The Influencing Mechanism of Internet Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Value in the New Media Environment: The Mediating Role of Fans’ Engagement

Abstract

Abstract: The rapid development of new media platforms such as Weibo, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu has spawned a new type of celebrity -- internet celebrity. Hiring internet celebrities as their brand endorsers to attract fans has also become an important brand marketing strategy for companies. However, in the new media environment, the research on how internet celebrity endorsement enhance brand value remains to be further studied. Based on the social influence theory and the relationship strength theory, this paper tries to explore the influencing mechanism and the functional boundary of internet celebrity endorsement on brand value in the new media environment through three experiments. The results show that, compared with the traditional celebrity endorsements, internet celebrity endorsements can significantly enhance brand value.Internet celebrity endorsements can strengthen fans’ engagement and further enhance brand value. When the relationship between brand and endorsers is relatively strong, the positive effect of internet celebrity endorsement on enhancing brand value is more significant than that of traditional celebrity endorsement. When a brand’s endorsement advertisement released on a new media platform contains multiple endorsers, compared with the traditional celebrity endorsement, the positive influence of internet celebrity endorsement on fans’ engagement and the mediating role of fans’ engagement will be weakened. The above conclusion has enriched the relevant researches on the influence of internet celebrity endorsement and fans’ engagement, which has guiding significance for enterprises to implement internet celebrity endorsement strategies in brand marketing.

Key words: internet celebrity endorsement, brand value, fans' engagement, relationship strength, number of endorsers

CLC Number:

F713.3

NIE Xuan, SHEN Peng-yi, XU Ji-nan. The Influencing Mechanism of Internet Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Value in the New Media Environment: The Mediating Role of Fans’ Engagement[J]. Contemporary Finance & Economics, 2024, 0(4): 99-112.

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