Abstract
Social media platforms created new opportunities for brands to interact with potential and existing customers in the digital space. In particular, the rise of micro-celebrities, also called social media influencers (SMIs), caused the development of SMI advertisement. There are many advantages to SMI advertisement, which is why many brands prefer it to other digital marketing tools. However, the popularization of SMI ads could potentially affect other types of marketing, including celebrity advertisement, which has been among the key methods used by brands to reach their target audience in the past few decades. Following a significant body of past research studying the factors affecting the effectiveness of celebrity advertisement and endorsement, this study aimed to determine if exposure to paid social media posts could impact people’s perception of celebrity trustworthiness, thus affecting their buying intentions.
Introduction
Celebrity advertisement and endorsement are popular marketing methods used by businesses all over the world to promote their products or services. Celebrities are widely considered to be effective in advertising products and services as they give businesses an opportunity to reach a wider audience by appealing to a large number of people. With the rise of social media tools, many celebrities use their social media accounts for paid advertisement, which allows reaching millions of followers all over the world. However, the popularity of social media platforms also led to the popularization of social media influencers (SMIs).
According to Hearn and Schoenhoff (2015), SMIs work to create celebrity capital by gaining attention on social media and establishing their personal brand via social networks. For businesses, SMI advertising provides the same benefits as celebrity advertisement or endorsement; even more so, SMIs can help businesses to reach a specific audience, as most of the SMI blogs are themed. SMIs gain the vast part of their income by posting paid advertisements, which leads to a high exposure of daily social network users to SMI ads. Consecutively, most people are aware that their favorite bloggers post paid advertisements. The present research aims to test the hypothesis that exposure to SMI advertisement leads to the decrease in perceived trustworthiness of celebrities who also engage in social media marketing.
Significance of Research
The research will provide a multi-dimensional review of the relationship between SMIs and celebrities on social media sites. In particular, the study is aimed at examining the influence of SMI advertisement exposure on trust in celebrities. Attitudes toward celebrities are important as they are a major predictor of consumer attitudes toward the advertised brand (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). Also, audience’s perception of a celebrity can have a direct impact on perceived credibility, which can also affect the effectiveness of social media advertisement or endorsement (Rifon, Jiang, & Kim, 2016). Finally, the research will also attempt to discover the comparative influence of SMI and celebrity adverts on purchase intentions of customers. Thus, the present research will contribute to the previous studies of celebrity advertisement and endorsement by extending them to the social media context.
Literature Review
Celebrity Advertisement in the Online Context
Social media platforms represent a unique and fruitful environment for brands to interact with their potential customers. For instance, features such as themed accounts and groups allow brands to interact directly with their target audience. According to the study by Fosdick (2012), brand websites have been losing audience since 2009, which is largely due to the increase in the use of social media platforms, which might act as brand communities. The brand’s presence on digital platforms, including social media, can help it to establish a relationship with customers, thus affecting their purchase intentions (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). For instance, brands can use social media to provide more information about their products or offer customer service support.
ASOS provides an excellent example of the use of Facebook for customer service efforts, with a robust team of customer support that can be contacted from any device at all times. People use social networks on a daily basis, which makes it easier for them to interact with the brands that use social media. For example, instead of checking the brand’s official web page, they can monitor the release of a new collection or product by subscribing to the brand’s social media account. Moreover, as noted by Cummins, Peltier, Schibrowsky, and Nill (2014), “because many shopping experiences are affect-based, the Internet represents a composite of visual, individual and interpersonal stimuli” (p. 170). In this case, celebrity endorsement becomes especially relevant to the majority of brands. Previous research suggests that celebrity endorsed brands are perceived by customers to be more desirable and beneficial (Nelson & Deborah, 2017).
Celebrities are perceived to be attractive as mediums for marketing: according to Nelson and Deborah (2017), “the use of celebrity endorsement in the eyes of customers is the most compelling way of attracting their attention compared to a non-celebrity featured advertisement” (p. 30). Moreover, most of the celebrities have large follower bases on social networks, which allows them to transfer the image of the product directly to customers, thus creating stimuli for purchase. As noted by Nelson and Deborah (2017), celebrity endorsement facilitates the interaction between the brand and its target customers in the online context, as celebrities can use their social media posts to outline the best features of the product and share information on its benefits and uses. However, the choice of celebrity endorser in the online context becomes difficult; the perfect match for most brands is a celebrity that has a large follower base and is perceived as trustworthy by the target audience.
Celebrity Trustworthiness
Celebrity trustworthiness is a difficult concept that has not been sufficiently addressed in research. Hence, there is no consensus among the researchers on the definition and use of the term. Out of all the secondary literature reviewed, Eren-Erdogmus, Lak, and Çiçek (2016) were the only scholars who proposed a distinctive definition of trustworthiness, considering it as an abstract concept depending on the perceived honesty, integrity, and believability of the source. The vast majority of scholars view celebrity trustworthiness as a component of celebrity credibility, which is why most research studies only consider celebrity trustworthiness in the light of the overall celebrity credibility. For instance, Rifon et al. (2016) state that celebrity trustworthiness determines the credibility of the message translated by the celebrity to the target audience and thus impacts purchase intentions and perceived brand image.
Similarly, Chung and Cho (2017) found that, in line with the source credibility model, source trustworthiness had a positive effect on brand credibility, thus also affecting the potential customers’ purchase intention. Tzoumaka, Tsiotsou, and Siomkos (2016) state that celebrity credibility relies on the celebrity’s perceived expertise and trustworthiness; however, celebrity trustworthiness was found to have a more significant effect on purchase intentions. The researchers also describe previous findings related to the factors affecting celebrity trustworthiness. For instance, they note that multi-endorsement of various products might lead to a decrease in perceived trustworthiness, whereas appropriate approach to communication on social media can help celebrities to build trustworthiness (Tzoumaka et al., 2016).
Another research that is important for the exploration of celebrity trustworthiness is a study by McCormick (2016), which found that the millennials’ purchase intentions depended on the familiarity of the celebrity used as an endorser; this supports the previous theoretical framework, as celebrity trustworthiness relies heavily on the audience’s familiarity with celebrity’s personal characteristics, such as honesty and integrity. The perceived moral reputation of the celebrity was also studied by Zhou and Whitla (2013), who found that perceived moral qualities of the celebrity mediated the effect of negative publicity on consumer attitudes. Reviewing the images of popular celebrity endorsers, the researchers found that those with stronger moral reputation were able to maintain their effectiveness in brand endorsements (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). On the other hand, impaired perception of the celebrity following negative publicity was found to have a significant adverse effect on consumer attitudes (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). Overall, celebrity trustworthiness is among the key concepts in research on celebrity endorsement. Nevertheless, the concept is rarely viewed independently from celebrity credibility, which might create difficulties in research.
Social Media Influencers
SMIs are a relatively new phenomenon, brought by the development and popularization of social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram. SMIs, also called micro-celebrities, are social media users who have managed to build a personal brand through their use of social media networks (Hearn and Schoenhoff, 2015). The identification of the user as a micro-celebrity of SMI is based on complex account analytics and social scoring, conducted by companies such as Klout or peerindex (Hearn and Schoenhoff, 2015). Like traditional celebrities, SMIs have a relatively stable base of followers, which allows them to act as brand or product endorsers in the online context. Moreover, compared to traditional celebrity endorsement, SMI advertisement is cheaper and can be used to target a specific audience. For instance, beauty bloggers might be used to target women aged 16-30 with a strong interest in makeup and beauty tools, whereas travel bloggers could advertise hotels and destinations to travelers from all over the world.
Such flexibility is attractive to many brands, who opt for SMI advertisement as opposed to traditional celebrity endorsement. Moreover, micro-celebrities were found to be more powerful in advertising products and brands; for example, a study by Djafarova and Rushworth (2017) showed that lower-end celebrities and bloggers were considered by customers to be the most influential in impacting the audience’s purchase intentions or opinions. One possible reason for this is that micro-celebrities are viewed as more approachable and inspiring; whereas traditional celebrities live in entirely different settings due to their wealth and fame, bloggers are perceived as less superficial, which makes it easier for customers to identify with them. Djafarova and Rushworth (2017) indicate that the respondents were more willing to trust the celebrities they can relate to, which might account for the difference in perceived influence between traditional and micro-celebrities.
Research Hypotheses
Modelling a distinctive theory and hypotheses using the scarce amount of previous research was challenging. First of all, we assumed that people were generally dissatisfied with high amount of paid advertisement posts on social media. Therefore, the first hypothesis that this study aimed to test was that people’s perception of celebrities could be influenced by their exposure to paid advertisement posts. As suggested by Zhou and Whitla (2013), negative perception of a celebrity could impair the effectiveness of his or her endorsement in influencing buying intentions. Moreover, research generally agreed that perceived trustworthiness was positively correlated with buying intentions (Rifon et al., 2016; Chung & Cho, 2017). Therefore, our second hypothesis was that exposure to paid posts on social media would be negatively associated with the respondents’ buying intentions. The two hypotheses that the present research aimed to test are as follows:
- Hypothesis 1. There is a negative correlation between exposure to social media advertisement and trust in celebrities.
