Boerman Sophie C, van Reijmersdal Eva A
Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 21;10:3042. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03042. eCollection 2019.
Watching online videos is becoming an important part of children's media diets. Children particularly like content that is specifically created for YouTube by YouTube personalities. Because these personalities have a large reach and are considered likeable and credible, they have become social media influencers. For advertisers, these influencers are an interesting channel to reach youth. Therefore, influencers often embed persuasive sponsored messages in their videos to earn money. However, there are concerns about this practice because it is not always clear when a video includes advertising. Therefore, in several countries, guidelines have been developed that state that sponsoring in influencer videos should be disclosed as such. Until now, little is known about the effects of disclosures for influencer videos on children and the boundary conditions for such effects. Therefore, we investigated the effects of a disclosure of sponsored influencer videos on children's advertising literacy. Additionally, we examined the consequences of the disclosure for children's responses to the brand, advertised product, and video. We also included the para-social relationship (PSR) that children experience with an influencer as a possible boundary condition for disclosure effects on persuasion. Our experiment amongst children between 8 and 12 years old showed that, when children correctly recalled the disclosure, the disclosure increased their recognition of advertising, and understanding of selling and persuasive intent. Moreover, advertising literacy evoked by the disclosure affected persuasion: The disclosure enhanced brand memory through ad recognition, but also decreased advertised product desire through understanding the selling intent of the video. Furthermore, the PSR of children with the influencer proved to be a boundary condition for disclosure effects on brand attitudes. Only for those children who experienced moderate to low PSRs with the influencer, the disclosure resulted in less positive brand attitudes through understanding selling intent. For children who experienced a strong PSR with the influencer, the understanding that the content had a selling intent did not affect their brand attitudes. These findings show that a disclosure (if noticed and remembered) can be an effective tool to achieve transparency, but also influences the persuasive outcomes of influencer marketing in online videos.
观看在线视频正成为儿童媒体消费的重要组成部分。儿童尤其喜欢由YouTube博主专门为YouTube制作的内容。由于这些博主影响力大，且被认为讨人喜欢、值得信赖，他们已成为社交媒体有影响力的人。对广告商来说，这些有影响力的人是接触年轻人的一个有趣渠道。因此，有影响力的人经常在他们的视频中嵌入有说服力的赞助信息以赚钱。然而，人们对这种做法存在担忧，因为视频中何时包含广告并不总是清晰明了。因此，在几个国家，已制定指导方针，规定在有影响力的人视频中的赞助应如实披露。到目前为止，关于有影响力的人视频披露对儿童的影响以及这种影响的边界条件知之甚少。因此，我们研究了赞助的有影响力的人视频披露对儿童广告素养的影响。此外，我们还考察了披露对儿童对品牌、广告产品和视频反应的影响。我们还将儿童与有影响力的人之间的准社会关系（PSR）作为披露对说服力影响的一个可能边界条件纳入研究。我们在8至12岁儿童中进行的实验表明，当儿童正确回忆起披露信息时，披露会提高他们对广告的识别能力，以及对销售和说服意图的理解。此外，披露引发的广告素养会影响说服力：披露通过广告识别增强了品牌记忆，但也通过理解视频的销售意图降低了对广告产品的欲望。此外，儿童与有影响力的人之间的准社会关系被证明是披露对品牌态度影响的一个边界条件。只有那些与有影响力的人之间经历了中度到低度准社会关系的儿童，披露才会通过理解销售意图导致不太积极的品牌态度。对于那些与有影响力的人之间经历了强烈准社会关系的儿童来说，理解内容有销售意图并不会影响他们的品牌态度。这些发现表明，披露（如果被注意到并记住）可以是实现透明度的有效工具，但也会影响在线视频中有影响力的人营销的说服效果。
