Influencer marketing and the ‘gifted’ product: framing practices and market shaping

Abstract

This article investigates the development of the market for influencer marketing in Sweden. It does so by focusing on the issue of ‘stuff’ sent to influencers. Such exchanges can be framed in different ways: e.g. stuff sent for the purpose of earning media, or as compensation for a marketing service. Drawing on the notion of framing in Callonian economic sociology, the paper identifies three ‘framing practices’: (1) framing the sending of stuff to influencers in individual exchanges, (2) reframing exchanges to put them in new light, or (3) preframing how exchanges ought to be performed. In efforts to frame exchanges of stuff, their broader context, and how stuff should be taxed, influencers, marketing professionals and the Swedish Tax Agency contribute to shaping the market for influencer marketing.