Shaping Sustainable Communication on Instagram: How Digital Influencers in Portugal Engage Consumers in Eco-Conscious Narratives

This article investigates how digital influencers in Portugal communicate sustainability on Instagram and how such messaging is interpreted by Generation Z audiences. While influencer culture plays a growing role in shaping sustainable consumption, little is known about the symbolic, aesthetic and emotional strategies through which sustainability is mediated – and even less about how these strategies are decoded by Gen Z publics. Addressing this gap, the study adopts a two-stage qualitative research design. Study 1 applies a Visual-Verbal Video Analysis (VVVA) to 200 Instagram Reels across four influencer tiers (mega, macro, micro and nano), examining how emotional coherence, aesthetic labor and symbolic distinction shape sustainability communication. Study 2 conducts focus group discussions with 29 Portuguese Gen Z users – using prompts on sustainable consumption, authenticity and emotional engagement – to explore how participants interpret emotional cues, assess authenticity and negotiate trust. Findings reveal a stratified symbolic economy of sustainable influence. Mega- and macro-influencers prioritize branded aesthetics and aspirational tone, often displacing sustainability into lifestyle tropes. In contrast, micro- and nano-influencers embed ecological values through visual minimalism, emotional intimacy and politicized storytelling. Gen Z participants exhibit ambivalent trust toward influencer messaging, relying on affective resonance and stylistic coherence rather than explicit claims. Performances of sincerity, marked by aesthetic simplicity, emotional modulation and symbolic restraint, emerge as key indicators of perceived credibility. The study concludes that sustainability on Instagram operates less as an informational discourse and more as an affective performance. Influencers function as cultural intermediaries who aestheticize ethical living through emotionally legible scripts, shaping how sustainability is visualized, interpreted and practiced within contemporary digital consumer culture.