See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/283912027

The Risk of Vampire Effect in Advertisements Using Celebrity Endorsement

Article in Central European Business Review · October 2014

DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.89

CITATIONS READS

27 4,222

2 authors, including:

Miroslav Karlíček
Prague University of Economics and Business
21 PUBLICATIONS 163 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Miroslav Karlíček on 18 January 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

THE RISK OF VAMPIRE EFFECT IN ADVERTISEMENTS

USING CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT

Kuvita, T., Karlíček, M.

In the race to get the attention of the target audience, advertisers often use special attention-getting devices. This in
turn exposes them to a higher risk of creating a vampire effect when the core message about the brand or a product
is “eaten up” by such devices. The concept of a vampire effect in advertising appears to be under-researched in
the current literature. Therefore, this paper provides deeper insights into the vampire effect occurrences in printed
advertisements using celebrity endorsement. The paper is based on a qualitative study with an eye-tracking device
with 12 participants and on the following experiment with 60 university students. The research found that a signiÞcantly
higher risk of creating a vampire effect exists when using an unrelated celebrity as an attention-getting device than
when using a related celebrity or no celebrity at all. Marketers are advised to use related celebrities if choosing to stick
to this attention-getting approach. However, the concept of “relatedness” should be pre-tested prior to launching an
advertising campaign.

JEL classiÞcation: M370

Keywords: vampire effect; celebrity endorsement; attention-getting device

Introduction to hear a message is challenging” (Gobe, 2009, p. 243).

Nowadays marketers face extensive challenges when Furthermore, even when the message is delivered, it is
communicating with potential customers. The race for hard to ensure that the receiver understood it in the correct
getting the attention of a target audience is vast due to the manner. Besides, the targeted group could get overloaded
information overload of modern society. In an attempt with marketing messages. Information overload is
to stand out from other advertising messages, marketers generally deÞned as “the state of an individual in which
take the risk of getting trapped into the so-called vampire not all communication inputs can be processes and
effect of their own advertising campaigns: tools for utilized, leading to breakdown” (Quentin, 2004, p.196).
getting attention “suck” customer attention away from Cognitive psychologists proved that because a person
core messages of the advertisement. has a limited capacity to process information, he/she
Despite the fact that a lot of studies have been done creates a Þlter to prevent the information-processing
concerning the effectiveness of advertising, little system from overloading (McLeod, 2008). Applying
attention has been drawn to this phenomenon. Thus, this theory to marketing simply suggests that with being
this study aims to explore the risks of vampire effect in exposed to too many advertising messages, a consumer
advertising using celebrity endorsement and to provide creates his/her own Þlter in order to deal with overload.
recommendations for preventing its occurrences. In the struggle for attention and getting their message
through to the target audience, marketers often use
Literature Review so-called attention-getting devices (AGDs). AGD may
Nowadays with the increasing amount of information be deÞned as any element in a marketing communication
available worldwide, it gets rather hard for an advertiser campaign designed to gain the attention of the audience
to create an effective marketing communication but which does not contain the core message of the
campaign. “The chase for reaching an audience is campaign. Humor, erotic stimuli and celebrities are
becoming more complex, and getting people to sit down among the most commonly used AGDs.

