Under the Influence: Social Media Influencers' Impact on Response to Corporate Reputation Advertising

Social media influencers (SMIs) are now a significant element in organizations' marketing mix. However, there has been little attention paid to how SMIs might change the way people process a commercial specifically designed to enhance corporate reputation. Three studies were conducted to understand possible influencer impacts on how people respond to commercials designed to enhance corporate reputation. In Study 1, we found that when a commercial was introduced by an influencer, message attitudes and perceived corporate reputation were more positive via reduced persuasion knowledge (PK), as compared to the impact of the commercial presented by itself. In Study 2, the influencer enhancement effect disappeared when sponsorship was disclosed, again as mediated by increased PK. The findings are consistent with prior research; however, this research is the first to explore disclosure effects in the context of corporate reputation with video stimuli. In Study 3, the style of the influencer's message (narrative versus nonnarrative) influenced response to the corporate commercials, with a narrative introduction engendering more favorable message attitudes and corporate reputation perceptions through decreased PK. However, the positive effect of an influencer's narrative introduction occurred only when sponsorship was not disclosed.