user generated content

Celebrity endorsers effective at Instagram?

 

The latest report (see literature list) on influencer marketing from Marketing Week showed that 84% of all marketers find it a challenge to determine the ROI of influencer marketing. Despite this challenge, marketers generally believe that influencer marketing is an effective strategy to bring products and services to the attention of consumers. And that’s not without reason, as recent research showed that 77% of all consumers worldwide take action after seeing a recommendation on social media from friends, family or acquaintances. This could imply that bloggers and vloggers who have become known on social media would be more effective than celebrities who do not derive their reputation from social media (such as from their profession or other media, but who are active on social media).

In the current research literature, people who have grown up on social media (such as Anna Nooshin and Nicky de Jager) are referred to as non-traditional influencers; people who enjoy public recognition by means of their profession (sportsman, actor, musician, TV presenter, etc.) or other media and are active on social media are often referred to as traditional celebrity influencers. Marketers and researchers often assume that non-traditional influencers are more effective to use in campaigns because they would be more credible and authentic and they belong to the group of young people they trust (ingroup). But is that also the case? Recent research shows that this is not always the case.

Let’s first determine why both types of influencers are able to influence consumers. Influencers can transfer the meaning they have acquired to a brand when they recommend products or services. For example, the expertise of an influencer can play a decisive role in enticing consumers to buy games. In another case, the physical attractiveness of an influencer can play a decisive role in tempting consumers to buy, for example, beauty products. Research shows that it is important that there is a match/fit between the influencer and the endorsed product, otherwise there will be no transfer of meaning. But does this transfer of meaning take place and how do influencers convince consumers? This process can be explained using the Social Influence theory.

This theory identifies two mechanisms that can play a role in changing consumers’ attitudes and behaviours in response to an influencer’s message, namely through internalization and/or identification. Internalisation of an influencer message occurs when the influencer is associated with credibility. Characteristics such as expertise, trustworthiness, authenticity and goodwill play a role in this. The consumer then adopts the influencer’s attitude and behaviour because his or her own ideas and values are in line with those of the influencer. Identification occurs when the influencer is associated with attractiveness. Characteristics such as similarity between influencer and consumer, likeability and awareness of the influencer play a role. In this way, the consumer adopts the attitude and behaviour because it enables the consumer to create a desired image of himself to the outside world. The content of the message plays a less important role. In other words, the consumer likes to be associated with the influencer and wants to show this to the outside world.

However, little is known about the difference in effectiveness of traditional and non-traditional influencers. In addition, little is known about the mechanisms that can explain the effectiveness of different influencers. But are non-traditional influencers more effective than traditional influencers?

To provide insight into this, a several studies were conducted last year (2019) in collaboration with master students of Communication Science at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam) into the effectiveness of the two types of influencers: traditional versus non-traditional celebrity influencers who are in the top 10 of Dutch Instagrammers. For this purpose, 8 different experiments were conducted with different Instagram influencers (both traditional and non-traditional). Table 1 shows an overview of the bloggers/vloggers studied on Instagram. The rows show the names of the influencers who have been studied against each other in each experiment. In each experiment, half of the participants received a traditional celebrity influencer.

 

 

 

 

 

The research revealed that traditional celebrity influencers – especially if known from TV – are more effective than non-traditional influencers when it comes to influencing brand attitudes and buying intentions. So, when traditional celebrity influencers (known from TV) such as Nicolette van Dam, Bregje Heinen, Gwen van Poorten and Shelly Sterk are compared with non-traditional influencers such as Nina Warink, Mascha Feoktistova, Noor de Groot or Diane Leeflang, then TV presenters on Instagram are more effective.

 

If you contrast traditional celebrity influencers – who enjoy recognition as a model – with non-traditional influencers, then the non-traditional influencers are more effective. In the latter case, it means that non-traditional influencers such as Claartje Rose, Nienke Plas and Mascha Feoktistova are more effective than not like Kim Feenstra, Sanne Kramer and Romee Strijd. It is also striking that non-traditional influencers are not always more effective because they are more credible, as is often assumed. A blogger like Nienke Plas is both more attractive and more credible than a model like Sanne Kramer. Consumers do not only consider the expertise, reliability, authenticity and goodwill when it comes to influencing, but also appearance such as attractiveness, familiarity and similarities between influencer and consumer. On the basis of this research, it can be stated that the influence of well-known TV personalities on social media should not be levelled out. These people are often strong personal brands. They are very credibly and attractively positioned on the channels where they present themselves. And when social media users experience the presenters in the same way, they are extremely suitable for use in influencer campaigns. If you have the choice between using a model as a traditional celebrity influencer or a non-traditional influencer in a campaign, it is better to choose a non-traditional influencer. It is also concluded that both internalization and identification can play a role in the effectiveness of influencers.