16
CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

According to information overload theory, in times when be a disaster. Ms. Dion was featured in advertisements
a person receives too much information, the captivation for the 2004 Chrysler PaciÞca sport wagon, the CrossÞre
of a piece of information occurs at the expense of another coupe and the Town & Country minivan. At that time,
piece of information (Salyer, 2013). This in turns means the company’s strategy was to move the brand towards
that using AGDs should help in attention stimulation; younger and more afßuent customers. However, focus
however, they could also distract customers from groups revealed that the average age of audience to whom
receiving the necessary information about the product Ms. Dion appealed was 52. The problem went so much
and brand and, thus, create a vampire effect. further that in the end the company had to reposition its
The vampire effect can generally be deÞned as an image, product and make the PaciÞca car targeting consumers
object or person, which grabs the attention of the target averaging 53 years old.
audience away from the product or the brand (or other Therefore, vampire effect in advertising is an important
product/brand related messages) and, thus, prevents issue, since the occurrences of it may be quite hard to
customers from remembering the product or the brand. predict. Thus, it needs to be studied in a greater detail.
A difÞculty in identifying these “vampires” in advertising Goal and Methodology
lies in the fact that any image used in an advertisement Based on a literature review, this study focused on
has a risk of taking away the attention. researching whether advertisements that use a celebrity
No general deÞnition of the term vampire effect is as an AGD were more likely to create a vampire effect
provided in academic literature; nevertheless, such than those that do not use any AGD. However, the
phenomena as vampire claims and vampire videos are differentiation between related and unrelated celebrities
discussed which in turn help to understand the idea as described by Speck, Schumann and Thompson
behind it. was used. Thus, the following hypothesis was for-
High risk of vampire effect is associated with using mulated:
celebrities in advertising. The probability of vampire H1: Print advertisements that use unrelated celebrities
effect occurrence increases when there is no congruency as AGD are more likely to create a vampire effect than
between the celebrity and a brand or a product. When those that use related celebrities as AGD or those that use
the celebrity endorsing the product does not have any no AGD at all:
relation to the product he or she endorses, the vampire a) Print advertisements that use unrelated celebrities as
effect is more likely to occur (Erdogan, 1999). Similarly, AGD are more likely to create a vampire effect in
a study of Speck, Schumann and Thompson found out terms of taking attention away from the product.
that related celebrities produced higher product recall b) Print advertisements that use unrelated celebrities as
than unrelated celebrities (Erdogan, 1999). Nonetheless, AGD are more likely to create a vampire effect in
the difference was not statistically signiÞcant, and thus terms of taking attention away from the brand.
the outcome should be further veriÞed.
c) Print advertisements that use unrelated celebrities as
Vampire effect in the context of celebrity endorsement
AGD are more likely to create a vampire effect in
occurs when the celebrity overshadows the product
terms of taking attention away from other product
featured in the advertisement. A Cyber Media Research
relevant statements.
study reveals a high percentage of vampire effect
occurrences: 80 percent of respondents in this study In order to test the hypothesis, three advertisements
could remember a celebrity but not the brand (Okorie, were created (see Figure 1): one advertisement featuring
Oyedepo and Akhidenor, 2012). It is also believed that a celebrity unrelated to the product advertised (Angelina
the probability of vampire effect occurrence increases if Jolie used for promotion of a retro guitar store), one
an internationally unknown brand uses an international advertisement featuring a celebrity related to the product
celebrity (Erdogan and Baker, 1999). In such cases, it is (Elvis Presley used for promotion of a retro guitar store)
more likely that potential consumers will pay attention to and one advertisement not featuring any celebrity as an
the celebrity and not to the brand. AGD.
An example of overshadowing and absence of clear The study was performed in two phases. In the Þrst
consistency with the product and celebrity advertising the stage, testing of printed ads was done with the help of
product may be Celine Dion’s endorsement by Chrysler an eye-tracking device and included 12 participants
(Stein, 2003). After signing a three-year contract with (university students). Participants had to take a look at
the singer for $14 million, the company soon realized a series of Þve advertisements, among which one of the
that effectiveness of celebrity endorsement turned out to ads from Figure 1 was mixed.

17
CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

Figure 1 Tested advertisements

Figure 1a-c
Figure 1a-c (clockwise
(clockwisefrom top
fromleft):top left):

1a: unrelated celebrity advertisement;

1a:1b:unrelated
related celebrity advertisement;
celebrity advertisement;
1c: advertisement without a celebrity.

1b: related celebrity advertisement;

1c: advertisement without a celebrity.

SpeciÞcally, four participants were exposed to an ad AGD, the second – advertisement with related celebrity
with a non-related AGD, four participants to an ad with as AGD and, Þnally, the third group – advertisement
a related AGD, and four participants to an ad without with no celebrity as AGD. It is necessary to notice
any AGD. Each ad was shown to the participants for that the survey stage also had some qualitative inputs:
a period of Þve seconds. Afterwards, participants were respondents had to answer open-ended questions. Thus,
asked to Þll in a survey. After collecting information, the research approach was a combination of exploratory
the following outputs from the eye-tracking device and conclusive research. Afterwards, students were
were generated: heat maps, scan paths, as well as asked to Þll in a survey. Subsequently, the results were
clustering of gaze. Based on this, the researchers inserted into SPSS for conducting statistical analysis. The
could see typical ways each advertisement was looked researchers used the Kruskal-Wallis test for identifying
at as well as attention distribution on each of them. whether there were signiÞcant differences between the
Additionally, the results of this stage helped to adjust three sample groups in recall levels of different parts of
the questions for the survey used more broadly in the the tested advertisements.
next stage.
The second phase was an experiment with 60 students Findings
(university students as well). During this stage, partici- As discussed previously, a general deÞnition of the
pants were divided into three groups of 20 people and vampire effect suggests that an AGD “eats” the attention
exposed to the same mixture of advertisements in the of the target group away from the core messages of
same manner as in the Þrst stage. Thus, the Þrst group the advertisement – brand, product and other messages
saw the advertisement with an unrelated celebrity as related to the product.

