leave Missouri, so he applied for a job in security at Big Cedar Lodge and quickly started working his way up. Today, Amberly is regional sales manager at Big Cedar Lodge and David is senior operations manager overseeing logistics. They have been married for eight years and they have two dogs, Storm and Zia.
Storm is a ‘goofball,' Zia is feisty
Storm looks like a traditional Doberman with pointed ears and a more menacing look, although Amberly describes him as a “goofball.” Zia has red colors, floppy ears and looks friendly, but is feistier. Storm is so named because when they brought him home it rained nonstop.
“It rained for a week straight,” David said. “He was scared of the storm and didn’t want to go outside, so we went with it.”
Zia is named for the red sun symbol on the New Mexico state flag. Zia is very vocal and tries to talk — one video of her hemming and hawing shows her trying to alert her mom to a squirrel on the bird feeder.
Their best video was a ‘total random thing'
Their best video has 14.3 million views and happened when one of the dogs knocked over a plant while David and Amberly were at work.
“It was a total random thing,” Amberly said. “I came home, saw the plant and decided to take a video and didn’t expect it to get that attention. Zia was so quick to tell on (Storm). It’s their personalities and how they interact with each other that is hilarious.”
As Amberly asks Zia who knocked over the plant, Zia barks and Storm slinks away, head down, guilty as sin, on the other side of the room.
When that video went viral, their messages and social media exploded.
“When that video blew up it was wild,” Amberly said. “My phone was blowing up, all my social, TikTok and Instagram. Companies were reaching out and saying there is an opportunity to monetize, call us for more info. I would ignore them until one called me.”
Zamoras have no interest in full-time content creation
The Zamoras sold the rights to the video to a licensing company for an undisclosed amount and have the option to upload more. Then, free dog beds, treats, food and other merchandise started showing up as they gained popularity. Companies were hoping they would showcase some of their products on their channel. For a while, dog beds were piling up.
They are not sure which dog is an audience favorite, but they love them equally. Amberly has not posted as much lately because she posts when she is inspired or has real content to share. If they wanted to make a living out of this, they’d have to quit their jobs and work full-time creating content, which doesn’t interest them.
Still, it’s been fun and educational.
“It was never intended to be like that, but it was just cool to see how that world works,” David said.
Find Storm and Zia: Follow Amberly Zamora on TikTok
Winston the Pug
If you’ve dropped your iPhone, you might have met Dan Griffin, owner of Springfield iPhone Repair downtown.
If you’ve been to Artsfest or any number of festivals in Springfield, you might have seen Griffin’s fur baby, Winston the Pug. This regal pug joined the Griffin clan six years ago.
“He has been a star ever since,” Griffin said.
Originally named for Winston on the TV show “New Girl,” Griffin says, “I still attest he is named after Winston Churchill because he has the face for it. His facial expressions are dramatic. He has human-like expressions of grumpy, sad.”
Contest, viral meme helped grow Winston's Facebook following
Griffin has a background in graphic design and video, and opened the repair shop 12 years ago because it was more challenging. 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 there was a contest in Springfield to win a painting of your pet. Whoever’s pet got the most “likes” on Facebook would win and the artist would paint the animal. That is when they started trying to get everyone to like Winston’s page and ended up with 500 likes, which seemed like a lot at the time, Griffin chuckles.
In 2018, one of Winston’s memes went viral. Griffin posted a meme with four photos of Winston’s paws in different angles and it read, “Guys with feet like this have 125% chance of stealing your girl.”
He posted it on Dec. 26 and over New Year’s it went viral “stupid quickly.” A few viral sites took the content and put it on their website.
“By the time it stopped being shown, we had 6 million views and that was just his post,” Griffin said. “Some of the viral ones had hundreds of thousands of likes. That was his first big claim to fame. We skyrocketed as far as likes to our page.”
Winston available for ‘mutual shoutouts' with Springfield companies
Advertisers contacted Griffin offering to pay him to promote their products, but it didn’t feel right.
“It reminds me of ‘The Truman Show,’” he said. “If they said we will send you a harness for free and I could post an honest review of their harness, I would. I didn’t want to monetize it to the way where I was doing all advertising. We get so much advertising targeted to us on a daily basis, I did not want to ruin it.”
Winston’s popularity grew and eventually Facebook reached out and offered to pay Griffin. He told them he did not want to advertise or endorse products, but they reached an agreement where Facebook posts an advertisement immediately before or after he posts and that is how they make their money.
Locally, Griffin does work in trade or “mutual shoutouts” with Springfield companies. Fetch Pet Supplies is one of their favorite spots in town and Winston has received some free snacks and other cool merch, and the businesses will tag each other on their Facebook page. Griffin did some trade with a veterinarian, Golden Girl Rum Club and Springfield Brewing Company.
We know what you’re thinking. No, Winston doesn’t imbibe, but they did a photoshoot when the brewery was launching a new beer. Winston took photos with their merch and in exchange, Griffin received a gift card to SBC. He enjoys working with local businesses and helping each other out.
Griffin mixes planned content with spontaneous posts
Griffin posts daily and 50% of the content is spontaneous. The other half is planned. He has saved thousands of memes that could be tweaked for Winston. His reach is global as people all over the world have fallen in love with this pug.
“Sometimes Winston has the funniest smirk,” Griffin said. “This is something I am happy to share. This is purely for fun.”
Find him: Follow Winston the Pug on Facebook
Find more local social media pets
Wrigley and Theo are two Golden Doodles that have captured the admiration of 48,100 followers on Instagram. These local fur balls are adorable. Search “wrigleyandtheo” on Instagram to find them.
If dachshunds are your thing, then this cream-colored, long-haired wiener dog will capture your heart. Cashew the Dachshund, aka Cash, has 46,500 followers on TikTok. Search @cash.the.dach.
