Abstract
Brands’ investments in influencer marketing have been escalating over the past few years. This study proposes and explicates how two similar and comparable sets of advertisements, namely influencer- versus brand-promoted ads (i.e., influencer-generated ads and brands’ reposting/featuring of influencer ads), can affect consumer engagement, consumer sentiment, and topics of comments differently. Results of text analysis show that influencer-promoted ads enjoy significantly higher engagement in terms of consumer liking and commenting than that of brand-promoted ads among apparel brands on Instagram. Consumers express a significantly higher percentage of negative sentiment and a lower percentage of positive sentiment in their comments on brand-promoted ads than on influencer-promoted ads. Consumers demonstrate cultlike appreciation for influencers’ product sharing and show high involvement in the advertised products in influencer-promoted ads. Nonetheless, brand-promoted ads also positively affect consumers’ interests in the online stores and/or the advertised products.
Acknowledgments
We thank the two reviewers and the editor for their invaluable suggestions on revising and strengthening the manuscript.
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Notes on contributors
Chen Lou
Chen Lou (PhD, Michigan State University) is an assistant professor, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.
Sang-Sang Tan
Sang-Sang Tan (MS, University of Technology, Malaysia) is a doctoral candidate, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.
Xiaoyu Chen
Xiaoyu Chen (MS, Wuhan University, China) is a doctoral candidate, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.