Influence of Advertising Characters Created by Generative AI on Consumers’ Evaluation of Advertisements

Abstract

In recent years, virtual influencers have emerged. Asia’s first virtual influencer, imma, is active on social media, and appears in advertisements for the luxury brand Coach. Previous studies have noted that virtual influencers are compatible with utilitarian products and that human influencers are preferable for hedonic products. However, there are cases in which virtual influencers are used in advertisements for hedonic products; thus, a gap exists between theory and reality. Therefore, this study conducted an exploratory investigation of consumers’ anthropomorphic tendencies and product knowledge as conditions for virtual influencers to function effectively with hedonic products. The results showed that virtual influencers were effective for consumers with high anthropomorphic tendencies and high product knowledge for certain hedonic products. This study provides new insights into the conventional finding that virtual influencers and hedonic products have low compatibility and offers practical suggestions for the effective use of virtual influencers in advertising hedonic products.