Consumers’ Responses to Sponsorship Disclosure on Social Media

Abstract

More than ever, brands are using influencers to spread a message to consumers on their behalf. Since consumers tend to trust the information they give more than the information provided by brands. The short-form video app TikTok has gained popularity in recent years, making it the number two platform of choice for brands in influencer marketing. The present study aims to discover how consumers’ perceptions of influencer credibility, brand credibility, and purchase intention are affected by sponsorship disclosure on short-form videos considering the influencer’s creativity. An experiment with two conditions was performed to understand how people respond to sponsorship disclosure compared to no sponsorship disclosure on a short-form video of an influencer described as creative. The survey had 233 valid responses. The results showed that sponsorship disclosure does not negatively affect influencer credibility, brand credibility, or purchase intention, while creativity impacts persuasion knowledge, influencer credibility, brand credibility, and purchase intention and moderates the impact of sponsorship disclosure on brand credibility. It was also discovered that influencer credibility positively impacts purchase intention.