See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/383369214

The Evolution of Influencer Marketing

Chapter · August 2024

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-65727-6_2

CITATIONS READS

0 794

2 authors, including:

Aun Ahmed
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
3 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Aun Ahmed on 28 January 2025.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

The Evolution of Influencer Marketing

Aun Ahmed and Tushar Rathore

Abstract Influencer marketing (IM) is more than just a buzzword. In recent years,
IM has gained widespread attention, but its roots actually extend further back than
many realize. With the rise of the internet and the explosion of social media, IM
has evolved into a new and influential form of marketing communication utilized by
businesses of all types. This chapter delves into the historical development of IM,
tracing its origins and evolution. We also explore the shift from traditional celebrity
endorsements to influencer marketing, providing a comparison of these two endorse-
ment forms. Additionally, we examine the maturation of the IM industry, addressing
the challenges and opportunities it presents for marketers. The chapter concludes by
addressing current issues in the IM industry, offering a comprehensive and infor-
mative look at the phenomena and concepts surrounding IM. Throughout, we strive
to provide a thorough explanation of these phenomena, drawing from academic
literature and theory to enhance understanding.

Keywords Influencer marketing · Influencer advertising · Marketing

communications · Internet marketing · Digital marketing · Social media · Social
networks

1 Historical Context

Marketing is one of the oldest practices of humankind, yet it is considered one of the
youngest among the fields of business studies [6]. Similarly, the practice of influencer
marketing can be traced back to ancient Roman gladiators who endorsed items for
sale [63]. However, its recognition as a field of inquiry in business and marketing

A. Ahmed (B)
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar,
Punjab, India
e-mail: [email protected]
T. Rathore
Balaji Institute of International Business, Pune, Maharashtra, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 17

S. Dutta et al. (eds.), Advances in Data Analytics for Influencer Marketing: An
Interdisciplinary Approach, Information Systems Engineering and Management 9,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65727-6_2
18 A. Ahmed and T. Rathore

is relatively recent. Before we explore the history of influencer marketing, it would

be appropriate to understand the theoretical underpinnings of influence. There are
various types of influence, but which one occurs in influencer marketing?
The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines influence as “the power that somebody/
something has to make somebody/something behave in a particular way” [55]. An
individual who can exercise their power to shape the behavior of others is called an
influential person or an influencer [52]. The phenomenon of influence is pervasive
and plays a vital role in shaping people’s behavior [8, 19]. An early paper by Berey
and Pollay [9] studied the influence of a child on the mother’s purchase behavior.
The authors found that the mother’s purchase behavior was related to the child’s
assertiveness and how child-centered the mother was. That is, the influence was
related to the characteristics of both the influencer and the one being influenced.
Parsons [56] conceptualized influence as “a generalized mechanism by which atti-
tudes or opinions are determined” (p. 37). For a mechanism to be classified as an
influence, it has to be both active and intentional. If an individual alters their attitudes
due to observations or experiences related to a natural or social event not designed to
induce a change, it would not be deemed an influence. Changes in behavior resulting
from observing others is a more passive form of influence called social influence
[19]. Influencer marketing relies on the former type of influence, that is, active and
intentional influence. It leverages the social capital of social media personalities (the
influencers) to exert influence on consumers who have formed interpersonal rela-
tionships with the influencer [5]. Online influencers’ social capital comprises their
follower networks, positioning, the content they create, and the follower trust they
command [45]. Harnessing the social capital accumulated by everyday people with
significant social media followings to endorse products and services subtly is called
influencer marketing. Table 1 lists popular online influencers, the platform they are
active on, their follower numbers, and their positioning.
The advent of Web 2.0 made the internet bidirectional and allowed consumers
to become content creators and participate in huge online social networks [16].
Consumers became content creators who shared their content with their followers.
Web 3.0 accelerated the penetration of social media platforms (e.g., Instagram and
Facebook) via mobile applications on portable devices [45]. These technological
developments created massive word-of-mouth (WOM) networks [16]. Consumers
perceive WOM communications (for example, online product reviews) as more

