Diversity in the digital age: how consumers respond to diverse virtual influencers

In recent years the popularity of social media influencers has grown exponentially, in part because influencers tend to not be seen as advertising and they enable brands to reach engaged audiences. As such, influencer marketing is perceived as an effective and cost-effective marketing tool. However, like all areas of marketing there are broad-based shifts that are having significant effects on the domain of influencer marketing. First, there are calls for greater levels of diversity and broader representation of diverse communities. Second, digital innovation is having a profound effect on the field of influencer marketing, leading to the advent of virtual influencers that are artificially created, often through generative AI. These shifts raise questions about the effect of diversity in influencer marketing – with implications for brands that engage virtual influencers. In this paper, we present two experiments that investigate the effect of diversity representation in the context of virtual influencers. Results show that when brands engage virtual influencers to represent diverse subgroups, novelty and likeability act to mediate positive effects for the influencer (word-of-mouth and follow intentions) and the brand (purchase intentions). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.