Does Excessive Influencer Advertising Reduce Brand Trust Among University- Aged Consumers?

Abstract

The use of influencer marketing will be among the most effective methods of contemporary digital marketing, particularly among the younger generation of consumers spending most of their time on social media. Despite the influencer advertising strategy being effective in brand promotion, a series of concerns have risen to the fore with the excess consumption of the influencer advertising strategy potentially leading to decline in consumer trust due to advert fatigue and commercialisation. The paper looks at the relationship between influencer advertising strength and brand trust among consumers of their university age. The quantitative secondary data approach means that the research analyses almost 150,000 instances of influencer marketing campaigns in different social media. The behavioural proxy (brand trust) is the engagement rate and advertising exposure and intensity is determined by the number of days to carry out the campaign and the number of engagements per day. The two regression equations are one linear regression equation which examines the direct relations as well as nonlinear regression equation which examines weakening returns using inverted-U relation. The findings indicate that the impact of advertisement is dependent on the extent of the influencer advertising positively on the engagement rates, yet the marginal returns decline with the increasing exposure. The findings do not show a strong negative wear-out effect but rather show that advertising saturation leads to diminishing returns rather than a diminishing level of trust. These findings depict the necessity to strike the balance between the frequency of the advertisement and authenticity and relevance of the content to reach the Generation Z audiences. The study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the effectiveness of influencer marketing and provides reasonable implications to the brands that strive to maintain consumer confidence and ensure the largest engagement in the highly competitive digital environment.