A new study has shown that people like virtual influencers more when they are cartoonish or stylised, rather than when they strive for realism.
Less human, more effective? Consumer responses to human-like and cartoon-like virtual influencers, which was published in the Journal of Marketing Communications this month, looked at how influencer type shapes brand attitude, user engagement, and purchase intention across physical and digital products.
Researchers Dominyka Venciute, Cen April Yue, Diana Baturo, Gabija Museikyte and Ricardo Correia designed an experiment where participants were randomly assigned either a cartoon-like virtual influencer, a realistic virtual influencer, or a real human influencer. The former two were generated using AI tools, and the real humans were taken from stock images. Participants were shown the Instagram bios of these influencers as well as one sponsored post, all with the same structure. They were then asked to fill out a questionnaire about message source credibility, brand attitude, user engagement and purchase intention.
The results showed that brand attitude was similar across all three influencer types, but cartoon-like virtual influencers outperform human-like virtual influencers and perform comparably to real human influencers in driving engagement and purchase intention, particularly for digital products.
The researchers state: ‘Cartoon-like virtual influencers emerge as a viable, and in some cases superior, alternative to both human-like virtual influencers and real human influencers.’
They go on to explain that consumers favour influencers that ‘clearly signal either authentic human agency or unambiguous artificiality’, and that as more brands turn to AI endorsers, being aware of these distinctions is ‘essential’ for marketing strategy.
Marketers are encouraged to ‘carefully evaluate the visual and verbal identity of virtual influencers, their distinctiveness, and their perceived reputation to ensure a coherent and favourable brand fit’, to identify an influencer that will have the strongest impact on their audience, and to align the choice carefully with product type.
The paper states: ‘For campaigns aimed at increasing online engagement or driving conversions, cartoon-like virtual influencers may be particularly effective, especially when promoting digital technology products. Their stylised appearance and creative appeal can enhance engagement in digital contexts.’
