“I don’t care what they promote as long as I love them”: The simultaneous influence of parasocial relationship and the influencer-brand congruence on the effectiveness of sponsored social media posts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15170/MM.2022.56.KSZ.01.01Keywords:
influencer marketing, parasocial relationships, congruence, ad effectivenessAbstract
THE AIM OF THE PAPER
Lately, the more „relatable” and „trustworthy” social media influencer has been taking over the role of the traditional celebrity in advertising. The aim of our present paper is to examine the simultaneous role of parasocial relationship and the influencer-brand fit (congruence) on source credibility and the effectiveness of social media posts.
METHODOLOGY
Across two empirical studies, we used sponsored Instagram posts of well-known Instagram influencers. We conducted pre-tests to find the most congruent and the most incongruent sponsored posts. Participants completed an online survey that assessed their parasocial relationships with the influencer, the attitudes towards the stimuli and the perceived credibility of the influencer as well.
MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The results of the two empirical studies are contradictory: in the first study, the strong parasocial relationship offset the direct and indirect negative effects of the incongruent post on ad attitudes. In contrast, in the second study, the positive effect of the congruent post through source credibility increased along with the parasocial relationship, while the direct effect of the incongruent post on ad attitudes was more positive than the effect of the congruent post when parasocial relationship was strong.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Considering the influencer-brand congruence is still essential to execute an effective influencer marketing campaign. A strong parasocial relationship may offset the mismatch between the influencer and the brand, but further studies are needed to accurately explore the mechanism.
Acknowledgments: The research was supported by ELTE Thematic Excellence Programme 2020, Supported by National Research - Development and Innovation Office - TKP2020-IKA-05.
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