IMCA Research Seminar - Zeynep Arsel, Concordia University

Sponsored Content as an Epistemic Market Object: How Platformization of Brand-Creator Partnerships Disrupts Valuation, Co-production, and the Relationship Between Market Actors

Abstract

Sponsored content allows brands to partner with creators to reach creators’ audiences on digital platforms. However, both creators’ and brands’ incomplete understanding of this object generates two critical ambiguities: how to determine the value of sponsored content and how to effectively co-produce it. To better understand these ambiguities, we theorize sponsored content as an epistemic market object: an object that facilitates marketing functions but is only partially understood by the actors who use it. We analyze a data set of interviews, podcasts, media articles, and third-party platform reviews about—and by—content creators, brands, and intermediaries. Our findings show that brands, creators, and intermediaries create and apply knowledge to address valuation and co-production ambiguities. However, this knowledge work is incomplete, creating asymmetries in value outcomes and power relationships in a brand-creator partnership. Our paper contributes to marketing literature and practice by highlighting the role of epistemic market objects in transformative market disruptions that alter the roles of, and the relationships between, market actors. Our findings are transferable to other substantive areas such as Generative AI, Metaverse, NFTs, online news, and the sharing economy.

Bio

Zeynep Arsel is Professor of Marketing and Concordia University Research Chair in Consumption, Markets, and Society at John Molson School of Business. She is also Professor of Management at University of Bath. Her research interests range from taste to platforms to market systems, with a sociocultural focus and multi-method approaches. Zeynep’s work is funded by internal and external grants and is featured in numerous mass media outlets. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consumer Research.