Money in brand-blogger relations: Sin or virtue?

As bloggers become more influential due to their credibility and reach, companies and brands begin to see them as potential collaborators and aim at forming tight brand- blogger relationships that should benefit both parties. The main issue that emerges is how to perceive monetary incentives aimed at bloggers in the newly formed brand-blogger relations – as a sin, or virtue? We address this question in detail by providing evidence from a case study and a survey conducted on Italian bloggers. Our findings help develop a better understanding of brand-blogger relations and the role of monetary incentives, and shed a new, even counterintuitive, light on an aspect (the role of monetary incentives in these relations) that is most of the times overlooked or underrated. We find that monetary incentives play a determining role in bloggers’ assessment of brand relationships, as well as in their general perception of brand relationships.