Marketing de Ilusão? : percepção de consumidores acerca dos influenciadores virtuais

Abstract

In recent years, social media has established itself as a means of communication between individuals, fostering the emergence of a new profession: digital influencers. With recent technological advances, virtual influencers have emerged — personas created through artificial intelligence with the purpose of promoting products and services of partner companies. Given this context, the present study aimed to identify consumers' perspective on the use of virtual influencers in marketing. This is a qualitative study, in which 10 interviews were conducted with consumers selected through convenience and snowball sampling. Based on the results, distrust was observed among the interviewees regarding virtual influencers' endorsements, mainly due to these personalities' lack of physical existence, in addition to a rejection of the development of parasocial interaction. It was also identified that a high level of anthropomorphism may not favor the acceptance of these influencers, generating feelings of discomfort or eeriness, in line with the Uncanny Valley Theory. In sum, the results obtained demonstrate that virtual influencers are not yet fully accepted by consumers, highlighting the need for further studies on this subject.