Table 1 Popular online influencers

Influencer Platform Followers (Millions) Positioning
Cristiano Ronaldo Instagram 628 Sports
Zoe Sugg Instagram 9.2 Lifestyle
Charli D’Amelio TikTok 79.9 Fashion
Tara McKenna Instagram 0.36 Sustainability
Taylor Swift Instagram 283 Music, Pop culture
Elon Musk Twitter 181.5 Business
The Evolution of Influencer Marketing 19

credible and trustworthy than marketing communication [10, 70]. Influential social
media users gained ardent followers by crafting a distinct persona [13]. The ardent
followers developed trust and strong psychological bonds with the influencers who
shared unique content around their lives, interests, and expertise [41, 64]. There-
fore, marketers began incentivizing influencers to post favorably on social media
such as Instagram and Facebook [12], giving rise to influencer marketing. Individ-
uals on social media began devising ways to influence their followers and obtain
compensation from marketers when they saw value in their influence [52]. Thus,
three actors—influencers, followers, and marketers—working together gave rise to
influencer marketing.
The influence of influencers stems from two main phenomena—opinion lead-
ership and parasocial relationships. The concept of opinion leadership is rooted in
Katz and Lazarsfeld’s [39] two-step flow theory. The theory suggests that interper-
sonal communication is more influential in shaping people’s opinions than mass
media communication, which often flows to the masses via opinion leaders [15].
Opinion leadership is an individual’s tendency to influence the opinions, attitudes,
and behavior of others in a premeditated way [23]. Opinion leaders “exert an unequal
amount of influence on the decisions of others” [58, p. 435]. Interpersonal influence
transmits from opinion leaders to followers and amongst the followers connected in
a network [47]. The advent of digital markets created internet opinion leaders, and
social media platforms provided them with a larger audience to influence. Followers
of internet opinion leaders (the influencers) perceive them as leaders in their network,
having some domain-specific competence [20]. Opinion leaders are followed based
on their perceived credibility and originality of content [34]. For example, Elon Musk,
as a cryptocurrency opinion leader, has had a great impact on the crypto community,
and his Tweets (microblogs on X.com) have influenced Bitcoin prices [46, 68].
‘Parasocial relationships’ [29], originally conceptualized to explain consumer-
celebrity relationships, is now also applied to follower-influencer relationships. [28]
define parasocial relationships as “nonreciprocal socio-emotional connections with
media figures such as celebrities or influencers” (p. 1). Parasocial relationships
provide social media users with companionship with influencers who are socially
attractive and who have some perceived commonality with them [69]. Parasocial
relationships are generally viewed as nonreciprocal or one-sided. Such relationships
can, however, turn more real. For example, influencers like Lady Gaga, Paris Hilton,
and Taylor Swift have directly communicated with their followers, met them in
person, and even stayed with them [1].

2 From Celebrity Endorsement to Influencers

Celebrity endorsement, the use of celebrities to promote brands or products, has

been around since the latter half of the nineteenth century [18]. The rise of television
and cinema in the 1960s facilitated its rise [18, 33, 36] and has since been used
for the promotion of entities beyond brands and products, such as political parties,
20 A. Ahmed and T. Rathore

non-profit organizations, and government bodies [43]. A celebrity is an “individual