- Hypothesis 2. There is a negative correlation between exposure to social media advertisement and purchase intentions.
Methodology
The present study utilized a quantitative methodology with a questionnaire as the main tool for data collection. The survey was created based on the key concepts outlined in the literature review, including purchase intentions, perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and other. A full copy of the questionnaire can be found in the Appendix. In order to ensure that the participants were active social media users, the survey was located online and advertised on social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Ensuring that the respondents are active social media users helped to increase the completeness and validity of survey results, as people who are not active social media users would not be able to share their opinion on some of the statements.
The questionnaire consisted of eleven statements with multiple answer choices based on the Likert scale, which is widely used in social science research. The use of Likert scale is justified by the fact that it allows more answer options than in closed questions, which means that each respondent would have more chances of selecting options that best suit his or her thoughts and experience. A convenience sample containing 117 respondents was obtained from social media platforms. The findings were first presented using percentage charts, which allowed reviewing the overall trends. However, in order to establish the presence of a correlation between exposure to social media advertisements and purchase intentions or perceived trustworthiness, correlation and regression analyses were performed using Excel tools.
First, the relationship between exposure to social media ads and perceived celebrity trustworthiness (Hypothesis 1) was analyzed. Hypothesis 1 was that exposure to paid posts on social media decreases the respondents’ trust in celebrities, or perceived celebrity trustworthiness. There are two main variables used in this hypothesis. Exposure to social media ads is the independent variable, measured by the respondents’ answers to Statement 1 “When on social media, I see advertisement posts by social media influencers (SMIs) or celebrities quite frequently”. The responses were coded to obtain numerical values from 1 (low exposure) to 4 (high exposure).
The dependent variable is trust in celebrities, measured by responses to Statement 10 “Most of the advertisements done by celebrities on social media are misleading”. Answers to this statement were coded in a similar way, where 1 indicated low trust (strongly agree) and 4 indicated high trust (strongly disagree). The relationships between these variables were then analysed using data analysis features in Microsoft Excel. In particular, the study used correlation coefficients to determine the correlation between the variables, as well as the R² coefficient and p-value to determine the significance of the influence. Whereas the correlation coefficient is useful in determining the presence of correlation between the variables, the R² coefficient can help to understand to what extent the changes in the independent variable result in changes in the dependent variable. The p-value is used to indicate the statistical significance of the influence. Therefore, using all three measures allows making well-founded occlusions about the relationship between the studied variables.
Secondly, we considered the correlation between exposure to social media ads and the influence of celebrity endorsement on purchase intentions, as stated in Hypothesis 2 “There is a negative correlation between exposure to social media advertisement and purchase intentions”. The independent variable here was exposure to social media ads, whereas purchase intentions were the dependent variable. Purchase intentions were measured by responses to Statement 7 “If I see a celebrity advertising a product on social media, I will consider purchasing the product myself”. Similarly, correlation coefficient, R² coefficient, and p-value were used to examine the presence and strength of the relationship.
Lastly, we also considered relationships between variables that were outside the initial hypotheses to ensure comprehensive analysis. In addition to the analyses described above, we attempted to determine the correlation between celebrity and SMI trustworthiness (Statements 4 and 10), as well as between celebrity and SMI influence on purchase intentions (Statements 3 and 7). I
Findings
Responses to each statement are presented using pie charts, which helps to obtain a clearer understanding of the responses. For instance, Statement 1 aimed to determine the degree of respondents’ exposure to paid advertisements on social media. Overall, the majority of respondents agreed that they see paid advertisement posts by celebrities or SMIs quite frequently. One of the key statements in the study was Statement 5: “Seeing SMIs advertising products, services, and opinions decreases my trust in celebrities who also engage in paid posts on social media.” To this statement, 39.3% of respondents replied “Mostly agree”, and 23.9% chose “Strongly agree,” which shows the people’s perception of the relationship between exposure to paid advertisement posts by SMIs and their trust in celebrities.
Descriptive Statistics
A detailed report of research findings can be found below. A total of 117 responses were collected from the convenience sample. Although the responses were anonymous, some demographical data is available on the participants. For instance, gender distribution was fairly even, with 51.75% of participants male and 48.25% female. Age was also included in the questionnaire, as it can affect the participants’ perception of advertisement and their use of social media sites. The vast majority of the participants were 25-34 years old (63.48%). Age groups 35-44 and 18-24 constituted 18.26% and 12.17% of the sample accordingly. Less than 1% of the participants were 55-64 years old, and 5.22% were between 45 and 54 years old. Another demographic variable that was measured as part of the study was the respondents’ economic situation. 53.9% of the participants were students, 32.17% reported being employed for wages, whereas 10.43% were self-employed. Shares of retired, unable to work, and stay-at-home respondents were small (0.87%, 0.87%, and 1.74% accordingly).
