Influencer Marketing: a Survey-based Experiment

NCT06433466 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: unidentified
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,500
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Young adults (N = 1,500) will participate in the online survey-based experiment. They will be randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or a healthy lifestyle activity alone (control). After watching each video, participants will rate perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge, attractiveness, intelligence, and popularity) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest). Among all participants, harm perceptions of e-cigarettes will be assessed. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes will be assessed among never users. These outcomes will then be compared among participants who perceived influencers as credible and those who perceived influencers as non-credible.

Conditions

Vaping

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• harm perceptions of e-cigarettes

  Responses to the question, "Do you think vaping e-cigarettes is harmful to your health?" were measured on a Likert scale, ranging from "definitely yes" (1), "probably yes" (2), to "probably not (3)," "definitely not (4)." The measure represents one validated item from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH).

  one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)

• 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)

• Perceptions of influencer credibility

  Perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge, intelligence, attractiveness, and popularity) were assessed using a 0 (e.g., dishonest) -100 (e.g., honest) scale that has been validated in prior research.

  assessed 10 times after each video (during treatment, immediately after each video)

Study Arms (2)

Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities

EXPERIMENTAL

Young adults were randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group).

Other: Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities

Videos featuring influencers showing healthy lifestyle activities

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Young adults were randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting healthy lifestyle activity alone (control).

Other: Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities

Interventions

Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities OTHER

Young adults were randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or a healthy lifestyle activity alone (control).

Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities; Videos featuring influencers showing healthy lifestyle activities

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 24 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• years of age,
• English fluency,
• Current California resident.
• The survey was sampled to be representative by age group (18 to 24) and gender, and was weighted to be representative by age, gender, race, and educational attainment using propensity score weighting.

You may not qualify if:

• Not meeting these criteria:
• years of age,
• English fluency,
• Current California resident.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Southern California: lead

Study Sites (1)

YouGov, online

Los Angeles, California, 94102, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Vassey J, Vogel EA, Unger JB, Cho J, Bae D, Donaldson SI, Allem JP. Impact of Instagram and TikTok influencer marketing on perceptions of e-cigarettes and perceptions of influencers in young adults: a randomised survey-based experiment. Tob Control. 2025 Feb 13:tc-2024-059021. doi: 10.1136/tc-2024-059021. Online ahead of print.

  PMID: 39947698 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vaping

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Smoking; Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 14, 2024
• First Posted: May 29, 2024
• Study Start: May 1, 2023
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2023
• Study Completion: June 30, 2023
• Last Updated: May 29, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)