From Celebrity Endorsement to Influencer Marketing: Rethinking Endorser Typology in the Social Media Era

Abstract

With the development of social media platforms and AI (artificial intelligence) technology, the forms of brand endorsement are expanding beyond traditional celebrity endorsements to include human and virtual influencers. Existing research has addressed celebrity endorsements, influencer marketing, and virtual influencer marketing separately. However, the conceptual boundaries between these three types of endorsers remain unclear, and there is a particular lack of systematic explanations regarding the mechanisms of authenticity for different endorsers. Drawing on relevant literature, this paper re-examines the types of endorsers in the social media era through a conceptual study. Focusing on four dimensions—sources of influence, audience relationships, foundations of authenticity, and control structures—it constructs an integrated classification framework encompassing traditional celebrities, human influencers, and virtual influencers. The study argues that the persuasive power of different endorsers does not stem from a single mechanism of authenticity; traditional celebrities rely primarily on symbolic authenticity; human influencers on relational authenticity; and virtual influencers may establish constructed authenticity through stable personas, narrative consistency, visual coherence, and alignment with brand values. This paper further argues that the rise of virtual influencers challenges the traditional assumption that authenticity must be grounded in real human identity and life experience. Consequently, this paper provides a foundational theoretical framework for understanding the evolving practices of endorsement marketing in the AI era and lays the groundwork for future empirical research on authenticity, credibility, and consumer responses.