Influencer Marketing: a Survey-based Experiment Among Adolescents

The Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Imagery Alongside E-cigarettes in Social Media Influencer Marketing on Perceptions of E-cigarettes Among Adolescents: a Survey-based Experiment

Adolescents (N = 664) participated in the online survey-based experiment. They were randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or e-cigarette promotion alone (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest).

Among all participants, harm perceptions and appeal of e-cigarettes was assessed. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was assessed among never users of e-cigarettes. These outcomes were then compared among participants who perceived influencers as credible and those who perceived influencers as non-credible.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Vaping
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Influencer marketing

Detailed Description

Adolescents (13-17 years of age) living in California were recruited by Qualtrics marketing research panel to participate in a survey on tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Qualtrics, a research panel agency, has been used in prior research to survey adolescents about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants were provided with a survey URL link. After completing informed consent, participants completed the survey online. The study was approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board (UP-21-00352). Respondents were randomly assigned to watch 10 10-second long TikTok videos in either experimental (influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities) or control group (influencers promoting e-cigarettes alone).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 664
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98101
      • Online survey, Qualtrics

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 13-17 years of age,
• English fluency,
• Current California resident.

Exclusion Criteria:

Not meeting these criteria:

• 13-17 years of age,
• English fluency,
• Current California resident.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental group; Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities	Other: Influencer marketing; Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers
Active Comparator: Control group; Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alone	Other: Influencer marketing; Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes	Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was measured (among never-users of e-cigarettes), using the validated three-item scale adapted from PATH, and combined into one variable (α=0.93). Consistent with prior research, the measure was dichotomized with responses "definitely not" to all items being coded as "not susceptible" and responses "probably not," "probably yes", or "definitely yes" being coded as "susceptible."	one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
Harm perceptions of e-cigarettes	Responses to two questions adapted from PATH, "Based on the videos you just watched, do you think using e-cigarettes for vaping nicotine is harmful to your health?" "Based on the videos you just watched, do you think people harm themselves when they use e-cigarettes for vaping nicotine?" Outcome was assessed on the 0 (Not harmful at all) - 100 (Very harmful) scale. Since the items were closely related (α=0.87), they were combined (by summing all the non-missing values of the items) into one variable.	one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes	Responses to the following questions: using e-cigarette is: not cool/cool,; unattractive/attractive,; boring/fun were assessed on the 7-point semantic differential scale with the word pairs anchored at each end. The scale was adapted from prior research. The items were combined (by summing all the non-missing values of the items) into one variable (α=0.93).	one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
Perceptions of influencer credibility	Perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) were assessed using a 0 (e.g., dishonest) -100 (e.g., honest) scale that has been validated in prior research.	assessed 10 times immediately after each video

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern California

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 12, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 29, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): February 29, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 8, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 12, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 15, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 15, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 12, 2024
• Last Verified: July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: UP-21-00352

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: de-identified data will be publicly available on GitHub repository if a manuscript related to this study is accepted for publication

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No