New research in peer-reviewed journals Marketing Science Found that 95% of influencer posts were not disclosed on Twitter (now X).
Peer-reviewed article “How much influencer marketing is not disclosed?” Marketing Science. The authors of the study are Daniel Ershov of University College London and the Centre for Economic Policy Studies; Yanting He from Imperial College London; Stephan Seiler from the Centre for Economic Policy Studies and Imperial College London.
The researchers further found that unpublished posts tend to be associated with young “brands” compared to posts that disclose sponsorship arrangements, followed by large social media.
“Our research grant highlights the potential need for further regulatory review,” he said.
What is influencer marketing?
Influential marketing is an emerging means to attract the consumer public through alternative channels of traditional advertising, such as broadcasting and print media. Influential marketing uses private individuals to promote brands, products or services, where these people are recognized. Often, “influencers” are chosen based on their large social media following and/or celebrity status.
“Because consumers may find it difficult to distinguish between paid influencer posts and genuine organic content, regulators in many countries now need to disclose any paid content,” Ershov said. “However, the evolving regulatory framework has not caught up because of the novelty associated with influencer marketing.”
About this study
Researchers used a new dataset of more than 100 million brand-related posts on Twitter from 268 brands, as well as a new text-based classification method to identify unpublished sponsored content. They then quantified the overall importance of unpublished influencer posts to assess whether consumers can detect unpublished commercial content. They tracked the evolution of unpublished posts over time and were able to identify brands from which unpublished posts came from.
“We found that a large number of participants in the online survey could not identify commercial content when the content was not provided for disclosure,” Seiler said. “We also demonstrated that although regulations did tighten during the sample period between 2014 and 2021, the share of undisclosed content has only slightly decreased.”
Additionally, researchers found that unpublished sponsored posts often originate from young brands, with a large number of Twitter followers.
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