who enjoys public recognition” [51, p. 310] and can lend their attractiveness and
credibility to the endorsed brand, product, political party, or other organizations [59].
Besides attractiveness and credibility, celebrities carry a cultural meaning. According
to the meaning transfer model [51], celebrities assume a meaning from their fields
of expertise (e.g., acting, sports), which they bring to the endorsement process and
transfer to the brand or product being endorsed [26]. Another stream of literature put
forward the match-up hypothesis to explain the effectiveness of celebrity endorse-
ment. According to the match-up hypothesis, a celebrity’s attractiveness will be
effective only if there is a fit or match-up between the product and the meaning
conveyed by the celebrity [37].
Celebrity endorsers generally wield public recognition because of their achieve-
ments in sports or films [26, 61]. They can transfer their attractiveness, credibility,
and cultural meanings to the brands they endorse. However, celebrity endorsement
can be costly and poses some risks to the brand being endorsed. Celebrities may
sometimes overshadow a brand and create a negative brand image due to a contro-
versy or an image change [18]. For example, the 2009 Tiger Woods scandal cost
its sponsors—mainly Electronic Arts, Pepsi, and Nike—2% of their market value
within fifteen stock trading sessions after the scandal [42]. This estimate ranges from
5 to 12 billion US dollars [54].
Because of the costs and risks associated with celebrity endorsement, companies
are increasingly switching to social media influencers who have many followers on
social media without any association with the sports or film industry [24]. Influencers
establish a personal brand through the content they create and post on social media.
They enjoy a lot of freedom in creating content for brands in alignment with their
positioning and the nature of their audience (the followers). Contrarily, the content
disseminated by celebrity endorsers (e.g., the message in an ad film featuring a
celebrity) is fully controlled by the brands they endorse [45]. The influencers in a
social network are identified mainly by their follower count [40, 70]. However, iden-
tifying influencers for a brand endorsement based solely on follower count can be
inefficient and perhaps ineffective. Other factors, such as the influencer’s positioning,
nationality, and engagement level (e.g., likes and shares) of their posts, are essen-
tial considerations. Moreover, beyond their follower counts, influencers can vary in
credibility, expertise, and perceived authenticity of the messages they post. Based
on various characteristics of influencers, [12] identify five categories of influencers:
celebrity-influencers, mega-influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and
nano-influencers. Influencers’ follower counts and cultural capital decrease, and
accessibility and authenticity increase from celebrity- to nano-influencers. Celebrity-
influencers are individuals who already have celebrity status and have built a large
follower base on social media. For example, a celebrity sportsperson, Cristiano
Ronaldo, garnered 628 million followers on Instagram and became a celebrity influ-
encer. With some influencers, the reverse happens—they begin as influencers and
become celebrities. Brooks et al. [11] have termed this phenomenon as influencer
celebrification. Charli D’Amelio, starting as a teenage content creator, amassed 79.9
million TikTok and 44.4 million Instagram followers. She is a mega-influencer since
The Evolution of Influencer Marketing 21

she lacked celebrity status before becoming a social media influencer and has gained
more than a million followers, according to Campbell and Farrell’s [12] classification.
Macro-, micro-, and nano-influencers have successively smaller —100 k, 10 k, and
less than 10 k—followers. Since Instagram users have an average of 150 followers
[66], the potential reach of an Instagram influencer with 10,000 followers will be 1.5
million users [60].

3 Maturation

Influencer marketing has evolved as a global marketing phenomenon, and companies

are increasingly integrating it into their marketing strategies [45] and media mixes
[12]. The market size for influencer marketing was 6.1 billion US dollars in 2016
and is expected to reach 24 billion US dollars by the end of 2024 [31].
Influencer advertising has supplemented traditional advertisements containing
messages created by firms or on their behalf by advertising agencies. Influencers
create their own content, disseminate it via their own online networks, and provide
personal recommendations for the product or brand [5]. Brands reward influencers
and, in exchange, encroach on influencers’ content. This is why influencer marketing
has been considered as a form of product placement1 [4], and influencers are
increasingly being seen as ‘product promoters’ rather than ‘content creators’ [38].
Consumers are aware of the commercial association between brands and influencers
who are simultaneously endorsing diverse products and brands at the same time. This
practice leads to influencer-product mismatch, a loss of influencer authenticity, and a
low impact of their posts on purchase intention [72]. Consumers’ negative reactions
to product endorsement posts are more pronounced when influencers do not accom-
pany the product in their posts [35]. The decreasing authenticity of influencers makes
their posts less engaging, and followers may leave. Therefore, managing influencer
authenticity is crucial for all influencer-marketing stakeholders (influencer, follower,
marketer). Influencers and marketers can work together to ensure authenticity. To
enhance influencer authenticity, [4] proposed two strategies: “passionate authentic-
ity” and “transparent authenticity.” Creating content based on their passion makes the
process of content creation more satisfying for the influencers. Under “transparent
authenticity,” influencers disclose the nature of the partnership with the brand and
also include their own opinion of the brand to respect their integrity.
Influencer marketing has matured and become more popular since the COVID-19
pandemic. Due to the increased time spent on the internet, consumers are actively
seeking out and engaging with influencers more than ever. However, influencer
marketing has become overused, perceived influencer authenticity has dwindled,
and marketers have questioned its effectiveness [44]. The marketers’ dissatisfaction

