Disclosure, content cues, emotions and behavioural engagement in social media influencer marketing: an exploratory multi-stakeholder perspective

Influencer marketing involves multiple stakeholders. Research, however, has predominately explored key influencer marketing concepts, such as disclosure for native advertising from a consumer perspective. In addition, a review of the literature identifies other factors such as content cues and emotions, which may be important in providing a comprehensive understanding of influencer marketing. To address these gaps, this research adopted an exploratory research design using convergent interviews with the three key stakeholder groups consumers, influencers and brands. The findings reveal that beyond disclosure, other content cues within influencer marketing can contribute to advertising recognition. Further, from the perspective of brands, influencers are perceived to have unique credibility attributes relating to expertise on social media platforms and product categories. Emotional responses in influencer marketing are also shown to be predominately positive and directed towards influencers rather than brands, with potential for this to be transferred to the brand through emotional contagion.