Virtual Entities as Brand Endorsers
Creators: Ozdemir, Ozan
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2024

<p>The prevalence of virtual agents across various sectors has led to the emergence of virtual influencers on social media platforms as computer-generated alternatives to human social media influencers. Virtual influencers are not very different from their human counterparts. On social media platforms, they are presented with their own personas, and, just like human influencers, they display human emotions, state their opinions about social issues, and post about their daily activities. Furthermore, from the perspective of firms that consider employing virtual influencers to endorse their brands on social media, virtual influencers seem to offer advantages over human influencers, such as greater control over their images in promotional social media posts to align with brand interests and not suffering from physiological limitations like sickness, fatigue, and aging. Although human influencers have been extensively studied, many questions regarding the use of virtual influencers in marketing practices remain unanswered. This dissertation, across two essays, aims to address two key issues related to the effectiveness of virtual influencers as brand endorsers, including (1) the factors contributing to virtual influencers’ effectiveness as brand endorsers and (2) whether they can be as effective as human influencers in generating a positive brand attitude.</p>

<p>Essay 1 sheds light on the factors influencing virtual influencers’ effectiveness in brand endorsements by examining three types of realism and the interplay between them. Four experiments show that form and behavioral realism of virtual influencers, as well as the domain realism of endorsed products affect virtual influencers’ effectiveness as brand endorsers. All else being equal, virtual influencers with high (vs. low) form realism generate more positive brand outcomes because they are perceived as more trustworthy. However, there are no differences in brand outcomes for high (vs. low) form realism when virtual influencers display low behavioral realism by refraining from using self-referential pronouns in endorsements. Furthermore, when virtual influencers with low (vs. high) form realism endorse products belonging to domains characterized by low realism (i.e., the digital world), they generate more positive brand outcomes due to stronger influencer-domain fit perceptions.</p>

<p>Essay 2 examines the effectiveness of the brand endorsements by virtual influencers in comparison to those by human influencers. Five experiments show that the perceived lack of credibility of virtual influencers compared to their human counterparts leads to a less positive attitude toward the brands that they endorse. Using the language expectancy theory, this essay identifies a boundary condition for this general finding. When virtual influencers use rational language (rather than emotional language) in their endorsements, they can be as effective as their human counterparts in generating a positive attitude toward the brands they endorse.</p>

<p>This dissertation contributes to social media, influencer marketing, and consumer-technology interactions literatures by examining an emerging influencer type within the brand endorsement context. This research also offers practical implications for firms regarding selecting the right influencer and crafting effective endorsement content.</p>