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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT06501937

Influencer Marketing: a Survey-based Experiment Among Adolescents

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.

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Key information

Conditions

Vaping Behavior Smoking

Age range

13 year–17 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Online survey, Qualtrics

Seattle, Washington, 98101, United States

About this study

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).

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

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.

Treatment and study plan

Influencer marketing

Other

Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers

Primary outcomes

  1. Harm perceptions of e-cigarettes

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

    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.

  2. Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes

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

    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).

  3. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes

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

    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."

  4. Perceptions of influencer credibility

    Time frame: assessed 10 times immediately after each video

    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.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Southern California

Other

Registry information

Official study title

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

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2024
Study completion
2024
First posted
Jul 15, 2024
Registry last updated
Jul 15, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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