Abstract

Influencers are required to make disclosures while posting sponsored content on social media. This study examined what kind of disclosures are effective and how prominent disclosures interact with advertising knowledge and message involvement to affect the recognition of sponsored influencer posts on Instagram. It conducted an online experiment (N = 296) with a 2 (disclosure type: prominent vs. subtle) × 2 (advertising knowledge: enhanced vs. not enhanced) x 2 (message involvement: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design. Results revealed that people with enhanced advertising knowledge or with high message involvement led to greater advertising recognition, regardless of the degree of disclosure prominence. While on the other hand, when people’s knowledge of sponsored influencer content was not enhanced or when they were low in message involvement, the prominent disclosure was more effective than the subtle one in improving advertising recognition. Furthermore, recognizing sponsored content elicited resistance, which in turn led to less favourable attitude towards the brand. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.

摘要

影响者在社交媒体上发布赞助内容时必须进行披露。这项研究调查了哪种披露是有效的，以及显着披露如何与广告知识和信息参与相互作用，从而影响 Instagram 上赞助的影响者帖子的识别。它进行了在线实验（N = 296) 与 2（披露类型：突出与微妙）×2（广告知识：增强与未增强）x 2（信息参与：高与低）主体间析因设计。结果显示，广告知识增强或信息参与度高的人会导致更高的广告认知度，无论披露突出程度如何。而另一方面，当人们对赞助的影响者内容的了解没有增强或消息参与度较低时，突出的披露比微妙的披露在提高广告认知度方面更有效。此外，承认赞助内容会引起抵制，这反过来又会导致对该品牌不太有利的态度。讨论了这些发现的理论和实践意义。