Visual strategies in influencer marketing campaigns: The role of consistency
摘要
This research analyzes the role of visual features in influencer marketing campaigns, focusing on visual consistency within campaigns. Using 707 posts and 1,105 stories from 182 campaigns, we extract 47 visual and consistency features along four fundamental visual dimensions: color, complexity, composition, and content. Results show that visual consistency is a key factor. Posts perform better when visually consistent, while stories require a feature-specific mix of consistency and variation. These associations differ by influencer size and campaign type: Consistency is most effective for posts by macro influencers, whereas variation is positively linked to stories by micro influencers. Product campaigns favor consistency in posts but variation in stories; service campaigns show mixed patterns for both formats. Simulations show that a model-informed visual strategy outperforms briefing strategies that ignore consistency or focus exclusively on consistency and variation, emphasizing the value of managing feature-specific consistency. These findings offer practical guidance for visual strategies in influencer marketing campaigns.