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The Impact Of Influencer Marketing On The Global Economy

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O. L. Vyatkina
O. L. Vyatkina
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European Proceedings of
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e-ISSN: 2357-1330
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DOI: 10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.187
II International Scientific Conference GCPMED 2019
"Global Challenges and Prospects of the Modern Economic Development"
THE IMPACT OF INFLUENCER MARKETING ON THE GLOBAL
ECONOMY
O. L. Vyatkina (a)*
*Corresponding author
(a) Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, 125993, Leningradsky Ave., 49, Russia,
Moscow, olgavyatkina@gmail.com
Abstract
The sphere of media and advertising is changing at a rapid rate. The promotion method, which was effective
a year ago, may not work now. Social media influencers are Internet users with a lot of subscribers across
different social networks, who have significant influence on their followers. Therefore, marketers are
starting to look for ways to deliver their message to consumers through influencers without using direct
advertising. Marketing strategies, focused on consumers, include content marketing, native advertising and
other types of influencer marketing instruments. The use of the Internet opinion leaders, who integrate
product or brand information into their content, has become an alternative to the traditional marketing tools
and is in direct competition with the related field of paid social media marketing in every company's
marketing budget. Consumers trust less brand ad on the Internet and prefer peer-to-peer communications.
For this reason, influencer marketing has continued to grow as an essential component of companies’ digital
marketing strategies. Nowadays, nearly 75% of marketing specialists use social media influencers to spread
word of mouth (WOM) about their products and brands on social media. Previous researches show that
there is a great number of contradictions about the effectiveness of influencer marketing. That evokes many
questions. This article is aimed to clarify what influencer marketing is, to explain why influencer marketing
is effective and how to use it properly.
2357-1330 © 2020 Published by European Publisher.
Keywords: Influencer marketing, social media, advertising, communication strategy, celebrity, KPI.
https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.187
Corresponding Author: O. L. Vyatkina
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
1308
1. Introduction
Influencer marketing is not a new concept at all. For many years сelebrities have been influencing a
great number of consumers. This industry refers to a form of marketing where marketers and brands invest
in selected influential individuals to create or promote their branded content to both the influencers’ own
followers and to the target consumers of brands (Global Yodel, 2017). The branded content, produced by
influencers, is believed to have more direct, authentic and organic contact with potential consumers than
brand-generated advertising (Adweek 40, 2015).
Social media influencers are Internet users with a lot of subscribers across different social networks,
who have significant influence on their followers (Agrawal, 2016). In most cases they are experts in specific
niche, such as beauty, lifestyle, fashion, sport, travelling or food. However, some influencers create only
entertainment content (Hughes, Swaminathan, & Brooks, 2019). As sоcial media becomes more entrenched
in people's lives and more functional in addition to communication goals, like shopping, the role of influencers
is set to only increase (Lou & Yuan, 2019).
However, the market is constantly changing: companies should continually develop their strategies
accordingly. Nowadays, it is important for brands to choose a relevant influencer for promotion their
products or services (Liu, Jiang, Lin, Ding, Duan, & Xu, 2015). There are four key influencer types:
1. Mega-influencers – social superstars who have more than a million subscribers. They are often
famous because of their background in the “real” world. Their reach is used to increase brand awareness.
2. Macro-influencers – influencers with between 100,000 and 1 million followers. Their advantages:
high targeted coverage in a particular market, quality of content and openness to cooperation.
3. Micro-influencers – someone who has between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. While the quantity of
followers may be small, their authenticity is high. A small but loyal audience provides such influencers with
a high level of trust and involvement. Due to the low price, it is more profitable for brands to make ad with
the participation of several micro-influencers than to contact a passive audience of “stars”.
4. Nano-influencers – somebody with fewer than 1,000 followers, who has immense influence in a
special community. For instance, a nano-influencer may be the person with the most credibility in a
particular neighborhood. Their advertising looks like friendly advice, so they have the highest level of
engagement, but do not provide much coverage.
Mega-influencers do not really benefit all brands. These celebrities may be famous, but they do not
always have a great influence on humans’ behavior. Just because a person can recognize a celebrity’s name,
does not mean that he or she respects them enough to buy the products they recommend (De Veirman,
Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2017).
Some people think that a nano-influencer will make too little impact, because they do not have
enough followers. However, nano-influencers are often the best people to extol brand’s values to a narrow
or specific niche. If a brand builds a relationship with a nano-influencer, then most people consider it
authentic and original (Khamis, Ang, & Welling, 2017).
https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.187
Corresponding Author: O. L. Vyatkina
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
1309
2. Problem Statement
The effectiveness of influencers evokes a great number of questions. The industry of influencer
marketing is unregulated. This eventually causes many challenges. There is no control of how much impact
influencers have and how much they should be paid. There are no methods of verification of data from
influencers and brands cannot get a guarantee that a particular collaboration will be successful.
