1st Edition
Influencer Marketing Interdisciplinary and Socio-Cultural Perspectives
Influencer marketing often gets touted as more authentic, democratised, credible, and relatable than traditional marketing tactics. But such hype glosses over its messy sociocultural dynamics and underlying disparities. This book discusses and debates the complexities of influencer marketing, casting a critical and interdisciplinary lens on its practices, consumption, and far-reaching societal impact.
Beneath the surface of likes, shares, and selfies lies critical questions around power imbalances, tensions, and transformations in a content-driven marketplace. How have historical, economic, and technological changes shaped the development and maturation of influencer marketing as a scholarly field and an industry practice? Who attains the mantle of an influencer; what attributes transcend traditional categorisations; how are the complexities of identity portrayed through influencer culture; and how do so-called ‘nontraditional influencers’ connect with audiences and disseminate their perspectives in unique ways? How do evolving influencer-audience relationships foster mutual benefits and potential pitfalls?
Influencer marketing has evolved from a marketing tactic to a cultural phenomenon. It is shaped, and is shaped by, the currents of culture. By bridging theoretical perspectives and crossing disciplinary boundaries, the chapters in this volume advance the readers’ understanding of influencer marketing by bringing to life its complexities, embracing its messiness, and highlighting future potentialities.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Marketing Management.
Introduction: Symbiosis or parasitism? A framework for advancing interdisciplinary and socio-cultural perspectives in influencer marketing
Lauren Gurrieri, Jenna Drenten and Crystal Abidin
1. Influencer marketing: a scoping review and a look ahead
Kendra Fowler and Veronica L. Thomas
2. Influencers and the attention economy: the meaning and management of attention on Instagram
Kyle Kubler
3. Influencer marketing and the ‘gifted’ product: framing practices and market shaping
Johan Nilsson, Riikka Murto and Hans Kjellberg
4. Disability in influencer marketing: a complex model of disability representation
Jonatan Södergren and Niklas Vallström
5. ‘You need to change how you consume’: ethical influencers, their audiences and their linking strategies
Aya Aboelenien, Alex Baudet and Ai Ming Chow
6. Beyond the authenticity bind – Finstagram as an escape from the attention economy
Amy Goode, Victoria Rodner and Matilda Lawlor
7. No filter: navigating well-being in troubled times as social media influencers
Nataly Levesque, Alysha Hachey and Albena Pergelova
8. When parasocial relationships turn sour: social media influencers, eroded and exploitative intimacies, and anti-fan communities
Rebecca Mardon, Hayley Cocker and Kate Daunt
Biography
Lauren Gurrieri is Associate Professor in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University. Her research examines gender, consumption and the marketplace, with a focus on gendered inequalities in consumer and digital cultures. This includes gendered representations in advertising and social media; body norms and beauty ideals in consumer culture; violence against women and marketing; and the strategies used by women to resist and challenge exclusion and marginalisation in the marketplace.
Jenna Drenten is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Quinlan School of Business where she studies digital consumer culture: the sociocultural role of social media platforms in everyday consumer life. Her research explains how digital culture—from social media algorithms to the influencer attention economy—structures social and cultural consumption ideologies and how consumers’ lived experiences are mediated, translated, and commodified through digital culture.
Crystal Abidin is a Digital Anthropologist and Ethnographer of Vernacular Internet Cultures. She researches influencer cultures, online visibility, and social media pop cultures, especially in the Asia Pacific region, and has published over 80 articles and chapters on various aspects of internet celebrity and vernacular internet cultures.
