How do followers infer the motives behind an influencer's advertising disclosures?

Abstract

PurposeIn the context of influencer marketing, this study examines the effects of explicit advertising disclosure on consumers' inference regarding influencers' sincere recommendation intent, and its consequences for consumers' purchase intentions.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to the conditions of explicit advertising disclosure (e.g. #AD, #Sponsored) and subtle advertising disclosure (e.g. #ThankYou), and indicated their inference regarding influencers' recommendation motives and their own purchase intentions. One-way ANOVA analysis reveals the effect of advertising disclosure on consumers' purchase intentions and the PROCESS model indicates the mediating role of consumers' inferences regarding influencers' sincere recommendation intent. In Study 2, we implemented a 2 (explicit vs. subtle advertising disclosure) × 2 (moderate vs. large size of followers) between-subjects design, using a two-way ANOVA analysis. We analyzed the moderated mediation effect via the PROCESS model.FindingsConsumers are less inclined to purchase products when influencers express explicit advertising disclosures, compared to when the advertising disclosures are subtle (Study 1). These negative effects of advertising disclosure can be caused by consumers' inferences regarding influencers' sincere recommendation intent in terms of posting content (Studies 1 and 2). Additionally, the negative effect is particularly prominent when an influencer has a large (vs. moderate) number of followers (Study 2).Originality/valueBy examining (1) the effects of explicit advertising disclosure on consumers' inference regarding influencers' persuasion motives and (2) the role of the influencer's number of followers, this research provides both theoretical and practical insights for understanding how best to implement influencer marketing.

The effects of Instagram disclosure on consumer reactions to sponsored posts: The moderating impact of social media influencers’ perceived popularity

“…When disclosure cues are present, they can reveal the nature of the SMI–brand partnership explicitly (i.e. specifying the type of compensation) or implicitly (by remaining evasive about the type of retribution) (Boerman and van Reijmersdal, 2016; Carr and Hayes, 2014; Wojdynski et al, 2018), use very clear language (“partnership paid for by”) or more nebulous industry jargon (@brand, #brand or #ad #sp advertising) (Evans et al, 2017; Han et al, 2020). Such decisions are very complex for SMIs (Wellman et al, 2020).…”

“…A third group of studies examines the effects of disclosing advertising on evaluating sources. They reveal that ad disclosure damages perceptions of the source in terms of attitudes (van Reijmersdal et al, 2020), perceptions of source’s honesty (Han et al, 2020), perceptions of trust (De Jans et al, 2018; Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019), and perceptions of source’s credibility (Colliander and Erlandsson, 2015). However, some studies find no impact (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019), especially if the disclosure statement is very explicit (Carr and Hayes, 2014) or if the SMI adds a fairness statement, such as “honest opinions” (Hwang and Jeong, 2016), or if the message is balanced, including positive and negative arguments (message laterality) (De Veirman and Hudders, 2019).…”

“…In this study, based on the theory of systematic heuristics, that is, contextual heuristics based on social proof (Metzger et al, 2010), we aim to fill this gap by investigating the role of the source in disclosure mechanism on two levels. On the one hand, we investigate whether the disclosure of sponsored content can potentially backfire and affect the influencer’s credibility (De Jans et al, 2018; Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019; Han et al, 2020; Weismueller et al, 2020). The perceived credibility of the influencer is a norm that governs the relationship between the influencer and the follower (Abidin and Ots, 2015; Lou and Yuan, 2019).…”

Disguising Commercial Intentions: Sponsorship Disclosure Practices of Mexican Instamoms

“…From the record of each collaboration, we identified whether or not it was accompanied by a disclosure before noting whether this disclosure was explicit or ambiguous based on three conditions: (a) language used for the disclosure, (b) visibility (visible size and location), and (c) type of text (hashtag, phrase, abbreviations). When the disclosure met all three conditions (e.g., "Paid partnership with" or "#Advertising"), it was scored as explicit, and when it was written in English or abbreviated, contained euphemisms, and/or was not visible at first glance (e.g., "#Ad," "#Thanks," "Gifted," "#Sponsored," or "Sp"; Han et al, 2020), it was scored as subtle/ambiguous. When no disclosure was detected, it was scored as zero.…”

Social Media Engagement as a Metric for Ranking US Olympic Athletes as Brand Endorsers

“…This may be due to conflicting extant research investigating consumer responses to branded posts. For instance, research suggests the presence of a disclosure can affect how consumers process and recognize advertisements (Evans, Phua, Lim, and Jun 2017), as well as their attitudes toward a brand (Boerman, Willemsen, and Van Der Aa 2017;Campbell, Mohr, and Verlegh 2013), online sharing intention (Evans et al 2017) and purchase intention (Han, Yi, Jun, and Ahn 2020). In particular, Boerman and colleagues (2017, 82) found that sponsorship disclosure can reduce the persuasive effect of the sponsored post, and if the message includes a celebrity endorser, consumers often develop "distrusting beliefs about the post" which "decreases their intention to engage in electronic word of mouth" behaviors such as liking or commenting on the post.…”