IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v11y2023i4p140-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can an Awareness Campaign Boost the Effectiveness of Influencer Marketing Disclosures in YouTube Videos?

Author

Listed:
  • Sophie C. Boerman

    (Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Strategic Communication Group, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands)

  • Eva A. van Reijmersdal

    (Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

  • Esther Rozendaal

    (Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Answering the strong need for insight into how minors can effectively be informed about advertising (e.g., influencer marketing) in online content, we ran an online experiment ( N = 623 minors between 8 and 18 years old) testing the effects of two pictograms that were designed in co-creation with minors and the potential of an awareness campaign to boost the pictogram’s effectiveness. Our findings provide three important insights that have implications for theory, practice, and regulation. First, we find that minors are able to distinguish between sponsored and non-sponsored videos, indicating that they have developed some level of advertising literacy in this context. Second, our study shows that the two pictograms informing minors about advertising in online videos went unnoticed by most viewers and did not enhance conceptual or attitudinal advertising literacy. Third, the awareness campaign did not lead to higher recognition of the pictograms nor enhanced advertising literacy. The campaign did increase minors’ understanding of the meaning of the pictograms. However, the majority of minors also understood the pictograms without the campaign. Based upon our findings, we argue that pictograms are unnoticed by most minors and seem ineffective in enhancing minors’ advertising literacy. Although an awareness campaign can familiarize minors with pictograms and their implementation in online videos, it does not seem to boost the pictogram’s effects on advertising literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sophie C. Boerman & Eva A. van Reijmersdal & Esther Rozendaal, 2023. "Can an Awareness Campaign Boost the Effectiveness of Influencer Marketing Disclosures in YouTube Videos?," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(4), pages 140-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:140-150
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.v11i4.7050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7050
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/mac.v11i4.7050?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
    ---><---

    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:cog:meanco:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:140-150. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    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.