Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the practice of celebrity athletes’ product endorsement in the context of social media, guided by meaning transfer model.

The study adopted a content analysis method based on data gathered from the official Twitter account of 17 of the highest-paid athletes over a period of five months.

Results outline the state, involvement level, roles, modes, preferred content types, discernible differences, shared features, and best practices employed in endorsement tweets. A framework of athletes’ product endorsement on Twitter is presented.

The study presented theoretical and practical implications, and limitations and impetus for future research.

The study investigated professional athletes’ use of their own media channel for the purpose of endorsement, presented a framework that illustrates the practice of celebrity athletes’ product endorsement on social media, and identified a best practice and an exemplary reference.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an integrative analysis, mapping the main areas of the celebrity endorsement literature of the last 20 years, offering a taxonomy of subject subareas and a research agenda for the topic.

The research was divided into two stages: the first was a systematic review of literature, and the second consisted on complementary information based on the generation and analysis of the maps elaborated by the VOSviewer software based on the data collected. The searches for the data occurred between the months of January and March of 2017.

The paper provides a decentralization framework in terms of authors regarding the celebrity endorsement. The country with the largest number of research works in the area is the USA; also, the paper reveals the most cited document, also the main journals about the theme, the main keywords, the main authors and their discussions. Thereafter, the paper presents tables containing the main author’s and respective theme inside celebrity endorsement.

One possible limitation of the research is that it was performed only in the Scopus database, and it may be suggested as future searches that other databases are included as well.

The results of this paper can serve as a facilitating guide for researchers and for managers that want to know more about the topic.

A categorization table was proposed containing the subthemes of celebrity endorsement that were discussed in the last 20 years and a list of their respective authors, including the following subjects: cultural comparison, congruence, adverse effects, efficacy and intention to purchase, marketing destinations, social media, models and reviews, multiple endorsements, social policy, values of brand/economic.

Celebrity endorsement is common in the marketing communications context, especially in the Asian market. Thanks to the popularity of online DIY celebrities, many marketing communications practitioners have started to involve such celebrities in brand and product endorsement strategies. However, few existing studies have compared the endorsement persuasiveness of online DIY celebrity endorsers with traditional celebrity endorsers, particularly in the Asian market. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to fill the literature gap by examining how consumers perceive and evaluate online DIY and traditional celebrity endorsers.

In-depth personal interviews were conducted with 15 interviewees with a median age of 23. They were asked to report their overall evaluations and attitudes toward online DIY celebrity endorsers and traditional celebrity endorsers, and their respective endorsement strategies.

Although the popularity of online DIY celebrities is growing in China, they received a lower level of appreciation from interviewees than traditional celebrities. The persuasiveness of online DIY celebrity endorsers was not as effective as that of traditional celebrity endorsers. Interviewees even held an overall negative attitude toward online DIY celebrities and their endorsements. Interviewees perceived traditional celebrity endorsers more positively, and their endorsements to be more effective, than online DIY celebrity endorsers.

The small sample size may constrain any generalization to be drawn from the findings. Future studies are suggested using survey and experiment methodology to further test and compare the persuasiveness of online DIY and traditional celebrity endorsement.

We suggest communications practitioners continue to use traditional celebrities to improve overall brand image and enhance the target audience’s purchase intention as the exploratory study reveals that audiences have an overall positive experience with traditional celebrities, instead of online DIY celebrities. If online DIY celebrities are preferred in communications strategies, we suggest practitioners carefully select qualified online DIY celebrity endorsers based on image congruence between such online DIY celebrities and the product category in that audiences in the exploratory study are quite cautious when exposed to product endorsement messages from online DIY celebrities. Besides this, audiences have more confidence in product endorsement if there is a fit between online DIY celebrities’ expertise and the endorsed product type.

This is the first qualitative study on consumers’ perception of product endorsement at the level of online DIY and traditional celebrity endorsers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of multiple brand celebrity endorsement strategies on firms’ performance and different attributes associated with celebrities on firms’ performance. In this regard, the present study specifically explores the role of celebrity reputation and experience, as well as social media as a promotion platform in influencing the economic effectiveness of multiple brand endorsement strategies, i.e. proportion of brands endorsed in a firms’ brand portfolio.

Study is based on instrumental variable regression analysis approach and is conducted in one of the emerging markets, i.e. India.

The findings indicate that firms’ market valuations increase as its proportion of brands endorsed by celebrities increases. Furthermore, popularity reputation of celebrity also influences market valuation, and relationship is positively moderated by celebrity’s experience.

