Journal of Interactive Advertising

The Changing Landscape of Influencer Advertising

The Journal of Interactive Advertising (JIA) is seeking submissions for its Special Issue Article Collection on “The Changing Landscape of Influencer Advertising.”

This Special Issue Article Collection aims to feature papers that examine the rapidly evolving landscape of influencer advertising. Despite appearing saturated, the field is increasingly shaped by advances in interactivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and immersive media, alongside shifting consumer expectations and emerging ethical and regulatory concerns. Together, these changes have unsettled traditional assumptions about agency, authenticity, and accountability in influencer advertising, repositioning influencers as persuasion agents embedded within platform architectures and algorithmic systems (Ahn and Hatfield 2025; Mouritzen, Penttinen, and Pedersen 2024). Extending this reconceptualization, recent research increasingly treats influencer advertising as a hybrid human–machine system, in which persuasive outcomes are not attributable to individual message sources alone but instead emerge from coordinated interactions among influencers, platforms, algorithms, and audiences (Aw and Agnihotri 2024; Libai et al. 2025; Lou, Taylor, & Zhou, 2023).

This systemic shift has important implications for both effectiveness and risk. While these developments create new opportunities for brands and organizations, they also introduce critical boundary conditions and unintended consequences. Meta-analytic and integrative research demonstrates that influencer advertising effects are systematically contingent rather than uniform, shaped by interacting content, follower, and influencer characteristics and varying across platform structures, product attributes, and outcome domains, with different predictors emerging across attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (Pan et al. 2025; Sporl-Wang, Krause, and Henkel 2025). At the same time, a growing body of research points to a dark side of influencer advertising, including deceptive practices, persuasion vulnerabilities, social comparison, diminished well-being, and sustainability tensions, particularly in highly commercialized and increasingly AI-mediated influencer ecosystems (Barari 2023; Boerman, Dekoninck, and de Vries 2026; Ekinci, Dam, and Buckle 2025).

Consistent with JIA’s mission, this Special Issue invites original manuscripts that theorize and empirically examine influencer advertising as a form of interactive advertising, advancing understanding of how, when, and why influencer advertising works as well as when it may backfire. Submissions that integrate theory, rigorous methodology, and contemporary technological contexts are particularly encouraged. The following topics are suggested, though additional topics aligned with the journal’s focus are welcome.

• Consumer Behavior and Persuasion
  • eWOM, social proof, and interactive persuasion dynamics in influencer advertising
  • Persuasion processes and boundary conditions
  • Emotional engagement, (trans)parasocial interaction, and relational dynamics in influencer content
  • Trust, authenticity, and credibility calibration across influencer types
  • Unintended and counter-persuasive effects

• Technology and Innovation
  • AI-mediated and synthetic persuasion agents
  • Immersive and extended realities in influencer advertising
  • Platform affordances and algorithmic amplification of influencer content
  • Interactive commerce and creator-led retail ecosystems (e.g., live streaming, social shopping, short-form video)

• Industry Development and Professionalization
  • Influencer advertising as a profession and creator-economy dynamics
  • Disclosure, regulation, and governance as interactive design challenges
  • Measurement, attribution, and performance evaluation in influencer advertising
  • Brand–influencer–platform–AI relationship management and governance

• Challenges and Negative Effects of Influencer Advertising
  • The dark side of interactive and AI-mediated influencer persuasion
  • Influencer fatigue, burnout, and long-term relational consequences
  • Consumer vulnerability, well-being, and societal implications

• Global Trends and Emerging Topics
  • Long-term influencer partnerships in interactive and AI-enabled media
  • Influencers, activism, and social or political causes
  • Diversity, representation, and inclusion in influencer advertising
  • Global and non-Western contexts as theory-generating sites
  • Future directions in hybrid, immersive, and automated influencer campaigns

Keywords: influence advertising, influencer marketing, influencer

References: Available upon request. Due to the space limitation, the list of cited resources cannot be provided in this announcement.