Influencer Marketing: a Survey-based Experiment

Vaping Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Impact of Instagram and TikTok Influencer Marketing on Perceptions of E-cigarettes in Young Adults: a Survey-based Experiment

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06433466
• Other study ID #: unidentified
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 1, 2023
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2023

Study information

• Verified date: May 2024
• Source: University of Southern California
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

Description:

Young adults (18-24 years of age) living in California were recruited by YouGov marketing research panel to participate in a survey on tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. YouGov, a research panel agency, has been used in prior research to survey young adults about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Respondents (N=1,500) were matched to a sampling frame based on gender, age, race, and education. The sampling frame was a politically representative modeled frame of United States (U.S.) adults based on the American Community Survey. The matched cases were weighted to the sampling frame using a propensity score matching procedure. 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-21-00135). 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 showing healthy lifestyle activity alone).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1500
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2023
• Est. primary completion date: June 30, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 24 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-24 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. Exclusion Criteria:

Not meeting these criteria:

• 18-24 years of age,
• English fluency,
• Current California resident.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Vaping

Intervention

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

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	YouGov, online	Los Angeles	California

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Southern California

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	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)
Primary	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 (a=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)
Primary	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)