Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsers
A study conducted by Charles Atkin and Martin Block focused on alcohol advertising and young audience to examine the impact of celebrity advertising in terms of social effects of advertising. The sponsoring Company is the underlying source of any advertising
Message, but the individual models depicted in the advertising serve as the more visible communicator in many cases. The most thoroughly studied source quality is credibility.
Research conducted by social psychologists over the past 30 years demonstrates that a source perceived as highly credible is more persuasive than a low credibility sender (Holland and Weiss, 1951; McGuire, 1969; Hass, 1981).
The source that companies use to present their advertising message typically attempts to project a credible image in terms of competence, trustworthiness or dynamism.
Celebrity endorsers are considered to be highly dynamic, with attractive and engaging personal qualities. Audience may also trust the advice given by some famous person, and in certain cases, celebrities may even be perceived as competent to discuss the product. Friedman, Termini and Washington cite a 1975 study showing that celebrities are featured in 155 of prime-time TV commercials.
A later survey reported that this proportion was up to 20% (Advertising Age, 1978). The most widely used celebrities are sports figures, actors or other types of entertainers. There are several reasons why a famous endorser may be influential: -
• They attract attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages
• They are perceived as being more entertaining
• They are seen as trustworthy because of apparent lack of self-interest.
• The final element is due to the wide-spread attribution that major stars do not really work for the endorsement fee, but are motivated by genuine affection for the product (Kamen et al, 1975).
Despite the use of famous endorsers, there is little published evidence regarding effectiveness. In one experiment, an advertisement for a fictitious brand of Sangria wine featured an endorsement attributed to either a celebrity (actor - Al Pacino), a professional expert, the Company President, a typical consumer and no source (Friedman, Termini and Washington, 1977).
College students read the ad and gave the ad 0-10 scales of believability, probable taste, and intent to purchase. Across these three measures, the celebrity condition produced the highest scores.
While the 'no-source' control group had a purchase intention rating of 2.7, the subjects exposed to the actor scored 3.9. Believability was rated 2.8 by control subjects versus 4.1 by those seeing the celebrity endorsement.
For taste, the baselines of 4.0 compares to the celebrity group score of 5.6. None of the other three endorsers were as influential as the celebrated person.
A study conducted by Charles Atkin and Martin Block focused on alcohol advertising and young audience to examine the impact of celebrity advertising in terms of social effects of advertising. The sponsoring Company is the underlying source of any advertising
Message, but the individual models depicted in the advertising serve as the more visible communicator in many cases. The most thoroughly studied source quality is credibility.
Research conducted by social psychologists over the past 30 years demonstrates that a source perceived as highly credible is more persuasive than a low credibility sender (Holland and Weiss, 1951; McGuire, 1969; Hass, 1981).
The source that companies use to present their advertising message typically attempts to project a credible image in terms of competence, trustworthiness or dynamism.
Celebrity endorsers are considered to be highly dynamic, with attractive and engaging personal qualities. Audience may also trust the advice given by some famous person, and in certain cases, celebrities may even be perceived as competent to discuss the product. Friedman, Termini and Washington cite a 1975 study showing that celebrities are featured in 155 of prime-time TV commercials.
A later survey reported that this proportion was up to 20% (Advertising Age, 1978). The most widely used celebrities are sports figures, actors or other types of entertainers. There are several reasons why a famous endorser may be influential: -
• They attract attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages
• They are perceived as being more entertaining
• They are seen as trustworthy because of apparent lack of self-interest.
• The final element is due to the wide-spread attribution that major stars do not really work for the endorsement fee, but are motivated by genuine affection for the product (Kamen et al, 1975).
Despite the use of famous endorsers, there is little published evidence regarding effectiveness. In one experiment, an advertisement for a fictitious brand of Sangria wine featured an endorsement attributed to either a celebrity (actor - Al Pacino), a professional expert, the Company President, a typical consumer and no source (Friedman, Termini and Washington, 1977).
College students read the ad and gave the ad 0-10 scales of believability, probable taste, and intent to purchase. Across these three measures, the celebrity condition produced the highest scores.
While the 'no-source' control group had a purchase intention rating of 2.7, the subjects exposed to the actor scored 3.9. Believability was rated 2.8 by control subjects versus 4.1 by those seeing the celebrity endorsement.
For taste, the baselines of 4.0 compares to the celebrity group score of 5.6. None of the other three endorsers were as influential as the celebrated person.