influencers

2025 TOP MEMBER QUESTIONS with ANSWERS

The ARF Knowledge Center provides secondary research services for ARF and ARF-MSI members on a broad range of topics, especially in advertising, marketing and research best practices. Continuing the core trend from previous years, members tended to ask questions specific to their category or business interests. However, there were also a few hot topics that popped up across membership, such as sports marketing and sponsorships, influencer marketing and AI. In addition, there were some larger, broader trends in themes specific to each constituency, outlined below.

Member Only Access

The Persuasive Power of Pets: New Insights for Influencer Strategy

  • ARF
  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

A recent Journal of Advertising Research study presents the first empirical evidence that petfluencers can outperform human influencers in driving engagement and willingness to pay. Across four studies—including a real-world A/B test and controlled experiments, the researchers show that pet influencers benefit from higher perceived sincerity, and that message framing matters. When temporal cues align with consumers’ propensity to anthropomorphize animals, the persuasive impact increases further.

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A Peek Behind the Curtain: Setting Up Your Creator/Influencer Initiative for Success

  • ARF
  • CREATIVE COUNCIL

On December 3, the ARF Creative Council pulled back the curtain on how leading brands navigate the evolving creator and influencer landscape. This roundtable discussion offered a candid, client-side look at the creator/influencer economy and provided attendees with real-world examples of how leading brands strategically deploy creators, select the right partners, brief them effectively, and measure their performance.

Member Only Access