The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Instagram Versus Traditional Celebrities on Young Egyptians' Attitudes Towards Brands : A Comparative Study Between Brand Endorsers on Instagram and Celebrities on Television

Abstract

Although traditional media has been used by marketers for many years to send brand messages by traditional celebrities, the increased growth, usage and importance of social media platforms including Instagram have created a new form of brand endorsement. The emergence of social media platforms eases the way for many individuals - who are called social media influencers - to create and produce their own content and have a huge base of followers. Brands started to recognize the effectiveness of social media influencers who started to take the role of traditional celebrities in advertising especially if they target young consumers. The main aim of the study is to examine the influence of social media influencers (SMIs) as endorsers compared to traditional celebrities endorsements on young Egyptians’ attitudes towards brands as it is a rich area for deep research that has not been well tackled. The study applied diffusion of innovation theory to clarify the innovation of utilizing SMIs compared to traditional celebrities in branding and marketing. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used in the study to measure its hypotheses. The study administered an online survey which were distributed to 675 young Egyptians whose age ranged between 15 to 30 years old. Additionally, user-generated content (UGC) was analyzed to examine the responses of followers and influencers’ interaction on their Instagram accounts. In order to have a deeper understanding and analysis of the topic, a qualitative technique was used through conducting six in-depth interviews with SMIs who endorse brands on their Instagram accounts, and also making five in-depth interviews with marketing professionals who use both types of endorsers in their marketing strategies. The results showed that media consumption patterns of the consumer are not correlated with the conviction of brands endorsed by either the influencers or traditional celebrities. The results also indicated that there is a significant correlation between the source of information about brands in the advertising media (SMIs and traditional celebrities), and liking of the brand. Respondents ranked social media influencers’ pages as their first source of brand information followed by social media ads then television ads. Interaction with brand endorser impact consumers’ trust of information presented by the endorser. The more consumers identify themselves with media endorser, the more they have the intention to try the endorsed brands. Young Egyptians feel more similar to SMIs than traditional celebrities and therefore are more willing to trust them and have more tendency to try their endorsed brands.