The Relationship of Chilean Minors with Brands and Influencers on Social Networks

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study that sought to analyze the relationship between minors and brands on social media. The frequency with which minors search for or share information or subscribe to brand web pages was measured, as well as their following of influencers, who commonly refer to consumer goods. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to learning about the commercial environment that surrounds children in their routines on social media, particularly because of their growing influence in home purchasing decisions. The results, obtained from a survey applied in 501 homes in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago de Chile to minors between 10 and 14 years old, show that the respondents effectively interact with brands through social media. Although it is not a widespread practice among 10- to 12-year-olds, it is increasingly becoming present among 13- to 14-year-olds. Children seem most interested in sportswear, fashion, and technology brands, areas in which children have significant influence in family purchasing decision. Following influencers through social media is also a common activity among minors. In particular, the age groups here studied preferred to follow celebrities, particularly from the worlds of music, football, or YouTube, over specific brands.

Specificities Introduced by Mobile Phones in the Relationship Between Children and Commercial Content

“…Despite displaying a coincidental attitude of rejection toward advertising which leads them to avoid it (Livingstone et al, 2014;Martínez, 2019), the minors who participated in this study held positive attitude towards mobile phone messages that they felt were personalized and entertaining (Boyd, 2014;Burroughs, 2017;Castelló-Martínez & Tur-Viñes, 2020;Feijoo et al, 2020b;Ito et al, 2010;Pires et al, 2019) or had been prepared by influencers (Feijoo & Sádaba, 2021;Núñez-Gómez et al, 2020).…”

“…This hints at the relevance of studying how this environment may influence children whether attitudes and intentions present age-related differences. For example, it would seem reasonable to think that the entertainment variable would be particularly relevant among younger users (Feijoo et al, 2021) given that adults seem to be less interested in hedonic or pleasurable experiences (Charles & Carstensen, 2010;Hofer et al, 2014).…”

“…This would point to the fact that individuals are more likely to pay attention to an advertisement if it perceived as entertaining, especially while being exposed to online games and videos (Boyd, 2014;Burroughs, 2017;Castelló-Martínez & Tur-Viñes, 2020;Feijoo et al, 2020a;Ito et al, 2010;Pires et al, 2019). The emerging phenomenon of influencers has also captured the attention of researchers (Del Moral et al, 2016;Feijoo & Sádaba, 2021;Núñez-Gómez et al, 2020) for their ability to benefit from the closeness of the relationship that is established through mobile phones. In the search for the most attractive combination to reach children, brands include games and entertainment and in doing so call upon emotions with ties to social experiences rather than rationality (Nairn & Fine, 2008).…”

From attention to intention in mobile advertising. Analysis of the ads that generate interaction among the new generations of users

“…Indeed, in the web environment, user response to advertising formats varies. For example, display advertising generates much lower response rates than that generated by native advertising (Maestro-Espínola et al, 2019), advertising on social networks (Núñez-Gómez et al, 2020;Pintado & Sánchez, 2018), the advergaming (An & Kang, 2014;Mallinckrodt & Mizerski, 2007;Van Reijmersdal et al, 2012;Vanwesenbeeck et al, 2017) or influencer marketing (Feijoo & Sádaba, 2021a;Lou & Yuan, 2019;Trivedi & Sama, 2020;Zozaya & Sádaba, 2022). This study analyzes formats on mobile devices and aims to see whether within the mobile scenario the role of advertising format is as significant as it is in the web scenario.…”

The Role of Opinion Leaders in the Sustainable Development of Corporate-Led Consumer Advice Networks: Evidence from a Chinese Travel Content Community

“…However, another line of research focused on the SMIs' role as taste-makers and described the way their judgment of aesthetic taste influenced their followers' purchase decisions [26,27]. When identifying the SMI phenomenon, one line of research focused solely on SMIs' personal traits, such as authenticity [28], attractiveness [29], and affinity [30]. Another line of research indicated that followers are attracted to the content of SMIs, such as entertaining [31] or informative content [32].…”