When Virtual Idols Become Brand Endorsers: How Identification and Brand–Model Congruence Relate to Consumer Responses

As entertainment-based virtual idols increasingly become brand endorsers, understanding how consumers’ prior familiarity with their original content relates to advertising responses has become important. This study examines the relationships among content familiarity, physical attractiveness, identification, brand–model congruence, and ad attitude, and their connections with purchase intention toward McDonald’s products and positive WOM intention toward the advertised products. A survey was conducted with 240 South Korean university students using advertising for the K-pop Demon Hunters–McDonald’s collaboration featuring HUNTR/X and Saja Boys. Structural equation modeling showed that content familiarity was positively associated with identification, but its direct paths to brand–model congruence and ad attitude were nonsignificant. Physical attractiveness was positively associated with identification, brand–model congruence, and ad attitude, while identification was positively associated with both brand–model congruence and ad attitude. Brand–model congruence was positively associated with ad attitude, but its direct paths to both behavioral intentions were nonsignificant; ad attitude was positively associated with both intentions. Bootstrap analyses identified significant positive specific indirect effects of content familiarity on ad attitude through identification and through the sequential identification–brand–model congruence pathway, but not through brand–model congruence alone. All three corresponding indirect effects of physical attractiveness were positive and significant. Identification was also indirectly associated with ad attitude through brand–model congruence, which had significant indirect effects on both behavioral intentions through ad attitude. These findings highlight identification as a psychological link between prior content familiarity and advertising evaluations. They provide a contextual extension of established endorsement relationships to entertainment-origin virtual idols in a single commercial pairing. Ad attitude plays an important role in linking perceived congruence to purchase and positive WOM intentions.