One of the most important problems, connected with influencer marketing, is the identification of
the right influencers. The growth of social bots and the purchase of fake followers has sowed mistrust
among consumers and brands alike.
Some companies still have a poor understanding of the specifics and features of working with
influencers. Therefore, it is difficult for brands to plan their marketing budgets. The Association of National
Advertisers (ANA) found that, while 75% of marketers currently use influencer marketing instruments,
only 36% consider those activities effective and 19% actually admitted they are “ineffective” (Coll & Micó,
2019).
3. Research Questions
This article is based on current literature about traditional marketing communications, digital
marketing and influencer marketing. Although the level of influencer effectiveness depends on the industry
and marketing objectives, an epidemic of fake followers has undoubtedly hit the entire industry. Thus, the
research question is: "Is influencer marketing more effective than traditional marketing communication?"
4. Purpose of the Study
The success of influencer marketing means that budgets for this type of campaign are set to rise.
However, not all marketers know how to use this instrument properly. Current literature generated a lot of
controversy about influencer marketing. The main purpose of this article is to explain why influencer
marketing is effective.
5. Research Methods
In the process of research, the following methods were used: logic analysis, inductive and deductive
methods, analysis of scientific literature and other research methods. Works of Russian, European and
American scientists lighting the problems of traditional marketing communications and influencer marketing,
served as theoretical background for the data analysis in this study. Combined methodological approach
allowed the author to structure the process of study and to identify its basic stages.
6. Findings
As social media continues to get more and more popularity, influencer marketing has gained a great
significance to large number of brands. This industry has become more than doubled in size since 2016.
Marketers have claimed that there are top five challenges for business in working with social media. One
of such challenges is measuring return on investment (ROI) (Jargalsaikhan & Korotina, 2016).
https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.187
Corresponding Author: O. L. Vyatkina
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
1310
Nevertheless, as the usage of social media increases among customers, brands start to apply more resources
to operate its use as a marketing tool.
Companies’ management have stated that their spending on social media amounts - 12 % of their
marketing budgets. There is an expectation of seventy-one percent growth over the next five years. The
most noticeable trend is the investment projections on social media influencers. As reported by eMarketer
research, 70 % of US marketers, which were surveyed, predict the increase of influencer marketing budgets
in 2018. Besides, the assumption of 89 % marketers is that people’s trust and loyalty to brand is closely
connected with social media influencers (Kapitan & Silvera, 2016).
Moreover, the involvement of micro-influencers in the promotion of the brand or product is on the
top of the strategies, which marketing professionals implement (Dinesh, 2017). According to research, 45,8
% of marketing specialists, who work in luxury, fashion and beauty spheres, are sure that micro-influencers
with 10k - 100k followers guarantee much more profit than other types of influencers.
As reported by a research, carried out by Nielsen and the TapInfluence agency in 2016, influencer
marketing provides a return of investment, exceeding other forms of marketing by 11 times. This survey
also demonstrates that thanks to influencer marketing customers tend to buy much more goods and services
than thanks to other online marketing tools.
Furthermore, influencer marketing guarantees much more advantages than typical digital marketing
campaign. During the campaign, the reach of the brand is bigger, as it operates with benefits of the already
built relationships and credibility between media influencers and their subscribers. Display advertising
cannot cause such effect, because customers know that this ad is paid material and is not verified by people,
whom they trust. With the help of relevant influencers, brand’s content is shown to users who refer to target
audience of the brand and are already interested in this sphere. As a result, the company does not need to
spend additional money on finding appropriate audience. The rightly chosen influencer has already had the
audience, which is needed for brand. This also raises brand awareness, as most consumers want to know
more about the brand, its values, history and offers.
The use of influencer marketing may cause negative consequences for brand. Therefore, marketing
specialists should avoid some important points. First of all, the brand should be well informed of its target
audience and its specifications. To choose a relevant influencer is not easy as it seems. This stage is the
most important and not all brands make a correct choice. Marketing goals and objectives define the
correctness of this complicated decision. Also, it is important to consider the type of industry. In addition,
companies should remember about the compliance of the content, used by the influencer, with brand values.
7. Conclusion
Nowadays, influencer marketing is one of the most popular marketing instruments with a great
ability to create authentic content and engage a highly relevant audience. This industry has proven success
against a wide array of brand initiatives (merchandising drive periods, new product launches, corporate
charitable programs, brand loyalty and base support across a brand’s portfolio).
The right question to ask is when and how they should be integrated into overall marketing plans.
