A big audience is not a buying audience: working with creators people actually believe

Prae (a fictional character) runs marketing for a gaming headset brand. She hired the streamer with the biggest following her budget allowed. The review clip beat its view target, but sales that month barely moved. She began to wonder whether she had picked the wrong person, or measured the wrong thing from the start.

Brand teams ask Prae's question all the time. The five studies brought together here look at gaming audiences, viewers of online courses and young consumers, and their answers line up in an interesting way.

Creators clearly matter to Thai consumers. An online survey by Rakuten Insight in May 2023, published via Statista, found that about 82% of Thais follow at least one influencer, and about 81% say they have bought a product because an influencer recommended it. So the question is not whether to work with creators, but whom to choose and how to measure the result.

Different audiences trust creators for different reasons

A study by Assoc. Prof. Dr Smith Boonchutima and Surakanon (published in 2023) surveyed 686 Thai female gamers and compared two kinds of gaming creator: a VTuber, who is a virtual character, and a streamer, who is a real person. The results ran in opposite directions. Viewers wanted to buy what the VTuber recommended because they saw real knowledge. For the streamer, knowledge made no difference at all; what worked was trust and personal appeal.

The same study found that committed fans of the scene weighted knowledge most, while general viewers weighted personal appeal more. Before choosing a creator, you need to know who the campaign's audience actually is.

Watching is not buying

A study by Assoc. Prof. Dr Smith Boonchutima and Sankosik (published in 2022) surveyed 238 followers of one of the world's largest gaming YouTubers. Even among regular viewers, intention to buy the games he played sat around the middle of the scale, roughly 3.1 to 3.5 out of 5. Taking credibility as a whole, trust was its core.

Goodwill passes from content to sponsor, but not all of it

A study by Assoc. Prof. Dr Smith Boonchutima and Lou (published in 2022) surveyed 216 Chinese viewers of online courses that a fan group subtitles for free, with brand sponsorship. Viewers did not see the sponsorship as intrusive advertising and did feel warmly toward the sponsors, but noticeably less warmly than toward the courses themselves.

What viewers rated highly was sincerity and fit with the content. Both are settled when you choose what to sponsor. Buying more media afterwards cannot fix them.

Values bring people to the shelf, but not to the till

A study by Lounporn and Asst. Prof. Dr Teerada Chongkolrattanaporn (published in 2023) surveyed 400 Thai Gen Z consumers about cruelty-free products. Care for animals and nature scored as high as 4.65 out of 5, yet the best predictor of who would buy was brand loyalty, and the lowest-scoring loyalty item was buying again after a price rise. People were ready to recommend, but not to pay more themselves.

A study by Lamoonpot, Assoc. Prof. Dr Smith Boonchutima and Dr Muhammad Ibtesam Mazahir (published in 2024) with 434 university students points the same way. The highest-scoring item was buying from brands whose stance matches one's own, at 5.74 out of 7. But across the whole path, a shared stance was only a supplement. The base that has to come first is awareness, a good image and a brand that delivers what it advertises.

Four points before you choose your next creator

1. 1

   Know whether the audience is committed or general

   For committed fans of the scene, choose someone who genuinely knows the product and let them show it. For a general audience, familiarity and personal appeal do more of the work.

2. 2

   Choose on fit, not on follower count

   Ask whether the product fits what this person already makes, and whether viewers will believe the recommendation is sincere. Both are decided at the point of choosing.

3. 3

   Pair values with practical reasons

   Values earn applause, but if the product costs more or is hard to find, many people will not get as far as paying. Promotions and convenient places to buy have to come with it.

4. 4

   Measure sales or clicks to buy, not just views

   Set indicators close to real purchase, such as discount-code use or clicks through to the shop. All five studies measured intention to buy, which is not the same as buying.

Reading this evidence with care

All five studies measure self-reported intention to buy, not actual sales, and each is a single snapshot, so they show which factors go together, not what causes what. The VTuber study surveyed female gamers only and used just two creators. The gaming YouTuber study looked at one creator's followers, most of them men. The fansub study drew on a single fan group of people who were still following it. The Gen Z study's respondents were 84.7% women. The brand-stance study covered one property brand, with students most of whom are not yet buyers in that category. The Rakuten Insight figures come from a 2023 online survey, and having bought on a recommendation is what respondents said themselves.

Choose who the audience believes, then measure what the audience does

Follower counts tell you how many people saw something. Belief comes from the fit between creator, product and audience. Campaigns that work start by knowing the audience, choose someone that audience trusts for the right reasons, and measure as close to the real purchase as possible.

If your brand or agency is planning to work with creators, the Center of Excellence in Communication Innovation at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Communication Arts would be glad to talk and share what we have learned.