가상 인간 인플루언서의 매력성이 광고효과에 미치는 영향: 호기심의 매개효과를 중심으로

Virtual human influencers are on the spotlight by its attractive outlooks and styles and are used in various fields such as entertainment, education, medical, games, counseling. Especially, there is a growing trend in using virtual human influencers in commercial and marketing fields. Hence, this study is conducted to verify the mediating role of curiosity drawn by the relationship between attractiveness of virtual human influencers and advertising impact. Accordingly, an online survey using NAVER FORM was conducted, targeting individuals who have experienced advertisements and marketing-related content featuring virtual human influencers. Total of 150 data were analyzed, and these are the following results. Curiosity towards virtual human influencers partially mediated the impact of attractiveness on advertising attitudes and purchase intentions. In other words, the attractiveness of virtual human influencers directly influences advertising attitudes and purchase intentions, but it also influences them through drawing the curiosity towards virtual human influencers. These results demonstrate that the attractiveness of virtual human influencers has a significant advertising effect mediated by curiosity. Through the results of this study, it is revealed that curiosity, a variable, goes beyond the tendency to study it only as an independent variable representing the characteristics of virtual human influencers, and verifies its potential as a mediating variable. This has academic significance in expanding the research area of virtual human influencers, and it also implies practical significance by providing useful insights for advertising and marketing strategies using virtual human influencers.