With its growing role, companies need to take a more strategic and proactive approach to define how and
when they should use influencers. It is crucial that the influencer’s content aligns with brand’s overall
https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.187
Corresponding Author: O. L. Vyatkina
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
eISSN: 2357-1330
1311
image. The use of offensive and provocative content could have a negative effect on the brand's reputation.
In order to create an effective strategy for influencer marketing, a brand should have a complete
understanding of its own target audience. A clearly defined goal makes it much easier to determine what
influencers are the best choices to participate in brands’ strategy.
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... 2023). Influencers have great influence over their fans, which they can leverage to communicate the company's brand, which is very appealing to the fans (Vyatkina, 2020). When working with a company, the influencer becomes an imaginary mediator and disseminator of Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) to their follower base, as they are the opinion leaders for that particular group (Dalstam et al., 2018). ...
... These influencers are very close to their audience, who trust them and treat them as friends (Boerman, 2020a). Vyatkina (2020) discusses the friendly relationship between micro-influencers and their fans. Macro-influencers have over 100,000 followers. ...
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Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
Businesses are starting to use social media influencers (SMIs) as a new way to persuade their target audience to buy something. This is because consumer stratification is growing quickly. Social media's pervasiveness, as well as its broad reach and frequency, have made it a thriving advertising strategy, outperforming more traditional forms of advertising. In this study, the researchers focus on divulging the need to employ social media influencers in marketing services and their impact on consumers. The research attempts to trace the effectiveness of social media influencing in comparison to traditional forms of advertising and to promulgate the pros and cons of the emerging advertising strategy through social media influencers. The researchers' findings were based on a mixed method of research that included quantitative and qualitative data collected through surveys and interviews. The researchers discovered that despite influencers have a strong influence on consumer purchasing decisions, the new advertising trend through Social Media Influencers is on the rise in Kashmir Valley. However, the overall findings reveal that influencer marketing holds the upper hand in the market when it comes to influencing target groups effectively.
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Influencer Marketing in the Growth Hacking strategy of digital brands
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2019
This article analyses the presence of influencer marketing in business communications strategies in the new economy, based on the results of an exploratory investigation carried out in accordance with the methodology of the Grounded Theory. The categorisation of the information, obtained from the elaboration of the case studies of three digitally native brands (Wallapop, Westwing and Fotocasa), shows that influencer marketing actions are part of their 360º communications strategy. Actions with influencers are developed in a synergistic way with other advertising and public relations actions, both on and offline. In terms of their approach, they follow Marston's strategic planning model, which consists of four phases: research, planning, execution and evaluation. In this sense, its particularities include the decision-making based on data, as well as the empowerment of the user and the brands' agents.
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Influencer Marketing: How Message Value and Credibility Affect Consumer Trust of Branded Content on Social Media
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2018
In the past few years, expenditure on influencer marketing has grown exponentially. The present study involves preliminary research to understand the mechanism by which influencer marketing affects consumers via social media. It proposes an integrated model – social media influencer value model – to account for the roles of advertising value and source credibility. In order to test this model, we administered an online survey among social media users who followed at least one influencer. Partial least squares path modeling results show that the informative value of influencer-generated content, influencer’s trustworthiness, attractiveness, and similarity to the followers positively affect followers’ trust in influencers’ branded posts, which subsequently influence brand awareness and purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of Social Media Influencers
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2016
The notion of self-branding has drawn myriad academic responses over the last decade. First popularised in a provocative piece published in Fast Company, self-branding has been criticised by some on theoretical, practical and ethical grounds, while others have endorsed and propelled the idea. This article considers how and why the concept of self-branding has become so prevalent. We contend that it parallels the growth of digital technology (particularly social media) embedded in the current political climate: neoliberal individualism. Another objective here is to imbue the concept of self-branding with a marketing perspective and show how the ‘celebrities’ of self-branding manifest at a marketing media nexus distinct to the opening decades of the twenty-first century. Building on literature from mostly media and cultural studies, this critique sees self-branding as a distortion of key branding principles that has obvious implications for its practitioners and advocates. The article shows that, despite inherent tensions and problematic ironies, self-branding persists through the rise of Social Media Influencers; we consider three of these whose fame and following was achieved via the practices and phenomena under consideration.