1 PRODUCT placement (also called brand integration) is the insertion of branded products or brand
identifiers in movies, TV shows, books, etc., and was developed as an alternative to traditional
advertisements [71].
22 A. Ahmed and T. Rathore

with influencer marketing has been attributed to three issues: (1) the presence of fake
followers and likes makes the reach of influencers unverifiable and unmeasurable, (2)
influencers becoming less impactful because they endorse several unrelated brands
simultaneously, and (3) regulatory issues arising because of lack of transparency, for
example, nondisclosure of sponsored content [65, 67]. These issues with influencer
marketing make benchmarking and measurement of its effectiveness essential for
influencer marketing maturation [17].
Marketing communication effectiveness is measured in terms of ‘diagnostic
metrics’ such as brand awareness and brand loyalty and ‘evaluative metrics’ such as
market share, sales, and profits [50]. These metrics can also be used as a measure of
influencer effectiveness. Leung et al. [45] have proposed six benefits or threats that
can originate from an influencer and impact the marketing communication effective-
ness of the firm being endorsed by the influencer. Table 2 lists the benefits and threats
that enhance and diminish marketing communication effectiveness.
Performance measurement is a prerequisite for managing influencer marketing or
any form of social media marketing [57]. Once the benefits and risks of utilizing influ-
encers are understood, performance measurement should be implemented. Marketers
have limited control over influencer-generated content, which may not perfectly align
with the brand identity crafted by the firm. Therefore, marketers need to add qual-
itative measurements to performance measures to assess the content quality of an
influencer. Gräve [25] recommends measuring influencer marketing performance
using post-related and sales- or brand-related quantitative and qualitative metrics, as
outlined in Table 3.
Marketers can readily obtain the data required for computing the quantitative
metrics listed in Table 3 from the social media platform on which they run the
campaign. These data are, in fact, visible to anyone visiting the platform, but aggre-
gating these data requires technical tools and the expertise to use them. The data
must be used with caution because influencer marketing has been tainted by fake
likes and followers, as mentioned previously.

Table 2 Benefits and threats of influencer marketing [45]

Benefit/Threat Effect on marketing communication effectiveness
1 Targeting benefits Influencer’s ability to reach niche consumer segments can complement
firms’ targeting efforts
2 Positioning Influencers’ positioning can be leveraged to reinforce the brand
benefits positioning
3 Creativity Original and relevant content created by influencers evokes favorable
benefits consumer responses
4 Trust benefits Influencer-authenticity perceptions and the follower-influencer bond
evoke trust in marketing communications
5 Content control Content deviating from the brand message can be detrimental
threat
6 Customer Influencers are more effective in acquiring rather than retaining
retention threat customers
The Evolution of Influencer Marketing 23

Table 3 Metrics for influencer marketing performance measurement

Quantitative Qualitative
Influencer- or post-related No. of interactions Post sentiment
Reach Influencer quality
No. of views Target segment fit
No. of followers –
Sales- or brand-related Sales Brand image
Click-through rate
Conversion rate
Social media impact
Brand awareness
Cost
Customer acquisition
Return on investment

Given that (1) an influencer is almost always active on multiple social media
platforms and (2) parts of the data obtained from the platforms may be spurious,
machine learning algorithms can be used instead of traditional social media analytics.
[2] have computed an “influencer index” using different machine learning algorithms
to measure the effectiveness of an influencer across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
References [7, 22] provide surveys of machine learning algorithms for social media
analytics, which can also inform influencer analytics.

4 The Current Landscape

Until recently, social media influencers were real people. However, advances in
artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the emergence of virtual influencers. The public
has widely perceived AI as leading to the redundancy of many jobs [27]. This threat
also looms over the influencer marketing industry: companies are now shifting from
human influencers (HIs) to virtual influencers (VIs) [21]. VIs are artificial, computer-
generated entities. They behave like real social media influencers but lend marketers
and advertisers great control over their appearance and the content that they post
[14]. VIs are designed by experts based on insights about their target audience gained
from social listening2 [48]. VIs are perceived as less credible and authentic than HIs.
However, they are engaging and persuasive because of their technological novelty and
amusement value [3]. Finding the right balance in the human-like attributes of VIs
is essential for their effectiveness and acceptance. VIs’ highly human-like attributes,
together with human-like behavior, can evoke negative reactions and hamper their

2 SOCIAL listening is an “active process of attending to, observing, interpreting, and responding
to a variety of stimuli through mediated, electronic, and social channels” [62].
24 A. Ahmed and T. Rathore

effectiveness [49]. Interested readers can visit https://www.virtualhumans.org/#inf

luencers to learn about some popular VIs.
The future of influencer marketing will be shaped by the rising use of artificial
intelligence and other information and communication technologies [32]. Instead
of using influencer marketing as an ad hoc campaign, companies are expected to
integrate it with their internet search ads, mobile ads, email campaigns, and traditional
television and print advertisements [45]. Influencer marketing has been very effective,
especially in targeting young consumers. Therefore, governments and policymakers
have raised ethical concerns about influencer marketing [30]. However, the proper
regulation of influencer marketing is in its infancy. So far, existing laws have been
applied to regulate influencer marketing. For example, in the European Union, the
extant consumer protection law also applies to influencer marketing [53].