Demographics and Attitudes
The impact of demographic factors on the buyers’ attitudes has been widely studied in research, as it can help to inform marketing strategies for products that target specific audiences by gender, age, or economic status. In the current research, we collected information about the share of responses to certain statements by age and gender. In particular, data was obtained for Statements 3 and 7, which address purchase intentions following SMI and celebrity advertisement, respectively.
With regards to Statement 3, 52 percent of women and 51 percent of men disagreed that they would consider purchasing a product after seeing an SMI advertising it. Similarly, in the case with celebrity advertisement, 61 percent of men and 62 percent of women disagreed that a celebrity add would affect their purchase intentions. Thus, there is no significant variation in the results by gender. However, it is interesting that both men and women felt more drawn to buy products featured in SMI’s posts rather than those advertised by celebrities. Therefore, irrespective of gender, the respondents expressed more trust in the ads made by SMIs than in those posted by celebrities.
As part of the research, we also considered the influence of the participant’s age on his or her attitudes towards celebrities. Using Statement 11, “I became skeptical that most of celebrities’ opinion posts about something on the social media are paid ads”, we studied the age breakdown of responses. All the respondents aged 18-24 agreed with the statements. Out of the 64 respondents aged 25-34, eight individuals (12.5%) disagreed with the statement and 56 agreed (87.5%). The same trend could be observed in people aged 45-54; out of 8 participants, only one (12.5%) disagreed with the statement. Therefore, it can be concluded that people aged 25-34 and 45-54 have more trust in celebrities than those aged 18-24.
Data Analysis
In order to test if the respondents’ perceptions can be supported by statistical analysis, the influence of exposure on responses to Statement 10 was reviewed. The statement was made to measure the degree of trust in celebrities by determining if people view their paid posts as misleading. First, a correlation analysis was performed to establish the relationship between exposure and trust. The correlation coefficient was -0.091108623, which indicates a lack of linear relationship. Further regression analysis was performed to confirm the findings. With the p-value of 0.471, and the R² coefficient at 0.029, it is clear that exposure to social media advertisement did not affect people’s trust in celebrities. Therefore, data analysis provided no evidence in support of Hypothesis 1.
Next, the influence of exposure on buying intentions was analysed using correlation analysis. Buying intentions were measured by Statement 7: “If I see a celebrity advertising a product on social media, I will consider purchasing the product myself.” The correlation coefficient of the relationship between exposure and purchase intentions was -0.096717599, which shows a lack of linear relationship. Further regression analysis confirmed the findings: although the p-value was slightly higher than in the first case (0.685), the R² coefficient was lower (0.009), indicating that the degree of exposure to social media advertisement does not affect purchase intentions of the audience. A similar analysis was performed to establish the relationship between trust in SMIs and trust in celebrities. The correlation coefficient for this relationship was significantly higher (0.360513095), which can be interpreted as a weak positive linear relationship. However, the R² (0.130) and p-value (0.118) figures did not provide any evidence for the significance of this relationship. Similarly, the purchase intentions after viewing an SMI ad did not have a significant effect on purchase intentions following celebrity advertisement. The correlation coefficient for these variables was at 0.407368254; however, the p-value was too high compared to the desired significance level of 0.05 (0.075), whereas the R² coefficient was too low (0.116). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was also not supported by the analysis.
Discussion
The data collection procedure yielded more results than anticipated, which allowed reviewing the information from more participants. There are two primary results of the research to discuss: the respondents’ perception and the statistical analysis of the results.
The respondents’ views are generally in line with the proposed hypothesis that exposure to SMI advertisement results in lower trust in celebrities. Moreover, most respondents agreed with the statement that celebrities should not use their social media accounts for paid advertisement as SMIs do. However, the purchase intentions of users following a celebrity post were still considerably high, which shows that celebrity advertisement still has a significant influence on the audience. Furthermore, the majority of respondents believed that celebrities were pickier than SMIs regarding products, services, and opinions they advertise on social media, which could be among the factors contributing to purchase intentions.
