This summary is provided by the Digital Media Research Center.
Dr. Fanjue Liu and Dr. Yu-hao Lee examined the rising trend of virtual influencers (digitally created characters with human-like attributes) and and studied how effective they were in influencing brand attitudes and purchase intentions compared to human influencers.
An experiment was conducted September – November 2022 with 352 respondents. Each participant was randomly assigned to an influencer and a news article about different types of products, with the articles specifying whether the influencer was human or computer-generated. The product types were defined as:
1.) Functional: essential, utilitarian products that enable consumers to achieve a goal or complete a practical task.
2.) Symbolic: products that showcase consumers identity and prestige, such as limited edition releases from renowned designers.
3.) Experiential: products that are an experience or elicit feelings, emotions, and sensations.
Key findings include:
1.) Virtual influencers were perceived as less authentic than human influencers across all product types, which negatively influenced both brand attitude and purchase intention.
– The extent to which virtual influencers affected brand attitudes varied based on the product type.
2.) Human influencers were generally perceived as a better fit overall for endorsements than virtual influencers.
– This was especially true when the products were considered symbolic or experiential.
3.) The effect of human authenticity remained constant across product types
– However, the effectiveness of virtual influencer endorsements can be optimized by strategically pairing them with functional products.
Read the full report here:
