Analyzing Influencer Marketing in Instagram Public Relations Campaigns (Case Study: TAPSI Company)

Objective
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, social media has become an essential platform for communication, brand promotion, and audience engagement. Among these platforms, Instagram stands out as a visually-driven and interactive channel that has transformed public relations practices, enabling brands to reach audiences in novel and effective ways. The emergence of influencer marketing on Instagram has further revolutionized how companies communicate with their stakeholders. Influencers act as intermediaries who can humanize brands, provide authentic narratives, and enhance audience trust through their personal experiences and credibility.
Despite the widespread adoption of influencer marketing in corporate communication strategies, there is still limited empirical research examining how influencer-driven campaigns function within the framework of public relations. In particular, the mechanisms through which influencer content fosters social participation, reinforces brand messages, and builds trust remain underexplored. TAPSI, a leading Iranian transportation company, serves as an ideal case study to investigate these dynamics. By analyzing its Instagram public relations campaigns, this study aims to provide insights into how influencer marketing can enhance brand experience, foster user engagement, and generate meaningful interaction between audiences and brands. Understanding these processes is crucial for designing campaigns that are not only visually appealing but also strategically effective, aligning with the broader objectives of corporate communication and marketing.
Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to analyze the impact of influencer marketing on Instagram public relations campaigns and the resulting brand outcomes. More specifically, the study seeks to:

Examine how influencers contribute to building brand credibility and a humanized brand identity by sharing authentic experiences and personal narratives.
Investigate the methods through which influencer-driven campaigns encourage active user participation and collective engagement.
Identify the communication techniques, including experiential storytelling, user-generated content, and direct interaction, that enhance trust, promote positive brand experiences, and increase message effectiveness.
Explore how audience behaviors such as content sharing, commenting, and reinterpretation amplify campaign messages and transform followers into co-creators of the brand narrative.
Assess the alignment between communication styles, overt and covert thematic elements, and the strategic goals of TAPSI’s public relations initiatives.

By achieving these objectives, the study offers both theoretical and practical contributions, providing a comprehensive understanding of influencer marketing as a strategic tool within Instagram public relations campaigns.
Research Methodology
This research is designed as an applied-analytical study to investigate real-world Instagram campaigns and identify patterns in influencer communication and audience interaction. The dataset comprises content from 12 selected influencers—categorized as macro, micro, and nano (4 macro, 5 micro, 3 nano)—alongside 564 user comments extracted from TAPSI’s Instagram posts and stories during spring 2025. Purposive sampling was applied to select influencers who demonstrated active engagement and produced content aligned with TAPSI’s public relations objectives. All publicly available posts, stories, and user comments were systematically coded to ensure comprehensive coverage and reliability.
The analysis consisted of two main methodological components. First, thematic analysis was performed following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-stage framework—familiarization with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and compiling the final report. This process resulted in the identification of five organizing themes: service experience quality, attractiveness of offers, honesty in advertising, influencer-audience interaction, and user reactions to the brand. These themes captured the nuances of influencer content and user interactions. Second, qualitative social network analysis (SNA) was employed to examine interaction patterns between influencers and followers, identify central actors, and assess network structures. This approach enabled the evaluation of relational dynamics within the campaigns and highlighted the key nodes that facilitated message dissemination and user engagement.
Findings
The analysis revealed several critical insights regarding the role of influencer marketing in TAPSI’s Instagram campaigns, organized around the five themes:

Service Experience Quality: Users paid close attention to practical and real aspects of the travel experience. Influencers who shared detailed personal stories about their trips with TAPSI were more effective in building trust than those who only offered generic praise.
Attractiveness of Offers: Discounts and special gifts significantly increased user engagement. However, the findings showed that offers alone were not sufficient; they needed to be paired with authentic narratives to generate lasting positive attitudes.
Honesty in Advertising: Audience trust in both the influencer and the brand depended heavily on perceived honesty and consistency with real experiences. Influencers who disclosed their partnership with TAPSI transparently and shared both positive and negative aspects (when relevant) received higher credibility ratings.
Influencer-Audience Interaction: Narrative style, asking questions, and direct invitations to participate (e.g., polls, challenges, comment prompts) increased user engagement. Influencers who actively responded to comments and created a dialogic environment fostered stronger community feeling.
User Reactions to the Brand: User responses ranged from highly positive to distrustful. Positive reactions were associated with perceived authenticity and reciprocal interaction, while negative reactions often stemmed from repetitive, purely promotional content that lacked personal touch.

In addition, qualitative social network analysis revealed that influencers who adopted a personal, experience-driven narrative acted as “trusted promoters,” whereas those who only published repetitive, impersonal advertising content served as “official advertising arms.” The network model showed that higher levels of narrative centrality, honesty in experience transfer, and genuine invitations to interact led to more meaningful communications and richer interactions. Users themselves were categorized into loyal, critical, and humorous groups, each engaging with the brand differently.
Discussion & Conclusion
The findings highlight influencer marketing as a strategic mechanism for enhancing Instagram public relations campaigns. Influencers’ social capital, narrative skills, and ability to engage communities effectively translate into measurable campaign outcomes. The results support source credibility theory (Hovland et al., 1953), confirming that perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and relatability enhance message acceptance and brand evaluation. Moreover, the study reinforces the value of two-way symmetrical communication (Grunig & Hunt, 1984), emphasizing the importance of feedback, content sharing, and active participation for campaign success. The integration of thematic analysis and qualitative SNA provided complementary insights: thematic analysis elucidated the cognitive and emotional factors driving engagement (through the five identified themes), while SNA revealed network structures and the centrality of key influencers (distinguishing “trusted promoters” from “official advertising arms”). This methodological synergy offers a comprehensive understanding of both content and relational dimensions of influencer marketing campaigns.
This research demonstrates that strategic use of influencer social capital and meaningful audience engagement significantly enhances the effectiveness of Instagram public relations campaigns. Brands that facilitate authentic storytelling, encourage participatory engagement, and leverage user-generated content can foster stronger emotional connections, greater trust, and more positive brand experiences. The findings provide actionable guidance for marketers and communication professionals, emphasizing the integration of content strategy, influencer selection, and network analysis in campaign design.
By examining TAPSI as a case study, this study contributes to the broader academic discourse on digital public relations and influencer marketing, offering a model for understanding how content, interaction, and co-creation intersect to shape brand perceptions and audience behavior.