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Driving Brand Engagement Through Online Social Influencers: An Empirical Investigation of Sponsored Blogging Campaigns
Article
  • Jun 2019
  • J MARKETING
Influencer marketing is prevalent in firm strategies, yet little is known about the factors that drive success of online brand engagement at different stages of the consumer purchase funnel. The findings suggest that sponsored blogging affects online engagement (e.g., posting comments, liking a brand) differently depending on blogger characteristics and blog post content, which are further moderated by social media platform type and campaign advertising intent. When a sponsored post occurs on a blog, high blogger expertise is more effective when the advertising intent is to raise awareness versus increase trial. However, source expertise fails to drive engagement when the sponsored post occurs on Facebook. When a sponsored post occurs on Facebook, posts high in hedonic content are more effective when the advertising intent is to increase trial versus raise awareness. The effectiveness of campaign incentives depends on the platform type, such that they can increase (decrease) engagement on blogs (Facebook). The empirical evidence for these findings comes from real in-market customer response data and is supplemented with data from an experiment. Taken together, the findings highlight the critical interplay of platform type, campaign intent, source, campaign incentives, and content factors in driving engagement.
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Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude
Article
  • Jul 2017
Findings of two experimental studies show that Instagram influencers with high numbers of followers are found more likeable, partly because they are considered more popular. Important, only in limited cases, perceptions of popularity induced by the influencer's number of followers increase the influencer's perceived opinion leadership. However, if the influencer follows very few accounts him-/herself, this can negatively impact popular influencers’ likeability. Also, cooperating with influencers with high numbers of followers might not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, as this decreases the brand's perceived uniqueness and consequently brand attitudes.
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From digital media influencers to celebrity endorsers: attributions drive endorser effectiveness
Article
  • Mar 2015
We propose that attributions about an endorser truly liking, using, or desiring a promoted product mediate the relationship between source and message factors and persuasion via endorsement. In this paper, we integrate the persuasion literature into a framework for examining endorser effectiveness via focus factors (e.g., involvement, cognitive load) that determine whether a consumer thinks carefully or superficially about a message, and lead consumers to rely on different source and message elements (e.g., source attractiveness, argument strength). These elements then influence attributional processing. Correspondent inferences about an endorser can lead to enhanced advertisement and brand attitudes, and spur either fleeting identification with the endorsement or more enduring internalization (Kelman, The Public Opinion Quarterly 25:57-78, 1961) of the endorser’s message as a consumer’s own. Implications of our framework and research directions are discussed.
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Identifying effective influencers based on trust for electronic word-of-mouth marketing: A domain-aware approach
Article
  • Jun 2015
  • INFORM SCIENCES
Because effective influencers in an online social network (OSN) can significantly affect consumers’ purchasing decisions via trust among users in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) marketing, identifying these influencers with respect to user trust relationships has become increasingly important. However, many existing studies overlook the domain attribute of trust and the time-varying nature of social networks and only analyze a static snapshot of a user trust network (UTN). To address these issues and investigate this topic in the e-commerce context, this study proposes a research framework that takes into account the dimensions of trust, domain, and time. A time-varying hypergraph is developed to model the OSN using the time-varying features of multi-type relationships, and an algorithm is developed to extract a domain-aware UTN based on the time-varying hypergraph and user trust relationships. Reinforced by the dimensions of trust, domain, and time, a novel product review domain-aware (PRDA) approach is conceived that identifies effective influencers and categorizes them into three types, i.e., emerging influencers, holding influencers, and vanishing influencers, based on their popularity status across the life cycle. The experimental results from the Epinions dataset show that the PRDA approach outperforms both the social network-based influence-evaluating approach and the “popular author” approach.
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10 reasons why influencer marketing is the next big thing
  • Jan 2015
Adveek 40 (2015). 10 reasons why influencer marketing is the next big thing. Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/digital/10-reasons-why-influencer-marketing-is-the-next-big-thing/ Accessed: 10.10.2019.
Why influencer marketing will explode in 2017
  • Jan 2016
  • FORBES
  • A J Agrawal
Agrawal, A. J. (2016). Why influencer marketing will explode in 2017. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/12/27/why-influencer-marketing-will-explode-in-2017/#30a8bb5020a9 Accessed: 10.10.2019.
Why micro-influencers are a social media marketing imperative for
  • Jan 2017
  • D Dinesh
Dinesh, D. (2017). Why micro-influencers are a social media marketing imperative for 2017. EContent. Retrieved from: http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Industry-Insights/Why-Micro-Influencers-are-a-Social-Media-Marketing-Imperative-for-2017-115835.htm Accessed: 10.10.2019. Global Yodel (2017). What is influencer marketing? Huffington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-influcner-marketing_b_10778128?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8 &guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGlSdtlCW7VVE67Bt6fscAp0vSHnjH4W2Hw3fl0wFsFIG3fi9Kr6U B3LG4HiqL_oxbaKgbbINxj1ViLAbQ12OTorjohGWAUVN33nZ-pyUrxZgHMaGctMZq1jdurm5grwavTw94HYVdcTxDH4DLxtbHSP9ZNSwQOsWtLMNaKQTV Gg Accessed: 10.10.2019.