Digital influencers: An exploratory study of influencer marketing campaign process on instagram

Abstract

The evolution of the digital age and the rise of social networking sites brought changes to the consumer behavior. This transformation has led to an increasing number of opportunities and challenges. The increasing importance of digital influencers has been acknowledged by both practitioners and academics. However, due to its contemporaneity, the academic literature regarding this subject faces some limitations. Thus, the present study explored the perceptions of the marketing professionals towards digital influencers and influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram in the light of existing literature as well as to identify the most contemporary issues. This research followed a qualitative approach with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling. To achieve the objective of this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the professionals of the beauty sector, who have already contributed to influencer marketing campaigns. The results highlight the importance of digital influencers and the need for their creative freedom, authenticity and credibility. The findings display some of the difficulties the professionals undertake as it comes to measuring return on investment, managing rewards and differentiation of influencer campaigns. The main value of this study is that it documents all stages of the influencer marketing process as well as highlights the challenges and success factors of an influencer campaign