A comparative analysis of virtual and human influencers in sensory endorsements: A Schema Congruity and Cue Diagnosticity Theory perspective

Virtual influencers are AI-created digital personas with a substantial online following and social presence, who engage in brand endorsements the same way human influencers do. Guided by the Schema Congruity Theory (SCT) and the Cue Diagnosticity Theory (CDT), this study explores whether consumers process human and virtual influencers differently, by examining how influencer nature (virtual vs. human) and product type (high sensory vs. low sensory) shape perceptions of credibility and influencer–product congruence as well as their effect on influencer and brand attitude, and purchase intention in sensory endorsements. 404 responses were collected in a 2 (human vs. virtual) x 2 (food vs. fashion) experiment. Results show that while influencer nature and product type did not affect credibility perceptions, they influence its diagnosticity for attitude formation and decision-making. For virtual influencers, their credibility was highly critical for fashion as a visual product while less critical for food. On the other hand, congruence perceptions varied depending on the influencer-product combination but had consistent effects on attitude formation and decision-making. The results explain the success of VIs in sensory endorsements and proposes other marketing implications in light of the results.