References

1. Archer, A., Robb, C. (in press).: Ethics of parasocial relationships. In: The Ethics of
Relationships: Broadening the Scope. Oxford University Press
2. Arora, A., Bansal, S., Kandpal, C., Aswani, R., Dwivedi, Y.: Measuring social media influencer
index-insights from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 49, 86–101
(2019)
3. Arsenyan, J., Mirowska, A.: Almost human? a comparative case study on the social media
presence of virtual influencers. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 155, 102694 (2021)
4. Audrezet, A., De Kerviler, G., Moulard, J.G.: Authenticity under threat: when social media
influencers need to go beyond self-presentation. J. Bus. Res. 117, 557–569 (2020)
5. Avery, J., Israeli A.: Influencer marketing. In: Harvard Business School Technical Note, p. 520,
75 Posted (2020)
6. Baker, M.J.: One more time: what is marketing? In: The Marketing Book, pp. 41–56. Routledge
(2008)
7. Balaji, T.K., Annavarapu, C.S.R., Bablani, A.: Machine learning algorithms for social media
analysis: a survey. Comput. Sci. Rev. 40, 100395 (2021)
8. Bearden, W.O., Netemeyer, R.G., Teel, J.E.: Measurement of consumer susceptibility to
interpersonal influence. J. Consum. Res. 15(4), 473–481 (1989)
9. Berey, L.A., Pollay, R.W.: The influencing role of the child in family decision making. J. Mark.
Res. 5(1), 70–72 (1968)
10. Bickart, B., Schindler, R.M.: Internet forums as influential sources of consumer information.
J. Interact. Mark. 15(3), 31–40 (2001)
11. Brooks, G., Drenten, J., Piskorski, M.J.: Influencer celebrification: How social media
influencers acquire celebrity capital. J. Advert. 50(5), 528–547 (2021)
12. Campbell, C., Farrell, J.R.: More than meets the eye: the functional components underlying
influencer marketing. Bus. Horiz. 63(4), 469–479 (2020)
13. Casaló, L.V., Flavián, C., Ibáñez-Sánchez, S.: Influencers on Instagram: antecedents and
consequences of opinion leadership. J. Bus. Res. 117, 510–519 (2020)
14. Cascio Rizzo, G.L.C., Berger, J., Villarroel, F.: What drives virtual influencer’s impact?
Working paper, LUISS Guido Carli University (2023)
15. Cheung, M.L., Leung, W.K., Aw, E.C.X., Koay, K.Y.: I follow what you post!: the role of
social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers’ online brand-related activities
(COBRAs). J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 66, 102940 (2022)
16. Dellarocas, C.: The digitization of word of mouth: promise and challenges of online feedback
mechanisms. Manag. Sci. 49(10), 1407–1424 (2003)
The Evolution of Influencer Marketing 25

