The Effect of Influencers on Generation Z – Exploration Research

Abstract

In our research, we examined the impact of influencer marketing on purchasing. The choice of topic was justified by the novelty, interest and continuous development of the marketing communication tool, in addition to the fact that two-way communication has developed thanks to the online world, which has opened up further paths between brands and consumers. This new tool includes social media and influencer marketing, which has been popular and constantly evolving since its inception. In our research, we investigated how the surveyed advertising agencies see influencers, whether they influence the purchasing habits of Generation Z, how reliable products they advertise and thus how credible they are, especially if all their content is advertising. In the study, after the review of the literature, we turn to the presentation of Generation Z, who are the focus of the research. These are the people who were already born into the digital world, for them the accelerated world is almost natural. They do not exist without their electronic devices, and as a result, they are constantly present in the online world, which is why they have been called the wired generation, among other things. Nowadays, there are countless social platforms, which are becoming more and more successful every year, YouTube, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and TikTok are among the most popular platforms in our country. The holistic name for the marketing activities running on these sites is social media marketing, which includes all social sites, yet each interface is different, since a different target audience can be reached on each site, using different communication. In the second half of the study, the results of qualitative research on the current situation of domestic influencer marketing are presented.