Examining the immediate and delayed impact of immersive media on the effectiveness of social media influencer advertising: An experimental approach

Previous research highlighted the impact of advertising in virtual reality (VR) media settings. There is growing interest in connecting virtual reality content with social media. The present research investigates social media users' cognitive processes, attitudes, and behavioral intentions when interacting with a social media influencer in VR media settings. The research contributes to the existing scholarship by investigating the immediate and the delayed impact of a spherically filmed 360-degree advertising video of a social media influencer. We conducted a between-subjects (media reception modality: smartphone versus head-mounted display) online survey-based experiment with two time points (immediately and one month after the media exposure). Findings showed that participants who viewed the 360-degree advertising video of an influencer in VR media settings with head-mounted displays assessed the influencer as more credible, expressed greater intentions to follow the influencer and to see more of the influencer content, brand attitude, purchase intention, and electronic word-of-mouth intention compared to participants that saw the same video on their smartphones. One month later, regardless of media reception, brand attitudes increased, while purchase intentions decreased more in VR media compared to smartphone use.