17. Ducman, A.A.: Redefining wine brand engagement through influencer marketing and
ephemeral content. Theor. Appl. Econ. 31(1) (2024)
18. Erdogan, B.Z.: Celebrity endorsement: a literature review. J. Mark. Manag. 15(4), 291–314
(1999)
19. Falk, E., Scholz, C.: Persuasion, influence, and value: perspectives from communication and
social neuroscience. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 69, 329–356 (2018)
20. Farivar, S., Wang, F., Yuan, Y.: Opinion leadership versus para-social relationship: Key factors
in influencer marketing. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 59, 102371 (2021)
21. Gerrath, M.H., Olya, H., Shah, Z., Li, H.: Virtual influencers and pro-environmental causes:
the roles of message warmth and trust in experts. J. Bus. Res. 175, 114520 (2024)
22. Ghani, N.A., Hamid, S., Hashem, I.A.T., Ahmed, E.: Social media big data analytics: a survey.
Comput. Hum. Behav. 101, 417–428 (2019)
23. Gnambs, T., Batinic, B.: A personality-competence model of opinion leadership. Psychol.
Mark. 29(8), 606–621 (2012)
24. Gräve, J.F., Bartsch, F.: # Instafame: exploring the endorsement effectiveness of influencers
compared to celebrities. Int. J. Advert. 41(4), 591–622 (2022)
25. Gräve, J.F.: What KPIs are key? Evaluating performance metrics for social media influencers.
Social Media + Soc. 5(3), 2056305119865475 (2019)
26. Halonen-Knight, E., Hurmerinta, L.: Who endorses whom? meanings transfer in celebrity
endorsement. J. Prod. Brand. Manag. 19(6), 452–460 (2010)
27. Hiort, A.: Yes, virtual influencers are taking jobs. VirtualHumans.org (2022, February 15).
https://www.virtualhumans.org/article/yes-virtual-influencers-are-taking-jobs
28. Hoffner, C.A., Bond, B.J.: Parasocial relationships, social media, and well-being. Curr. Opin.
Psychol. 45, 101306 (2022)
29. Horton, D., Richard Wohl, R.: Mass communication and para-social interaction: observations
on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry 19(3), 215–229 (1956)
30. Hudders, L., Lou, C.: A new era of influencer marketing: lessons from recent inquires and
thoughts on future directions. Int. J. Advert. 41(1), 1–5 (2022)
31. Influencer Marketing Hub: The State of Influencer Marketing 2024: Benchmark Report (2024,
June 24). https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/
32. Iwashita, M.: Trend of influencer marketing and future required functions. In: 2019 20th IEEE/
ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking
and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD), pp. 2–2. IEEE (2019)
33. Jain, V., Roy, S.: Understanding meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements: a qualitative
exploration. J. Cetacean Res. Manag. 19(3), 266–286 (2016)
34. Jegham, S., Bouzaabia, R.: Fashion influencers on Instagram: determinants and impact of
opinion leadership on female millennial followers. J. Consum. Behav. 21(5), 1002–1017 (2022)
35. Jin, S.V., Muqaddam, A.: Product placement 2.0:“Do brands need influencers, or do influencers
need brands?” J. Brand Manag. 26, 522–537 (2019)
36. Kaikati, J.G.: Celebrity advertising: a review and synthesis. Int. J. Advert. 6(2), 93–105 (1987)
37. Kamins, M.A.: An investigation into the “match-up” hypothesis in celebrity advertising: when
beauty may be only skin deep. J. Advert. 19(1), 4–13 (1990)
38. Kapitan, S., van Esch, P., Soma, V., Kietzmann, J.: Influencer marketing and authenticity in
content creation. Australas. Mark. J. 30(4), 342–351 (2022)
39. Katz, E., Lazarsfeld, P.F.: Personal Influence; The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass
Communications, Glencoe, Ill. Free Press (1955)
40. Kay, S., Mulcahy, R., Parkinson, J.: When less is more: the impact of macro and micro social
media influencers’ disclosure. J. Mark. Manag. 36(3–4), 248–278 (2020)
41. Kim, D.Y., Kim, H.Y.: Trust me, trust me not: a nuanced view of influencer marketing on social
media. J. Bus. Res. 134, 223–232 (2021)
42. Knittel, C.R., Stango, V.: Celebrity endorsements, firm value, and reputation risk: evidence
from the Tiger Woods scandal. Manag. Sci. 60(1), 21–37 (2014)
43. Knoll, J., Matthes, J.: The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements: a meta-analysis. J. Acad.
Mark. Sci. 45, 55–75 (2017)
26 A. Ahmed and T. Rathore

