The blog and the bountiful: Exploring the effects of disguised product placement on blogs that are revealed by a third party

Abstract

This article investigates the effects of a revelation to blog readers that the blog has been sponsored by a company in exchange for favorable reviews of their products. We compare the responses of two groups of blog readers. One group was exposed to a revelation in a tabloid newspaper that the blogger has been sponsored without admitting it. The other group was not exposed to such a revelation. We find that the attitude toward the blog and the credibility of the blog will suffer after the revelation. The attitude toward the sponsoring brand and the purchase intention, however, will not suffer as a result of the revelation. We find that the effects on the blog can be partially explained by parasocial interaction, whereas the effects on the brand can be partially explained by correspondence bias. On the basis of our findings, we provide implications for both bloggers and brand managers.

Keywords::

• social media
• blogs
• sponsorship
• parasocial interaction
• correspondence bias

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg foundations for the generous funding of this research.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonas Colliander

Jonas Colliander is a PhD student and teacher at the Stockholm School of Economics. His research interests include social media and marketing signals.

Susanna Erlandsson

Susanna Erlandsson is a PhD student and teacher at the Stockholm School of Economics. Her research is focused on the financial returns of marketing efforts.