IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v174y2022ics0040162521006594.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pup-ularity contest: The advertising practices of popular animal influencers on Instagram

Author

Listed:
  • Jacobson, Jenna
  • Hodson, Jaigris
  • Mittelman, Robert

Abstract

Given the rise of online influencers, this research aims to analyze non-human social media influencers. Using a qualitative in-depth content analysis of Instagram images and captions, we analyze the social presence strategies—affective, interactive, and cohesive strategies—and the social media influencer advertising practices of top animal influencers. While all three social presence strategies were used, animal influencers most often employed affective and cohesive strategies. The results suggest that emotion and community are more important than interaction for animal influencers. Most of the influencers engaged in social media advertising by sharing brand-related posts, yet their social media feeds do not overly feature advertising messages. As an implication of the research, the research shows how animal influencers grow their parasocial relationships with followers in a way that is beneficial to brands. Thus the research reveals the role that digital animal influencers play in the social customer journey for the brands that work with them.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacobson, Jenna & Hodson, Jaigris & Mittelman, Robert, 2022. "Pup-ularity contest: The advertising practices of popular animal influencers on Instagram," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:174:y:2022:i:c:s0040162521006594
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521006594
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lancendorfer, Karen M. & Atkin, JoAnn L. & Reece, Bonnie B., 2008. "Animals in advertising: Love dogs? Love the ad!," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 384-391, May.
    2. Audrezet, Alice & de Kerviler, Gwarlann & Guidry Moulard, Julie, 2020. "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 557-569.
    3. Labrecque, Lauren I., 2014. "Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 134-148.
    4. Chen, Shih-Chih & Lin, Chieh-Peng, 2019. "Understanding the effect of social media marketing activities: The mediation of social identification, perceived value, and satisfaction," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 22-32.
    5. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    6. Guerreiro, Cátia & Viegas, Margarida & Guerreiro, Manuela, 2019. "Social Networks And Digital Influencers: Their Role In Customer Decision Journey In Tourism," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 7(3), pages 240-260.
    7. Kietzmann, Jan H. & Hermkens, Kristopher & McCarthy, Ian P. & Silvestre, Bruno S., 2011. "Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 241-251, May.
    8. Pankaj Aggarwal & Ann L. Mcgill, 2012. "When Brands Seem Human, Do Humans Act Like Brands? Automatic Behavioral Priming Effects of Brand Anthropomorphism," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(2), pages 307-323.
    9. Nadeem, Waqar & Khani, Amir H. & Schultz, Carsten D. & Adam, Nawal Abdalla & Attar, Razaz Waheeb & Hajli, Nick, 2020. "How social presence drives commitment and loyalty with online brand communities? the role of social commerce trust," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    10. Osei-Frimpong, Kofi & McLean, Graeme, 2018. "Examining online social brand engagement: A social presence theory perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 10-21.
    11. Bartosz W. Wojdynski & Nathaniel J. Evans & Mariea Grubbs Hoy, 2018. "Measuring Sponsorship Transparency in the Age of Native Advertising," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 115-137, March.
    12. Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe) & Cuevas, Leslie M. & Chong, Sze Man & Lim, Heejin, 2020. "Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Myers, Susan & Syrdal, Holly A. & Mahto, Raj V. & Sen, Sandipan S., 2023. "Social religion: A cross-platform examination of the impact of religious influencer message cues on engagement – The Christian context," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roma, Paolo & Aloini, Davide, 2019. "How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 322-339.
    2. Aw, Eugene Cheng-Xi & Chuah, Stephanie Hui-Wen, 2021. "“Stop the unattainable ideal for an ordinary me!” fostering parasocial relationships with social media influencers: The role of self-discrepancy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 146-157.
    3. De Luca, Francesco & Iaia, Lea & Mehmood, Asad & Vrontis, Demetris, 2022. "Can social media improve stakeholder engagement and communication of Sustainable Development Goals? A cross-country analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Krystyna Mazurek-Lopacinska & Magdalena Sobocinska, 2021. "Social Media in Marketing Activities of Enterprises in the Light of the Analysis of Empirical Research Results," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4B), pages 647-658.
    5. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Coelho, Pedro Simões & Rita, Paulo & Santos, Zélia Raposo, 2018. "On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 101-110.
    7. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Usrey, Bryan, 2021. "The impact of influencer motives and commonness perceptions on follower reactions toward incentivized reviews," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 531-548.
    8. Tafesse, Wondwesen & Wood, Bronwyn P., 2021. "Followers' engagement with instagram influencers: The role of influencers’ content and engagement strategy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. Giannis Milolidakis & Demosthenes Akoumianakis & Chris Kimble, 2013. "Digital traces for business intelligence: A case study of mobile telecoms service brands in Greece," Post-Print halshs-00954440, HAL.
    10. Ganesh Dash & Chetan Sharma & Shamneesh Sharma, 2023. "Sustainable Marketing and the Role of Social Media: An Experimental Study Using Natural Language Processing (NLP)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Wenkun Zhang & Yanan Wang & Tao Zhang, 2021. "Can “Live Streaming†Really Drive Visitors to the Destination? From the Aspect of “Social Presenceâ€," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    12. Dana Adriana Lupșa-Tătaru & Radu Lixăndroiu, 2022. "YouTube Channels, Subscribers, Uploads and Views: A Multidimensional Analysis of the First 1700 Channels from July 2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-13, October.
    13. Xu, Jia & Wei, Jiuchang & Zhao, Dingtao, 2016. "Influence of social media on operational efficiency of national scenic spots in china based on three-stage DEA model," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 374-388.
    14. Raed S. Algharabat & Nripendra P. Rana, 0. "Social Commerce in Emerging Markets and its Impact on Online Community Engagement," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-22.
    15. Muhammad Zahid Nawaz & Meng Tao & Hassan Ahmad & Md Jamirul Haque & Shahid Nawaz & Muhammad Nauman Shafique, 2020. "Youngsters and WMAs (WeChat Moments Advertisement): Do We Need the English Language in WMAs?," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    16. Wu, Jintao & Wu, Tong & Schlegelmilch, Bodo B., 2020. "Seize the Day: How Online Retailers Should Respond to Positive Reviews," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 52-60.
    17. Barta, Sergio & Belanche, Daniel & Fernández, Ana & Flavián, Marta, 2023. "Influencer marketing on TikTok: The effectiveness of humor and followers’ hedonic experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. Aleti, Torgeir & Pallant, Jason I. & Tuan, Annamaria & van Laer, Tom, 2019. "Tweeting with the Stars: Automated Text Analysis of the Effect of Celebrity Social Media Communications on Consumer Word of Mouth," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 17-32.
    19. Oberoi, Poonam & Patel, Chirag & Haon, Christophe, 2017. "Technology sourcing for website personalization and social media marketing: A study of e-retailing industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 10-23.
    20. Zafar, Abaid Ullah & Shahzad, Mohsin & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Shahzad, Khuram, 2023. "Forecasting impulsive consumers driven by macro-influencers posts: Intervention of followers' flow state and perceived informativeness," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:174:y:2022:i:c:s0040162521006594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.