(Self)influencers and fiction: the prescription of Spanish series on Netflix by actresses and actors

Abstract

Influencer marketing has become a persuasive tool of great relevance and impact to promote and persuade digital audiences about brands, products and services. Video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix not only create their own profiles, also use the channels of part of their creative, artistic and/or technical team to promote their series, while at the same time using the channels created by fans who have become prosumers. This article uses exploratory and descriptive content analysis to investigate the use of influencer marketing by the 76 actresses and 63 actors (139) of the 18 Spanish series released in 2022 on Netflix, as well as the formal characteristics of the 250 promotional posts about the series they star in. It was found that the posts are mostly published on weekdays (Fridays), are originals by the artistic team of the series, predominantly photographs and photo albums in which actresses and actors appear in choral form, do not rate the series, use part from episodes, timidly disseminate the visual identity of the platform and the series itself, but do quote the platform in their copy. It is striking that the dissemination of the premiere date of the series does not predominate, nor is audience participation encouraged through interactive questions. Nor do they identify the advertising-promotional nature of their activity on Instagram.