The impact of influencer marketing over brand awareness

Abstract

This research work is oriented towards the study of “influencer marketing”. It will focus particularly on Instagram as a social media and the impact it has over brand awareness. To carry out this study, we conducted a literature review which we divided into four parts. First, we looked at social media and Instagram, that considered as the favored social network for influencer marketing. Secondly, we studied influence marketing, by looking deeper into influencer’s key characteristics. Besides, we are interested by the brand awareness concept and its key attributes according to the existing theoretical models. Finally, we studied the different features used by influencers that had an impact over brand awareness. Therefore, we asked ourselves: “To what extent does influencer marketing impact brand awareness?” In the second part of this research, we formulate three research hypotheses to address our research question. The following tackles the number of followers, the coherence, and the product placements, and establishes a link evaluating the impact of each variable over brand awareness. The conducted studies allowed us to validate three out of three hypotheses. Therefore, the results obtained brought interesting recommendations. Firstly, the number of followers is an important metric to consider when the objective is to generate awareness. Next, we recommend that brands increasingly value the consistency between the chosen influencer and their image by rating high the commonly shared attributes. Finally, once chosen, brands should impose the type of product placement and present it in a subtle and authentic way.

Date of Award	17 Oct 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Andreas Kaplan (Supervisor)