| Summary: | This Bachelors essay aims to investigate the interaction and relationships between young, Swedish YouTube viewers and the YouTubers they watch from a parasocial point of view, and further discuss the role of these relationships in influencer marketing on YouTube. Moreover, we examine the general effectiveness of influencer marketing through an audience perspective. What follows below is a mainly quantitative survey study, with a strain of qualitative data. The investigation and the discussion that follows, is largely based on Horton and Wohl’s concept of Parasocial Interaction, alongside Word of Mouth theories including Influencer Marketing. Reflecting over the results, our general conclusion is that Parasocial Interaction seems to occur on YouTube and that YouTubers’ recommendations affect, rather than determine consumer behaviour. Furthermore, PSI does play a role in both our sample group’s general YouTube consumption, and the effectiveness of influencer marketing according to the findings in this study.
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