Literture

  • De Veirman, 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, 36(5), 798-828.
  • Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 1-7.
  • Halima, N. B., Skandrani, H., & Ayadi, N. (2017). Celebrity Endorsement on Social Networks Sites: Impact of his/her credibility and congruence with the endorsed product, on the consumer’s information adoption and dissemination Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation: Springer, Cham.
  • Jin, S. V., & Ryu, E. (2018). Celebrity fashion brand endorsement in Facebook viral marketing and social commerce: Interactive effects of social identification, materialism, fashion involvement, and opinion leadership. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 0(0), null.
  • Kamins, M. A., & Gupta, K. (1994). Congruence between spokesperson and product type: A matchup hypothesis perspective. Psychology & Marketing, 11(6), 569-586.
  • Kapitan, S., & Silvera, D. H. (2016). From digital media influencers to celebrity endorsers: attributions drive endorser effectiveness. [journal article]. Marketing Letters, 27(3), 553-567.
  • Lee, J. E., & Watkins, B. (2016). YouTube vloggers’ influence on consumer luxury brand perceptions and intentions. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5753-5760.
  • Ohanian, R. (1991). The impact of celebrity spokespersons’ perceived image on consumers’ intention to purchase. Journal of advertising Research, 31(1), 46-54.
  • Penny, S. (2019). Proving the ROI of influencer marketing is challenging but it can be done. Marketing Week.
  • Phua, J., Jin, S. V., & Kim, J. (2017). Gratifications of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat to follow brands: The moderating effect of social comparison, trust, tie strength, and network homophily on brand identification, brand engagement, brand commitment, and membership intention. Telematics and Informatics, 34(1), 412-424.
  • Zhu, J., & Tan, B. (2007). Effectiveness of blog advertising: Impact of communicator expertise, advertising intent, and product involvement. ICIS 2007 proceedings, 121.
Posted by Klapper  |  0 Comment  |  in branded YouTube channel, Influencer marketing, Nicky de Jager, Nicolette van Dam, user generated content

What science tells us about drivers of engagement, sharing and liking

In 2016 2,22 billion social media users are registered. Every day 500 million tweets are posted, 95 million photos are uploaded to Instagram and 300 hours video are uploaded to YouTube. Sharing, liking and engagement are important goals for marketers to spread their marketing communication brand messages on social media and therefore plays a considerable role in marketer’s creative strategy. In this blog I will discuss recent research articles about drivers of social media sharing, liking, and engagement.

Content factors

The research articles show us that emotional content drives the sharing behavior of social media users, for instance New York Times news articles that induce emotions are more likely to be shared than stories without emotions. Especially news articles with negative emotions (like disgust) are likely to be passed through. Moreover, research reveals that persuasive content (like emotional and philanthropic content) increases engagement while informative content (like prices, availability, and product features) decreases engagement.
The literature also recognizes the use of hashtags and URL’s as driver for sharing. The use of hashtags and URL’s on Twitter are drivers for sharing while the use of links in Facebooks postings reduces the number of comments.
It is acknowledged that characteristics of social media users affect the sharing of social media content. According to the research literature users often share content on social media in an effort to manage their image or personal brand. In other words, it suggests that people share content that is consistent with the user’s desired image.
Finally, executional factors can drive the liking of content. An analysis of 8 million Instagram photos revealed that the following images generate higher levels of likes:
-light images (compared to dark images);
-duck face selfies (compared to realistic selfies);
-low saturation (the amount of grey) (compared to vibrant colors);
-single dominant colors (compared to multiple colors).

Social influence and creator related features

Most marketers know social influencers can play an important role in the marketing strategy and some users of social media are more influential than others. Scientific literature shows us that influencers can stimulate adoption among other users. Hence, purchase intention of influencers can affect the purchase intention of others due to social comparison. People may compare their own possessions to those of influencer, because of influencer’s status or personal traits. Also, the number of both followers and followees affects positively the sharing behavior. Furthermore, seeding strategies directed at influencers are more efficient than strategies directed on high volumes of individuals. Finally, the experience and age can affect the effectivity of influencers. There is evidence that posts on online communities are less likely to get reply if newcomers write them.

 Fit between content and user

Various groups of people can be identified on social media; populations which tend to discuss one topic and populations which tend to discuss various topics. Especially in a population where one topic is discussed, adapting the content user is an effective way to stimulate sharing.

Conclusions

The drivers for sharing, liking and engagement are displayed in figure on the left. The discussed literature suggests that content factors, user factors and the fit between content may affect the sharing, liking and engaging your audiences. Please check out the references below for more detailed research insights!

