Social media influencer endorsement: the conditional effects of product attribute description in sponsored influencer videos

ABSTRACT

As social media influencer endorsement gains significance in marketing communication, an increasing number of influencers have started to incorporate product information into their sponsored content. This study examines the effectiveness of product attribute description in the context of sponsored videos. Using a field dataset of 598 sponsored videos, we demonstrate that influencers’ use of product attribute description as an endorsement strategy has a negative impact on video engagement, and this effect is stronger for trial versus awareness campaigns. However, the negative impact is reversed to a positive one when product attribute description is employed for utilitarian products but not for hedonic products. These results reveal that the effectiveness of product attribute description depends on the nature of the product and the campaign objectives. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of influencer marketing effectiveness and sheds light on the nuances of endorsement strategies. Practical implications on how to optimise endorsement effectiveness and video performance are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media influencer (SMI) endorsement
• influencer marketing
• product attribute description
• utilitarian product
• trial campaign

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UmCHnEQI8s.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWDHUEuo4NM.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxhhgKX258I&list=PLL4_SikNtHS6O4thDpDlOOi9osZvyco9b&index=2&t=1062s.

4. https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv14797231/.

5. We did not identify any sponsored videos for 26 of the Power Up influencers in 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yiwen Chen

Yiwen Chen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University. Her research focuses on digital marketing, digital entrepreneurship, and international marketing. She has published papers in International Journal of Electronic Commerce, European Journal of Marketing, and International Journal of Advertising.

Li Chen

Li Chen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Suffolk University. Her research focuses on marketing strategy, digital marketing, and global marketing. Her research portfolio includes publications in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Advertising, and Management International Review.

Yang Pan

Yang Pan is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at McMaster University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on marketing-finance interface (pricing power, customer satisfaction, and social media) and retail analytics (basket analysis and choice modeling on big data). She has published at European Journal of Marketing and marketing science institute working paper series, and she has presented her projects at Marketing Science conferences and American Marketing Association conferences.