Virtual influencers: Will they ever be the same as human influencers? A study about their impact on brand love

• Autor(a) principal: Rodrigues, Joana Lopes
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/30811
• topic: Influencer marketing; Virtual influencers; Human influencers; Brand love; Análise de sentimentos -- Sentiment analysis; Marketing de influência; Influenciadores virtuais; Influenciadores humanos

In recent years, Influencer Marketing has become an essential tool in business communication and marketing strategies, with influencers playing a fundamental role in promoting products and services. The trust placed by followers in influencers' opinions results in strong relationships, where coexistence and interaction on social networks promote Brand Love. With technological evolution, Virtual Influencers have emerged who have come to challenge the concept of Influencer Marketing known to date. In this dissertation, we investigated the impact that different types of influencers: virtual vs. human, can have on the dimensions of Brand Love proposed by Bagozzi et al., (2017). That said, five influences were selected: three virtual (Lil Miquela, Noonoouri and Shudu) and two humans (Devon and Shanelle). Comments from 100 posts from each influencer were collected and analyzed using Sentiment Analysis from the MeaningCloud software. The main conclusions of this study indicate that the characteristics of Brand Love are frequently observed in interactions with influencers, regardless of whether they are virtual or human. Furthermore, human influencers generate more positive feelings than virtual influencers, especially in the dimensions of passion-driven behavior and positive emotional connection. Finally, when analyzing exclusively virtual influencers, Noonoouri, an influencer with non-human characteristics that resemble those of a doll, is the one who generates the most positive feelings in the dimensions of Brand Love.