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.

中文翻译：

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EXPRESS：作为认知市场对象的赞助内容：品牌-创作者合作伙伴关系的平台化如何破坏估值、联合生产和市场参与者之间的关系


借助赞助内容，品牌可以与创作者合作，在数字平台上触达创作者的受众。然而，创作者和品牌对这一对象的不完全理解产生了两个关键的歧义：如何确定赞助内容的价值以及如何有效地共同制作它。为了更好地理解这些歧义，我们将赞助内容理论化为一种认知市场对象：一个促进营销功能的对象，但使用它的参与者只能部分理解。我们分析了一组关于内容创作者、品牌和中介的采访、播客、媒体文章和第三方平台评论的数据集。我们的研究结果表明，品牌、创作者和中介机构创造并应用知识来解决估值和联合生产的歧义。然而，这些知识工作是不完整的，在品牌与创造者的伙伴关系中造成了价值结果和权力关系的不对称。我们的论文通过强调认知市场对象在改变市场参与者的角色和之间关系的变革性市场中断中的作用，为营销文献和实践做出贡献。我们的研究结果可转移到其他实质性领域，例如生成式人工智能、元界、NFT、在线新闻和共享经济。