Table 2.
Characteristics of e-cigarette brands (N=640) by the number of influencers they collaborated with, the influencers’ user engagement and the number of the influencers’ followers on Instagram in 2020
| Geolocation of influencers | Average number of influencers per brand | Average number of influencers’ followers/SD/range | Average number of influencers’ followers <18 years old (% of total average followers)/SD/range | Average influencers’ engagement rate* | ||||
| Followers | SD | Range | Followers | SD | Range | |||
|
12 most central e-cigarette brands that collaborated with more than 10 (up to 27) influencers:
Voopotech, Innokin, Geekvape, Lostvape, Smok, Vaporesso, Asvape, Oxva.tech, Freemax, Wotofo, Augvape, Upends | ||||||||
| USA | 6 | 100 793 | 67 651 | 32 833–153 325 | 3930 (4%) | 3033 | 1274–6881 | 3.18 |
| Asia | 5 | 91 160 | 56 892 | 4421–146 721 | 4778 (5%) | 3290 | 1645–7076 | 10 |
| Europe | 5 | 23 241 | 13 911 | 8708–43 387 | 267 (1%)/ | 253 | 106–601 | 3.60 |
|
33 mid-tier and peripheral e-cigarette brands that collaborated with 5–10 influencers:
Hellvape, Nasty Juice, Smoant, Aspire, Dotmod, Uwell, Mione, Thevapx, Heaven Gifts, Dovpo, Vapefly, Rincoe, Ruthless Ejuice, Moti, Famovape, Hotcig, Joytech, Maskking, Popvapor, Suorin, Twisteliquids, Univapo, Vafflecom, Vape Dinner Lady, Vape Uno, Vapelustion, Loaded Juice, Nevoks, Riot Squad Eliquids, Solacevapor, Teslacig, Vaportech, Vaptio | ||||||||
| USA | 2 | 88 021 | 67 751 | 6187–221 400 | 3238 (4%) | 3107 | 0–6714 | 2.79 |
| Asia | 3.5 | 102 546 | 40 418 | 40 650–140 868 | 5074 (5%) | 3271 | 1494–8280 | 7.41 |
| Europe | 3 | 27 297 | 14 991 | 9899–50 161 | 360 (1%) | 266 | 0–1003 | 3.38 |
| 595 e-cigarette brands† that collaborated with 1–4 influencers: | ||||||||
| USA | 0.4 | 73 738 | 62 607 | 6187–221 400 | 2697 (4%) | 3107 | 0–8856 | 3.85 |
| Asia | 1.2 | 75 466 | 68 166 | 3140–173 000 | 2973 (4%) | 3943 | 0–10 380 | 9.33 |
| Europe | 0.8 | 18 446 | 16 805 | 2553–58 900 | 194 (1%) | 269 | 0–1003 | 4 |
Brazil and South Africa were excluded from the table, because only two influencers were from these countries.
*The engagement rate represents a 6-month average engagement rate per post, which is calculated as a sum of the number of likes and the number of comments divided by the number of followers.
†The list of the 595 brand names that were not included in the social network analysis (figure 2) and that collaborated with one to four influencers is available in the online supplemental appendix.