Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising Brownbag Lunch Series

This presentation focuses on social media influencers who have established themselves as digital opinion leaders by creating highly appealing content. The huge impact and persuasiveness of influencer posts on consumers’ brand preferences and purchase decisions did not go unnoticed by advertisers. Accordingly, they started approaching these influential social media users to endorse their products or services on the influencers’ social media profiles in return for payment or free promotional materials. This presentation will analyze how influencer marketing works and identify the key basics underlying influencers’ successful endorsement strategies. Furthermore, possible (negative) effects concerning consumer’s well-being and public policy concerns that rise with the emergence of this covert advertising technique will be discussed.

Presented by Marijke De Veirman, doctoral student in the Department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University, Belgium.