What drives virtual influencers’ impact?

Amid the influencer marketing boom, companies are increasingly shifting resources from real to virtual (computer-generated) influencers. While virtual influencers can influence consumers, what makes their content more (or less) impactful? The current research examines whether social tie presence (i.e., appearing in photos with humans with whom they seem to have social interactions) shapes consumer engagement. A multimethod investigation, combining automated image and text analysis of thousands of social media posts with controlled experiments, demonstrates that social tie presence increases impact above and beyond the mere presence of a human (i.e., without interaction). These effects are driven by anthropomorphism and trust: social tie presence makes virtual influencers seem more human, which in turn makes them seem more trustworthy and, consequently, increases engagement and choice. Supporting our theorizing, the results indicate that the effects of social ties are stronger when the virtual influencer looks less humanlike, but are attenuated when the human other is merely present, when the companion is another virtual entity, and when the poster is a human influencer. These findings shed new light on consumer responses to virtual influencers, explain why social ties affect consumer perceptions, and provide actionable insights for designing more impactful social media content.