 

Charles Vaneker

Senior Research & media Consultant

 

Sources

Brandwatch. (2017). Marketing: 105 amazing social media statistics and facts

Jaakonmäki, R., Müller, O., & Vom Brocke, J. (2017). The impact of content, context, and creator on user engagement in social media marketing. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii.

Zhang, Y., Moe, W. W., & Schweidel, D. A. (2017). Modeling the role of message content and influencers in social media rebroadcasting. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 100-119. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.07.003

Posted by Klapper  |  0 Comment  |  in Instagram, marketing strategy, onderzoek, social media, user generated content

Trends in online video formats

Deze week werd door IMMovator het eerste Cross Media Café van dit jaar georganiseerd, met als thema online video formats. De onderwerpen varieerde van meer technische onderwerpen zoals 4k televisie en videoherkenning tot trends in online video formats. Als media consultant die vooral in online video formats is geïnteresseerd, was het even doorbijten om uiteindelijk bij de trends te belanden. Welke trends in online video formats kwamen zoal aan bod?

De online branded content video
Na de eerste twee sprekers bleek het programma toch meer samenhang te vertonen dan in eerste instantie gedacht. Uit het verhaal van EndeMol/Shine bleek dat branded video formats – veelal gebaseerd op bekende tv-formats – de aandacht hebben bij de televisieproducent. Er worden inmiddels voor verschillende partijen branded video formats geproduceerd waarbij de producent zelf het risico draagt. In feite biedt de producent ook video formats aan buiten de tv-zenders om, op eigen IP kanalen. Het levert weinig spectaculaire formats op, maar de online branded video formats zijn goed geproduceerd en gepositioneerd.

De online 360 graden video
NewBeTV – producent van (branded) video content als TheTubeShow en tv-programma’s als Who’s in Who’s Outs (BNN) – toonde hun eerste 360 graden video format (virtual reality) over het nieuwe Nederlandse EU voorzitterschap. Inhoudelijk niet een heel sterk format maar het toonde wel aan dat 360 graden video’s een nieuwe beleving kunnen geven voor kijkers op YouTube en Facebook.
Deze trend zal zich ongetwijfeld gaan doorzetten in veel verschillende video formats op online platforms en televisie. Vooral ook omdat je de 360 graden video kunt navigeren met de mobiele telefoon of tablet of met een navigatieknop in Youtube.

De online nieuwsvideo
Ook worden online nieuwsvideo’s verder ontwikkeld. Na de komst van het online nieuwskanaal VICE, komt nu ook NU.nl met een nieuwskanaal gebaseerd op het ‘burgerjournalistiek-principe’, dat ook wordt gebruikt door de regionale omroepen maar nu in een veel hipper jasje is gestoken. Nieuwsfilmpjes van tablet- en mobiele telefoongebruikers gaan live gestreamed worden (met 5 seconde vertraging) vanaf het NU.nl platform. Een mooie toevoeging aan de vele online nieuwskanalen in Nederland.

De online gepersonificeerde instructievideo
Niet alleen worden online nieuwsformats verder door ontwikkeld, maar ook de online instructievideo krijgt een nieuwe impuls vanuit de meer technische hoek. Het bedrijf Red Nun
maakt het mogelijk om klanten een gepersonificeerde video voor te schotelen van energiebedrijven zoals Essent. Zo worden de data uit het CRM systeem van Essent ‘ingelezen’ in de instructievideo om de klant in een animatie te laten zien wat hij/zij over een bepaalde periode heeft verbruikt en hoeveel hij/zij terugontvangt of moet bijbetalen.

De online interactieve video
Naast individualisering van de instructievideo, krijgen online video’s ook steeds meer interactieve mogelijkheden. Een bedrijf als Movietrader maakt video’s ‘klikbaar’ waardoor kijkers allerlei informatie kunnen opvragen tijden het bekijken van een video.

Conclusie
De belangrijkste conclusie van deze interessante middag was eigenlijk dat online video een belangrijke nieuwe impuls krijgt door het gebruik van personificatie en interactiviteit. Ook inhoudelijk worden online video formats vernieuwd, dat vooral tot uiting komt in het gebruik van User Generated News Content in nieuwsvideo formats.

Charles Vaneker
KlapperCom Consultancy

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(Videoclips bij deze blog )

(Presentatie EndeMol Shine )

(Presentatie NewBeTV )

(Presentatie NU.nl )

Posted by Klapper  |  1 Comment  |  in 360 graden video, burgerjournalistiek, IMMovator, instructievideo, interactieve video, IP-kanalen, nu.nl, online branded content, online video formats, tv-programma's, tv-trends, user generated content, Vice.
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