Extant studies have considered one endorsement news of a firm at a time. However, how total proportion of firms’ brand endorsed by celebrities impacts its performance has not been investigated. Furthermore, impact of celebrity traits has been examined only in consumer behavior studies and has been rarely investigated in context of firms’ economic performance.

From the perspectives of service-dominant logic and social identity theory, this study aims to assess social networking site (SNS) users’ likes as a form of social endorsement as well as its effects on like-clicking behavior, perceived brand value, customer-brand identification and purchase intention. Furthermore, the different effects of social endorsement on the perceived functional, hedonic, social and monetary brand value were investigated so as to support SNS users’ role as value cocreators.

An online survey was administered as a pretest of customer perceptions regarding brands that are liked on SNSs. Next, an experiment was conducted to verify the effects of social endorsement. A mixed-method approach including partial least squares (PLS) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was adopted for the data analysis.

The results revealed that like-clicking behavior could be contagious because SNS users exposed to others’ likes were more likely to click the like button themselves. Like-clicking behavior positively influenced the perceived functional, hedonic, social and monetary value of the liked brand. Perceived brand value strengthened customer-brand identification, thereby increasing purchase intention.

Like-based social endorsements were confirmed as a type of value cocreation behavior that benefits the endorsed brand by spreading brand awareness, and increasing customer acquisition and retention. An fsQCA approach was developed to measure the moderating effect of users’ propensity to click the like button on perceived brand value, thus contributing to the advancement of fsQCA.

This study aims to examine the effectiveness (ad attitude, brand attitude and purchase intention) of celebrity endorsement in the form of explicit vs embedded advertising in the context of different new media (digital and social media).

An online experiment was conducted using a 2 (digital media vs social media) × 2 (explicit vs embedded celebrity endorsement) between-subjects design. Participants (n = 137) were exposed to a fictitious piece of online branded content using celebrity endorsement. Four experimental treatments were generated as the authors manipulated the new media and the explicitness of the celebrity endorsement in the ad piece.

The main result highlights that using social media (vs digital media) enhances celebrity endorsement's indirect influence on purchase intention via the serial mediating role of ad attitude and brand attitude, regardless of the explicitness of the message. In terms of the message format, no differences were observed.

The differential power of using celebrities across different new media to promote brands suggests the importance of interactivity in the context of celebrity endorsement. Additionally, the absence of differences in terms of message formats would show that the presence of the celebrity per se has a powerful effect.

Firms using new media to deliver their brand communication, including celebrity endorsements, can better understand the different capabilities of social media and digital media.

In the context in which empirical research equates new media with social media, this study provides an examination of celebrity endorsement assuming the complexity of the celebrity endorsement ion the current scenario: different types of new media and different types of message formats.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la efectividad (en términos de actitud a la pieza publicitaria, actitud hacia la marca e intención de compra) del celebrity endorsement en la forma de publicidad explícita versus incrustada en el contexto de diferentes tipos de nuevos medios (medios digitales y redes sociales).

Se llevó a cabo un experimento en línea utilizando un diseño between-subjects de 2 (medios digitales vs. redes sociales) × 2 (apoyo explícito vs. incrustado de celebridades). Los participantes (n = 137) fueron expuestos a una pieza online ficticia de contenido de marca en línea que utilizaba celebrity endorsement. Se generaron cuatro tratamientos experimentales, en los cuales los autores manipularon el uso de nuevos medios y el nivel de explicitación del celebrity endorsement en la pieza publicitaria.

Los resultados principales ponen de manifiesto que el uso de las redes sociales (vs. medios digitales) mejora la influencia indirecta del celebrity endorsement en la intención de compra a través del rol de mediación en serie de la actitud hacia la pieza publicitaria y la actitud hacia la marca, independientemente del nivel de explicitación del mensaje. En cuanto al formato del mensaje, no se observaron diferencias.

El poder diferencial del uso de celebridades en diferentes tipos de medios nuevos para promocionar marcas sugiere la importancia de la interactividad en el contexto del celebrity endorsement. Además, la ausencia de diferencias a nivel del formato del mensaje muestra que la presencia de la celebridad per se tiene un efecto relevante.

Según los resultados de los autores, las empresas que utilizan nuevos medios para su comunicación de marca, incluyendo celebrity endorsements, pueden comprender mejor las diferentes capacidades de las redes sociales y los medios digitales.

