Influencer Marketing

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.

Lauren Gurrieri is Associate Professor in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University, Australia. 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, USA, 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, especially in the Asia Pacific region, and has published 6 books and over 80 articles and chapters. Crystal is Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, Australia, and Director of the influencer Ethnography Research Lab. Reach her at wishcrys.com.