The Credibility of Celebrity Endorser: Its Impact Towards Consumer Purchase Intention On Instagram in Malaysia

Abstract

The practice of advertising has evolved to cope with the rapid technological advancement achieved so far. The current practice takes advantage of the available technological advances particularly online mediums to reach out to a wider audience of consumers. One of the advantages is the delivery of advertising messages through celebrity endorsements in online advertisements. The impact of such advertisements is more apparent using social media platforms such as Instagram as compared to the traditional media means used previously. The extent of the impact, however, remains unclear as ambiguity regarding celebrities as endorsers in online advertising still prevails even among marketers and advertisers. This study adopts the source credibility theory and intends to look at the impact of celebrity endorsement on Instagram in Malaysia in terms of source expertise, source trustworthiness, and source attractiveness. Results based on empirical data analysis indicated that there is a positive correlation between source credibility and consumer purchase intention. Findings in this study thus provide a better understanding of online advertisements that are endorsed by celebrities to further enhance the local practice of advertising.