Ershov, Daniel;
He, Yanting;
Seiler, Stephan;
(2025)
Frontiers: How Much Influencer Marketing Is Undisclosed? Evidence from Twitter.
Marketing Science
10.1287/mksc.2024.0838.
(In press).
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Abstract
We study the disclosure of influencer posts on Twitter across a large set of brands based on a unique data set of over 100 million posts and a novel classification method to detect undisclosed sponsorship. Using our preferred empirical specification, we find that 96% of sponsored posts are not disclosed. This result is robust to a series of specification tests, and even a lower-bound classification still yields an undisclosed share of 82%. Despite stronger enforcement of disclosure regulations, the share of undisclosed posts decreases only slightly over time. Compared with disclosed posts, undisclosed posts tend to be associated with young brands with a large Twitter following. Using an online survey, we find that many consumers are not able to identify sponsored content without disclosure. Our findings highlight a potential need for further regulatory scrutiny and suggest that researchers studying influencers must account for undisclosed sponsored content.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Frontiers: How Much Influencer Marketing Is Undisclosed? Evidence from Twitter |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1287/mksc.2024.0838 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2024.0838 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Advertising Disclosure, Consumer Protection |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > UCL School of Management |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207237 |
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