The role of influencers and opinion formers marketing on creative brand communication
Abstract
The growing power of social media and the fast change of communication forms encourages marketers to explore new ways for brands to communicate creatively and effectively. The aim of this study is to determine how to reveal the involvement of influencers in creative forms of brand communication by analysing (comparatively) the expression of Lithuanian and foreign influencers in social networks. Research methodology and results: analysis academic literature and quantitative content analysis in social networks. Literature analysis reviled, that the main dimensions of communication strategy with influencers involves four stages: setting the objectives of the campaign; setting the criteria to find out right influencer; setting campaign duration and platform; influencer performance analysis. The results of the study showed that one of the most important and most inclusive step is choosing the right influencer. It is important to choose not only based on brand profile, but also to evaluate the potential risks when working with one or another influencer. Brands are recommended to choose those influencers that are not overloaded with another brands,integrate advertising into video format and reveal that their integration is brand advertising, because consumers tend to choose the products or services which are chosen by the celebrities they follow.
Keyword : brand, creative communication, influencer, online brand marketing and communication, online opinion leader
How to Cite
Černikovaitė, M. E., & Karazijienė, Žaneta. (2023). The role of influencers and opinion formers marketing on creative brand communication. Creativity Studies, 16(2), 371–383. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2023.15722
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Tsang, A. S. L., & Zhou, N. (2005). Newsgroup participants as opinion leaders and seekers in online and offline communication environments. Journal of Business Research, 58(9), 1186–1193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.05.002
Veirman, de M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising: The Review of Marketing Communications, 36(5), 798–828. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035
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Yiyi, Zh., Gang, K., Yi, P., & Yang, Ch. (2018). Understanding influence power of opinion leaders in e-commerce networks: An opinion dynamics theory perspective. Information Sciences, 426, 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.10.031
Ashley, Ch., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology and Marketing, 32(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20761
Biaudet, S. (2017). Influencer marketing as a marketing tool: The process of creating an influencer marketing campaign on instagram [Degree Thesis, Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Finland]. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/134139/Biaudet_Sofie.pdf?sequence=1
Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2008). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x
Brown, D., & Fiorella, S. (2013). Influence marketing: How to create, manage, and measure brand influencers in social media marketing. Que Publishing.
Bulck, van den H., Paulussen, S., & Bels, A. (2016). Celebrity news as hybrid journalism: An assessment of celebrity coverage in newspapers and magazines. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 18(1), 44–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916657523
Byrne, A., Whitehead, M., & Breen, S. (2003). The naked truth of celebrity endorsement. British Food Journal, 105(4–5), 288–296. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700310477086
Černikovaitė, M. (2018). Nuomonių lyderiai – auganti niša socialinių tinklų rinkodaroje. Spectrum: mokslo populiarinimo žurnalas, 2(28), 72–75.
Fahmy, Sh., Bock, M. A., & Wanta, W. (2014). Visual communication theory and research: A mass communication perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137362155
Harrigan, P., Daly, T. M., Coussement, K., Lee, J. A., Soutar, G. N., & Evers, U. (2021). Identifying influencers on social media. International Journal of Information Management, 56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102246
Hsu, Ch.-L., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J., & Chiang, H.-S. (2013). The effects of blogger recommendations on customers’ online shopping intentions. Internet Research, 23(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662241311295782
Influencer Marketing Hub. (2022). Influencer marketing hub. https://influencermarketinghub.com/
Jansen, B. J., Zhang, M., Sobel, K., & Chowdury, A. (2009). Twitter power: Tweets as electronic word of mouth. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(11), 2169–2188. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21149
Janssen, L., Schouten, A. P., & Croes, E. A. J. (2022). Influencer advertising on Instagram: Product-influencer fit and number of followers affect advertising outcomes and influencer evaluations via credibility and identification. International Journal of Advertising: The Review of Marketing Communications, 41(1), 101–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1994205
Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R. (2017). Self-branding, “Micro-Celebrity” and the rise of social media influencers. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2016.1218292
Klepek, M., & Starzyczná, H. 2018. Marketing communication model for social networks. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 19(3), 500–520. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2018.6582
Lietuvos influencerių reitingas. (2022). Lietuvos influencerių reitingas. https://influenceriureitingas.lt/
Lin, H-Ch., Bruning, P. F., & Swarna, H. (2018). Using online opinion leaders to promote the hedonic and utilitarian value of products and services. Business Horizons, 61(3), 431–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.01.010
Lu, Y., Zhao, Y., Zhang, J., Hu, J., & Hu, X. (2019, 27–30 July). Fuzzy Hegselmann-Krause opinion dynamics with opinion leaders. In the Proceedings of the 38th Chinese Control Conference (CCC 2019) (pp. 6019–6024). Guangzhou, China. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.23919/ChiCC.2019.8865519
Lyons, B., & Henderson, K. (2005). Opinion leadership in a computer‐mediated environment. Journal of Consumer Behaviour: An International Research Review, 4(5), 319–329. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.22
Moreira, A. C., Fortes, N., & Santiago, R. (2017). Influence of sensory stimuli on brand experience, brand equity and purchase intention. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 18(1), 68–83. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2016.1252793
Morkevičius, V. (2005). Terra incognita: kiekybinė viešosios politikos diskurso turinio analizė. Viešoji politika ir administravimas, 11, 74–85.
Oueslati, W., Arrami, S., Dhouioui, Z., & Massaabi, M. (2021). Opinion leaders’ detection in dynamic social networks. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 33(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.5692
Ouvrein, G., Pabian, S., Giles, D., Hudders, L., & Backer, de Ch. (2021). The web of influencers: A marketing-audience classification of (potential) social media influencers. Journal of Marketing Management, 37(13–14), 1313–1342. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2021.1912142
Penfold, R. (2004). The star’s image, victimization and celebrity culture. Punishment and Society, 6(3), 289–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474504043633
Pukelytė, I. (2016). Tarp dramos ir postdramos. Respectus Philologicus, 29(34), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.15388/RESPECTUS.2016.29.34.02
Rupšienė, L. (2007). Kokybinių tyrimų duomenų rinkimo metodologija. Klaipėdos universitetas.
Shapiro, G., & Markoff, J. (2009). A matter of definition. In C. W. Roberts (Ed.), Text analysis for the social sciences: methods for drawing statistical inferences from texts and transcripts (pp. 9–34). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003064060-1
Tafesse, W., & Wood, B. P. (2021). Followers’ engagement with Instagram influencers: The role of influencers’ content and engagement strategy. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102303
Thomson, M. (2006). Human brands: Investigating antecedents to consumers’ strong attachments to celebrities. Journal of Marketing, 70(3), 104–119. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.70.3.104
Tsang, A. S. L., & Zhou, N. (2005). Newsgroup participants as opinion leaders and seekers in online and offline communication environments. Journal of Business Research, 58(9), 1186–1193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.05.002
Veirman, de M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising: The Review of Marketing Communications, 36(5), 798–828. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035
Voorveld, H. A. M. (2019). Brand communication in social media: A research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 48(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2019.1588808
Woods, S. (2016). #Sponsored: The emergence of influencer marketing, In TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3010&context=utk_chanhonoproj
Yiyi, Zh., Gang, K., Yi, P., & Yang, Ch. (2018). Understanding influence power of opinion leaders in e-commerce networks: An opinion dynamics theory perspective. Information Sciences, 426, 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.10.031