44. Le, K., Aydin, G.: Impact of the pandemic on social media influencer marketing in fashion: a
qualitative study. J. Cetacean Res. Manag. 26(4), 449–469 (2023)
45. Leung, F.F., Gu, F.F., Palmatier, R.W.: Online influencer marketing. J. Acad. Market. Sci. 1–26
(2022)
46. Lichti, C., Ademi, E., Tumasjan, A.: Decentralized Opinion Leadership: A Study of Crypto
Influencers in the Twitter Discourse on Bitcoin (2024)
47. Litvin, S.W., Goldsmith, R.E., Pan, B.: Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism
management. Tour. Manag. 29(3), 458–468 (2008)
48. Looi, J., Kahlor, L.A.: Artificial intelligence in influencer marketing: a mixed-method
comparison of human and virtual influencers on Instagram. J. Interact. Advertising 1–20 (2024)
49. MacDorman, K.F.: In the uncanny valley, transportation predicts narrative enjoyment more
than empathy, but only for the tragic hero. Comput. Hum. Behav. 94, 140–153 (2019)
50. McAlister, L., Srinivasan, R., Jindal, N., Cannella, A.A.: Advertising effectiveness: The
moderating effect of firm strategy. J. Mark. Res. 53(2), 207–224 (2016)
51. McCracken, G.: Who is the celebrity endorser? cultural foundations of the endorsement process.
J. Consum. Res. 16(3), 310–321 (1989)
52. McMullan, K., Laurell, C., Pitt, L.: Managing the tensions in marketer-influencer relationships.
Bus. Horiz. 65(5), 559–566 (2022)
53. Michaelsen, F., Collini, L., Jacob, C., Goanta, C., Kettner, S.E., Bishop, S., Hausemer, P.,
Thorun, C., Yesiloglu, S.: The impact of influencers on advertising and consumer protection
in the single market (2022). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2022/703
350/IPOL_STU(2022)703350_EN.pdf
54. Morain, C.: Tiger Woods Scandal Cost Shareholders $12 Billion [University of California,
Davis] (2009). Accessed from https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/tiger-woods-scandal-cost-shareh
olders-12-billion
55. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries.: influence noun—Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage
notes. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (n.d.). Accessed 6 May 2024, from https://www.oxford
learnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/influence_1?q=influence
56. Parsons, T.: On the concept of influence. Public Opin. Q. 27(1), 37–62 (1963)
57. Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A.M., Ognibeni, B., Pauwels, K.: Social media metrics—a
framework and guidelines for managing social media. J. Interact. Mark. 27(4), 281–298 (2013)
58. Rogers, E.M., Cartano, D.G.: Methods of measuring opinion leadership. Public Opin. Q. 435–
441 (1962)
59. Schouten, A.P., Janssen, L., Verspaget, M.: Celebrity versus influencer endorsements in adver-
tising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. In: Leveraged Marketing
Communications, pp 208–231. Routledge
60. Sicilia, M., López, M.: What do we know about influencers on social media? Toward a new
conceptualization and classification of influencers. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Interactive
Marketing, pp. 593–622. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2023)
61. Srivastava, R.K.: Effectiveness of films, sport, celebrity or mascot to content in the advertising–a
dilemma for global brands. J. Promot. Manag. 27(5), 716–739 (2021)
62. Stewart, M.C., Arnold, C.L.: Defining social listening: recognizing an emerging dimension of
listening. Int. J. Listening 32(2), 85–100 (2018)
63. Sucui, P.: History of Influencer Marketing Predates Social Media by Centuries–But is There
Enough Transparency in the 21st Century? (2020)
64. Tafesse, W., Wood, B.P.: Followers’ engagement with instagram influencers: the role of
influencers’ content and engagement strategy. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 58, 102303 (2021)
65. Taylor, C.R.: The urgent need for more research on influencer marketing. Int. J. Advert. 39(7),
889–891 (2020)
66. Thompson, A.: How Many Instagram Followers Does the Average Person Have in 2023? [Blog
post] (2023). Accessed from https://www.hashtagsforlikes.co/blog/instagram-followers-how-
many-does-the-average-person-have/
 The Evolution of Influencer Marketing 27

67. Tobin, J.: Three influencer marketing problems that brands themselves can be created
(2019). https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/14/three-influencer-mar
keting-problems-that-brands-themselves-have-created/#284463bb6a3e. Accessed 11 May
2024
68. Treku, D.N., Wang, B., Escobari, D., Oraby, T.: Cryptocurrency Market: The Interplay Between
Microblog Dynamic Opinion Leader Sentiments and Bitcoin Pricing (2023)
69. Tsiotsou, R.H.: The role of social and parasocial relationships on social networking sites loyalty.
Comput. Hum. Behav. 48, 401–414 (2015)
70. De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., Hudders, L.: Marketing through Instagram influencers: the
impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. Int. J. Advert. 36(5),
798–828 (2017)
71. Wiles, M.A., Danielova, A.: The worth of product placement in successful films: an event study
analysis. J. Mark. 73(4), 44–63 (2009)
72. Zniva, R., Weitzl, W.J., Lindmoser, C.: Be constantly different! How to manage influencer
authenticity. Electron. Commer. Res. 23(3), 1485–1514 (2023)

View publication stats