#Instafame: exploring the endorsement effectiveness of influencers compared to celebrities

Abstract

A series of three studies explore the endorsement effectiveness of ‘macro’ influencers compared with ‘regular’ celebrities. Using multidimensional scaling, we provide evidence of perceptual differences between celebrities and influencers beyond endorser attractiveness, credibility, expertise, and familiarity. We further study conditions in which endorser type is more or less effective in evoking favorable ad-related responses via consumers’ inferences of an ad’s manipulative intent. The results show that influencer endorsements in social media need to be subtle to achieve greater effectiveness than celebrity endorsements. In contrast, intrusive advertising in social media is more efficient when done in collaboration with celebrities. No significant differences emerge for endorsements in regular ad formats, though endorsements may benefit from higher awareness levels of celebrities. The findings help marketers make better informed choices between celebrity and influencer advertising collaborations.

Keywords:

• Social media influencer
• influencer marketing
• celebrity endorsements
• endorser effectiveness
• manipulative intentions

Acknowledgment

Special thanks go to Hannah Schmidt, Ehler Benjes and Johannes Thiel for their help in collecting the data. The authors thank the Editor, the Associate Editor, and the reviewers for their valuable comments.

Data availability

The data sets are available upon request.

This manuscript has not been published nor submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicting interests to disclose.

Notes

1 https://www.instagram.com/jamescharles/.

2 https://www.instagram.com/nashgrier/.

3 We did not have to exclude any participants based on these attention checks.

4 We thank an anonymous reviewer for making this suggestion.

5 https://www.instagram.com/tamtambeauty/.

6 ProSiebenSat.1 Media has a 20% market share of the German television market (Statista 2020a).

7 We thank an anonymous reviewer for making this suggestion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan-Frederik Gräve

Jan-Frederik Gräve is a research associate at the Institute of Marketing at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on influencer marketing, brand communication in social media and advertising endorsements. To date, his work has been published in the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Services Marketing, and Social Media + Society.

Fabian Bartsch

Fabian Bartsch is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Montpellier Business School, France. His research interests include cross-cultural consumer behavior, the country of origin effect, and global consumer culture(s). To date, his work has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, and Journal of Business Research.