@misc{DostPhielerHaenleinetal., author = {Dost, Florian and Phieler, Ulrike and Haenlein, Michael and Libai, Barak}, title = {Seeding as Part of the Marketing Mix: Word-of-Mouth Program Interactions for Fast Moving Consumer Goods}, series = {Journal of Marketing}, volume = {83}, journal = {Journal of Marketing}, number = {2}, issn = {0022-2429}, doi = {10.1177/0022242918817000}, pages = {62 -- 81}, language = {en} } @misc{PhielerDost, author = {Phieler, Ulrike and Dost, Florian}, title = {Does It Pay to Increase Public Messages in Nano-Influencer Campaigns? Investigating the Optimal Public Message Share for Sales and Return-On-Investment}, series = {2023 ISMS Marketing Science Conference Proceedings}, journal = {2023 ISMS Marketing Science Conference Proceedings}, pages = {3}, abstract = {Online influencer marketing has matured, and many managers now seek better performance with nano-influencers in seeding campaigns. Compared to macro-influencers, nano-influencers create more private (direct online or offline) brand messages that supposedly deliver more "persuasive punch". But such private messages lack the usual online tracking per message, forcing managers to ask nano-influencers for self-reports, or to estimate sales at a campaign level if they want to assess their own decisions. Therefore, little is known about how to set up effective nano-influencer campaigns: does it pay to increase the public message share in nano-influencer activity, in order to benefit from private and public influencer activity? Or does it defeat its purpose, diminishing nano-influencers' persuasiveness and total campaign results? This study analyses a unique campaign-level data set of various seeded marketing campaigns comprising the activity of 700,000 nano-influencers. We model the impact of nano-influencers' activity on incremental sales and return-on-investment (ROI) at the campaign level. To answer our questions, we include effects of public message share and optimal public message share and their interaction with activity; instrumenting both for identification, and controlling for campaign, marketing, and brand context. We find conditional optimal public message shares for both sales and ROI. The average campaign benefits most when increasing influencer activity (through design or incentives) at public message shares between 4\% and 5\%. This shows the importance of striking the right balance between nano-influencers' online and offline activity, and suggests a similar balance for combining nano- and macro-influencers in future campaign formats.}, language = {en} } @misc{DostPhieler, author = {Dost, Florian and Phieler, Ulrike}, title = {How To Set Up Seeded Marketing Campaigns with Offline-Focused Nano-Influencers That Create Engagement, Sales, and Return-On-Investment}, series = {Reconnecting and reconceiving the marketplace : AMA Winter Academic Conference 2023 : AMA educators proceedings volume 34 : online, 6 February, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 10 - 12 February 2023, part 1}, journal = {Reconnecting and reconceiving the marketplace : AMA Winter Academic Conference 2023 : AMA educators proceedings volume 34 : online, 6 February, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 10 - 12 February 2023, part 1}, publisher = {American Marketing Association}, address = {Chicago, ILL.}, isbn = {978-0-87757-015-8}, pages = {194 -- 196}, abstract = {Marketers know the majority of impactful product and brand recommendations happen in offline conversations. To become part of these conversations, marketers increasingly utilize thousands of nano-influencers---ordinary consumers who "buzz" about a brand---with specialized marketing formats: seeded marketing campaigns (SMCs). The idea is to equip a large number of nano-influencers with the product or brand to be marketed, then encourage them to share their brand experiences and excitement with their peers. Overall, the created seed activity from SMCs has been shown to increase sales (Dost et al. 2019, Chae et al. 2017, Godes and Mayzlin 2009) at comparably low cost, which makes SMCs an attractive marketing mix addition for managers. The key challenge with SMCs, and a major difference to marketing campaigns with professional online influencers, is that nano-influencer activity is not contractually specified, and managers cannot economically engage with thousands of nano-influencers individually. Instead, managers have to rely on their initial campaign setup decisions to activate nano-influencers. SMC setup comprises SMC size and selection (how many nano-influencers, and who from where to select?), SMC content (which products and incentives to send the nano-influencers?), and SMC timing (how long should the campaign run?). Managers actively seek advice from literature to improve their setup decisions; however, extant research offers them only incomplete setup recommendations. This leaves managers at a loss and complicates result- and cost-conscious campaigns set-ups. With a unique dataset of 148 SMCs comprising the activity of nearly 700,000 nano� influencers and covering about a twentieth of all SMCs in the EU during data collection, we comprehensively model how setup decisions affect all relevant campaign outcomes---seed activity, sales, cost, and return-on-investment---while considering marketing and brand context. Our cross-campaign data enables a comparison of various SMC setups to find out which of managers' available setup decisions aid in planning effective and/or efficient SMCs. Results show that campaign success lies mostly in managers' hands, as setup decisions show the highest impact on campaign outcomes. Brand context plays only a minor role---contrasting organic word-of-mouth settings. Marketing context, such as parallel advertising or product price, matter differently, depending on the campaign goal. We identify trade-offs between effective brand building (maximum seed activity), effective promotion (maximum sales), and efficient (maximum return-on-investment) campaigns, reconciling conflicting suggestions from extant research. Our model predicts that managers could increase seed activity by 97\%, sales by 162\%, or return-on-investment by 100\% compared to current practice.}, language = {en} } @misc{PhielerDost, author = {Phieler, Ulrike and Dost, Florian}, title = {Does It Pay to Increase Public Messages in Nano-Influencer Campaigns? Investigating the Optimal Public Message Share for Sales and Return-On-Investment}, series = {2023 ISMS Marketing Science Conference Proceedings}, journal = {2023 ISMS Marketing Science Conference Proceedings}, publisher = {INFORMS}, pages = {3}, abstract = {Online influencer marketing has matured, and many managers now seek better performance with nano-influencers in seeding campaigns. Compared to macro-influencers, nano-influencers create more private (direct online or offline) brand messages that supposedly deliver more "persuasive punch". But such private messages lack the usual online tracking per message, forcing managers to ask nano-influencers for self-reports, or to estimate sales at a campaign level if they want to assess their own decisions. Therefore, little is known about how to set up effective nano-influencer campaigns: does it pay to increase the public message share in nano-influencer activity, in order to benefit from private and public influencer activity? Or does it defeat its purpose, diminishing nano-influencers' persuasiveness and total campaign results? This study analyses a unique campaign-level data set of various seeded marketing campaigns comprising the activity of 700,000 nano-influencers. We model the impact of nano-influencers' activity on incremental sales and return-on-investment (ROI) at the campaign level. To answer our questions, we include effects of public message share and optimal public message share and their interaction with activity; instrumenting both for identification, and controlling for campaign, marketing, and brand context. We find conditional optimal public message shares for both sales and ROI. The average campaign benefits most when increasing influencer activity (through design or incentives) at public message shares between 4\% and 5\%. This shows the importance of striking the right balance between nano� influencers' online and offline activity, and suggests a similar balance for combining nano- and macro-influencers in future campaign formats}, language = {en} }