Nevertheless, the results of correlation and regression analyses of Hypothesis 1 somewhat contradicted the perception of the respondents, showing that there is no statistically significant relationship between exposure and trust in celebrities. However, this diversion can be explained by research discussed in the above sections. Based on previous studies, Eren-Erdogmus et al. (2016) define celebrity trustworthiness in terms of perceived personal traits of the target celebrity, such as honesty, believability, and integrity.
Therefore, exposure to social media advertisement did not affect perceived celebrity trustworthiness, as it depends on a different set of variables. The reason for respondents’ view of the relationship can thus be associated with their personal opinion on the intrinsic qualities of the celebrities that they follow and not on the exposure to social media advertisement. The participants would not be aware of this connection, which justifies their responses to Statement 5. In general, the results suggest that, although people express a certain degree of skepticism towards celebrities and influencers who advertise products and brands on social media, they still perceive celebrity advertisement as influential and trust celebrities to promote high-quality products.
Limitations and Implications
The major limitation of this research is that it did not consider other variables that might have an impact on celebrity trustworthiness. On the one hand, this would allow establishing if there are any factors mediating the relationship between exposure to social media advertisement and trust in celebrities. On the other hand, such research would need to have an entirely different study design and consider a variety of specific celebrities. Another significant limitation was the use of a convenience sample and a small sample size. Using random sampling or other type of probability sampling, as well as obtaining a larger sample size would increase the validity and reliability of the research and allow generalizing the findings to other populations. Lastly, the question wording used in the questionnaire was not tested for reliability, which could cause a bias in the results.
All of these gaps could be filled by further research. Although this study did not identify a significant relationship between the growth of SMI advertisement and celebrity trustworthiness, it remains a topic worth observing, as any existing trends would be valuable for businesses seeking to advertise products or services on social media. For instance, further research could seek to establish particular characteristics or factors mediating the relationship between exposure to SMI advertisement and perceived celebrity trustworthiness. Moreover, studying the behavior of different celebrities with regards to paid advertisement might help to explain some of the effects observed in the current study.
Conclusion
The rise of social media platforms has given businesses more opportunities to interact with their customers. Despite the growth of SMI advertisement, celebrity advertisement and endorsement remains among the popular marketing practices used by businesses all over the world to promote their products or services. In the online context, celebrity advertisement can be just as beneficial, if the followers of the chosen celebrity are within the target customer audience of the company, service, or product. Nevertheless, the popularization of social media advertisement and the rise of SMIs creates significant concerns for celebrity advertisement and endorsement. Research suggests that most users can determine if a post is paid advertisement by looking at it; increased exposure to social media advertisement, on the other hand, might make people more skeptical to paid posts by SMIs or celebrities, as shown in the study.
Celebrity trustworthiness is a powerful yet relatively unstudied phenomenon that could potentially impact celebrity credibility, thus increasing the effectiveness of the online advertisement. The primary hypothesis that this research aimed to test was that exposure to social media advertisement reduces perceived celebrity trustworthiness by making celebrity posts appear misleading. Although this hypothesis was not supported by research findings, there could be other factors, both internal and external, affecting this relationship. Therefore, further research on the concept of celebrity trustworthiness in the light of increased exposure to SMI advertisement could explain the findings of the present study.
Overall, the present study offers a useful overview of the concept of celebrity trustworthiness in terms of the previous research, respondents’ perceptions, and statistical analysis of the results. As indicated by the findings, celebrity advertisement is still moderately influential, and businesses should continue to use it in promoting their products to the target audience. However, further research on the issue is advised to explore the relationship between the popularization of SMI advertisement and trust in celebrities. Moreover, future studies should aim to obtain a larger sample size and use established question constructs in order to ensure a higher reliability.
References
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Appendix 1: Questionnaire
- When on social media, I see advertisement posts by social media influencers (SMIs) or celebrities quite frequently.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I can usually determine if a post is paid advertisement by looking at it.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- If I see an SMI advertising a product or service on social media, I will consider purchasing the product or using the service myself.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Most of the advertisements done by SMIs on social media are misleading.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Seeing SMIs advertising products, services, and opinions decreases my trust in celebrities who also engage in paid posts on social media
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I believe that celebrities are pickier than SMIs regarding products, services, and opinions they advertise on social media.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- If I see a celebrity advertising a product on social media, I will consider purchasing the product myself.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I doubt that celebrities use all products and services they advertise on social media.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I think that celebrities should not use their social media pages for paid advertisements like SMIs do.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Most of the advertisements done by celebrities on social media are misleading.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I became skeptical that most of celebrities’ opinion posts about something on the social media are paid ads.
- Strongly agree
- Mostly agree
- Don’t know
- Mostly disagree
- Strongly disagree