En un contexto donde la investigación empírica equipara los nuevos medios con las redes sociales, este estudio proporciona un examen del celebrity endorsement considerando la complejidad de la técnica en el actual escenario: diferentes tipos de nuevos medios y diferentes tipos de formatos de mensajes.

Businesses will spend millions of dollars associating their products with athletes through product endorsements. Finding the “best” athlete to make the endorsement is a crucial decision. Several theoretical perspectives suggest that the sport from which the athlete comes may be an important factor in producing a favorable consumer response. In a study conducted to investigate the effects of the type of sport on endorsement evaluations, results indicated that the image of the sport, independent of the athlete, can contribute significantly to the consumer’s response to an endorsement. The image of the sport can enhance, or detract from, the effects of the personality and appearance of the athlete making the endorsement. These findings suggest the managers should consider the sport, as well as the athlete carefully, when picking a product spokesperson.

The purpose of this study was to test whether endorsements that show a low strength of association (bottom-up bias) benefit from increased attention and processing efforts. The current study also tested whether consumer involvement level (top-down bias) dynamically interacts with the bottom-up attention phenomena.

Through a series of pretests, 36 potential celebrity-product matches were identified using real athletes and product brands. Two experiments were conducted: 330 individual responses (110 participants × three conditions) were obtained in a within-subjects lab experiment, and 868 participants were recruited for a between-subjects online experiment. Linear mixed modeling and moderated mediation analysis were performed.

The relationships between the strength of image associations and attention time to endorsements and recall and choice consideration of endorsed brands were U-shaped and curvilinear. Attention largely mediated the relationship between the strength of association and recall/choice. Involvement effects were diluted by the strength of association effects, rejecting top-down attentional control.

Brand managers for both products and celebrities are recommended to search for corresponding not only image-matched partners but also endorsement partners with dissonant pre-existing images.

The majority of the existing endorsement literature has conventionally suggested that congruence between the endorser and the endorsed property, rather than incongruence, induces consumers’ positive endorsement evaluation. This study constructs important theoretical advancements to the existing literature by empirically proving that through an attentional process, an endorsement contract, conventionally perceived as mismatched, can also generate positive outcomes.

Endorsement deals are a key contributing factor for companies to gain brand recognition and positive brand associations from consumers. However, endorsement relationships can be risky for firms in the event of an endorser’s bad behavior or involvement in scandals. The purpose of this paper is to examine how brands can use endorsement exit strategies to minimize and even benefit from negative situations involving its endorser.

After a review of celebrity endorsement literature, the paper investigates the Rio Olympic Games robbery scandal involving American swimmer Ryan Lochte as a detailed case. By studying the timeline of sponsor-related activities, relevant theories and brand outcomes through Google Trends, indications of a calculated and strategic exit from the endorsement relationship emerge.

The case analysis establishes that sponsors can successfully leverage the negative associations toward a disgraced endorser. Based on the process of meaning transfer, this case proposes that sponsors can benefit from its public dissociation from the endorser and gain awareness from this separation.

This paper is the first study to examine the positive impact of a celebrity endorsement scandal. It highlights the need for managers to actively prepare endorsement exit strategies in the event of negative associations or endorser actions. The timing and scope of the exit strategy can both limit negative meaning transfer, and leverage the situation creating positive perceptions of integrity and ethics for the sponsor.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the economic value of celebrity endorsements to Indian firms based on their branding strategy – corporate or house-of-brands – and their “congruence” or “fit” with the celebrity. The overall economic value of endorsements to firms in India, a moderately collectivist culture, is also assessed.

Standard “event study” methodology is used to evaluate the economic value of endorsements under different branding strategies (47 endorsement announcements – 25 corporate brands and 22 house-of-brands). The impact of the level of congruence (assessed using brand personality scales) on abnormal returns is also examined.

Event study results indicate significant positive abnormal returns for corporate brands and insignificant returns to house-of-brands. Moreover, the level of congruence is found to have an insignificant effect on endorsement announcement returns. Overall, celebrity endorsements result in positive economic value to Indian firms.

This study evaluates the differences in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements (which might form a significant part of advertising costs) to firms following different branding strategies. Findings from this study indicate that celebrity endorsement announcements from house-of-brands do not lead to any significant stock market returns (in terms of market value). Further, contrary to current literature, the results indicate that the congruence between brand and celebrity has no impact on returns to endorsements in India, warranting further examination of whether congruence or likeability is important in endorsements.