The power of influence: exploring celebrity and human-like virtual influencers’ impact on consumer responses

Celebrity endorsements have long been a powerful tool in advertising, but the rise of human-like virtual influencers (HVIs) is reshaping the brand communication landscape. This study validates a measurement model of endorser credibility–encompassing expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness–for both celebrities and HVIs, and examines their impact on key advertising outcomes: ad attitude, brand attitude, brand trust, and purchase intention. Using data from 501 survey respondents, the findings confirm the robustness of the credibility model across both endorser types while revealing distinct serial mediation patterns underlying consumer responses. This is the first study to investigate celebrity endorser and HVI within a real-life unified advertising campaign, offering novel theoretical and practical insights into optimizing endorser strategy in an era of hybrid digital branding.