The influence of celebrity endorsers in banner advertisements on visual attention and product evaluations : an eye-tracking study

Abstract

Research efforts in cognitive science and marketing have found that celebrity endorsers are more likely to capture attention than other endorsers in advertisements. The present eye-tracking study investigated whether celebrity endorsers can enhance attention for online banner advertisements. We further examined the extent to which celebrity endorsers deplete attention for advertised product and brand name and overshadow brand-related information in the visual domain and in evaluating product attractiveness and purchase intent. Participants were exposed for 20 seconds to fictional webpages displaying horizontal banner advertisements embedded on top during a cover task of selecting and purchasing a gift for a female friend. The presence of both celebrity endorsers (Angelina Jolie & Scarlett Johansson) and two unknown female endorsers were manipulated in the banner advertisements in a within-subjects experimental design. Dwell time and product evaluation measures were used to assess online celebrity endorsement effectiveness and overshadowing. A celebrity recognition test carried out after the cover task established that only 43% of participants recognized the celebrities used in this study. Inferential analyses were conducted across all participants as well as the subset of participants who recognized the celebrities depicted in the banner advertisements after the experiment. Participants spent longer looking at the endorser than at the endorsed product and brand name in both celebrity endorser and unknown endorser conditions. Furthermore, product attractiveness and purchase intent rating scores did not differ in the two conditions. Celebrity endorsers did not attract more attention for banner advertisements as a whole and the endorser region than noncelebrity endorsers. Along with the limitations, the implications identified in this research are of interest for future scholarly research in consumer behaviour and practical applications in marketing and advertising.