Investigating the effectiveness of virtual influencers in prosocial marketing

Abstract Heeding the rising popularity of virtual influencers on social media, many established brands are beginning to collaborate with them. Although virtual influencers are perceived as novel and exciting, their effectiveness in different areas of consumer behavior has not been examined. While previous research has compared several attributes of virtual and human influencers, our research is specifically motivated to answer: how can marketers increase the effectiveness of virtual influencers in promoting prosocial causes? Across four experiments employing different prosocial contexts, we compared the effectiveness of virtual and human influencers in increasing consumers' prosocial intentions and behaviors. Findings suggest that although human influencers are more persuasive in promoting prosocial behaviors, this effect only occurs when a virtual influencer is perceived as a standalone influencer (i.e., not affiliated with a brand). Overall, our results imply that marketers can substantially increase the effectiveness of virtual influencers by making the cues of brand affiliation salient in influencers' posts.