Traditional or ‘instafamous’ celebrity? Role of origin of fame in social media influencer marketing

Social media influencer (SMI) marketing is a strategy that uses the influence of SMIs as opinion leaders to drive consumers’ brand awareness, brand image, and brand-related behavior. In this context, marketers are confronted with choosing SMIs based on the origins of their fame. Non-original SMIs are traditional celebrities who are famous outside social media, whereas original SMIs are ‘instafamous’ celebrities who have become famous through social media. By drawing on the concepts of similarity and wishful identification, this study investigates the effect of SMIs’ origin of fame on social media users. An online experiment with 129 social media users in Russia reveals that compared with original SMIs, non-original SMIs have a more positive effect on social media users’ purchase intentions if the users have low self-esteem. In contrast, compared with non-original SMIs, original SMIs have a more positive effect on social media users’ purchase intentions among users with high self-esteem.