18
CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

The researchers analyzed the survey results using 38,0; G3= 32,0). In other words, even though participants
a non-parametric test of comparing means. This was done could much better remember a celebrity (Angelina Jolie)
due to the fact that data was not normally distributed and in the ad they saw, they did not remember which product
since the number of independent groups to compare was she endorsed. The null hypothesis of this part (a) was
more than two, the Kruskal-Wallis test was chosen for therefore rejected. It was thus concluded that an unrelated
analysis. The necessary assumptions of homogeneity of celebrity ad showed the highest risk of vampire effect.
variances and similar distributions were met for each In relation to part b) of the hypothesis – drawing
analysis performed. attention away from the brand – no statistical proof
Survey analysis showed that in terms of levels of was found. Participants generally showed a very low
remembering of the ad image, ads with celebrity level of brand recall across three groups as can be seen
endorsement showed better results than the ad picturing in Figure 3. Groups two and three had the same recall
a guitar (see Figure 2). Further statistical testing using levels of 20 percent; however, unrelated celebrity ad
the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the difference (group 1) yielded no recall of brand information at all.
between the groups was signiÞcant (Chi-square = 7,549; However, the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that there was
p = 0,023 < 0,05). SpeciÞc comparison testing revealed no statistically signiÞcant difference between the three
that a statistically signiÞcant difference in remembering groups (Chi-square = 4.538; p = 0.103 > 0.05).
AGD was between group 1 and group 3 (Chi-square =
4,789; p = 0,029 < 0,05); and between groups 2 and 3 Figure 3: Comparison of ad image and brand recall levels
(Chi-square = 6,240; p = 0,012 < 0,05). The control
group had a signiÞcantly lower image recall level (Mean
ranks: G1= 33,5; G2= 35,0; G3= 23,0). These results
were also consistent with the results of the eye-tracking
experiment: participants exposed to advertisements with
celebrity endorsement drew more attention to the faces
of celebrities, whereas participants from the control
group drew less attention to the picture of a guitar.

Figure 2 Comparison of the ad image and product recall

levels
The null hypothesis of this part was hence not rejected.
There was no signiÞcant difference between the three
groups in terms of brand recall. These results are also
consistent with the output from the eye-tracking exper-
iment: the eye-tracking device spotted almost no direct
look at the brand logo. Participants looked at the logo
mostly indirectly, without actively seeing the name of the
company. This lack of attention towards the brand could
be due to the wrong placing of the logo in the advertise-
ment or the limited amount of time given to participants.
Further discussion of reasons for not having a direct
Source: authors
attention drawn to the logo of the company, however,
goes beyond the scope of this study.
However, the levels of product recall had reverse results Speaking about part c) of the hypothesis, the related
(see Figure 2). There was a signiÞcant difference between AGD ad had a signiÞcantly higher level of other product
the three groups in terms of product recall (Chi-square = related statements recall than the other two advertise-
12,701; p = 0,002 < 0,05). SpeciÞcally, there was ments. Survey results showed the best recall levels in the
a difference between groups 1 and 2 (Chi-square = group exposed to related AGD ad (70%) as can be seen
12.584; p = 0.00 < 0.05) and groups 1 and 3 (Chi-square = in Figure 4. The lowest recall levels were observed in the
5.991; p = 0.014 < 0.05). Thus, ads with unrelated groups with respondents seeing an unrelated celebrity as
celebrity endorsement (G1) showed signiÞcantly lower AGD advertisement – only 5 percent could remember
levels of product recall (Mean ranks: G1= 21,5; G2= other statements. Performing the Kruskal-Wallis test

19
CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

Table 1 Measures of association levels between celebrity and product recall for test group 2

Chi-Square Tests and Symmetric Measures

Value df Asymp. Sig. Exact Sig. Approx.
(2-sided) (2-sided) Sig.
Pearson Chi-Square 5.089a 1 .024
Fisher‘s Exact Test .050

Cramer’s V 0.504 0.024

N of Valid Cases 20

Source: authors

showed that the difference was statistically signiÞcant and covered other product/brand related statements
(Chi-square = 14,359; p = 0,001 < 0,05). SpeciÞcally, much better, the recall levels of the participants were
the difference laid between groups 1 and 2 (Chi-square = signiÞcantly lower as compared to the recall levels of
12,769; p = 0,000 < 0,05) and groups 2 and 3 (Chi-square = participants who saw a related celebrity as AGD ad.
6,240; p = 0,012 < 0,05). Related AGD advertisement Yet, there was no statistically signiÞcant difference in
had the highest recall levels (Mean ranks: G1= 23,0; other statement recalls between the control ad and the
G2= 40,15; G3= 28,35). unrelated celebrity as AGD ad. More detailed analysis is,
therefore, necessary to explain this phenomenon.
Figure 4: Comparison of ad image and other statements Therefore, since two out of three subparts of the
recall levels hypothesis were not rejected, the research concluded that
overall, the null hypothesis of the study was rejected.
Therefore, the study found that there is a signiÞcantly
higher risk of creating a vampire effect when using an
unrelated celebrity in print advertising than when using
a related celebrity or no celebrity at all. Furthermore,
related celebrity endorsement could be an effective tool
in printed advertising. However, the level of relatedness
of an attention-getting device can rarely be measured
precisely since perceiving a celebrity related to a product/
brand advertised is subjective.
Source: Authors Furthermore, using no AGD has a risk of being ignored by
the target market. As revealed by testing, the perception
levels of advertisements being able to effectively grab
The null hypothesis can thus be rejected. The unrelated attention of the audience, the advertisement with no
AGD ad had still lower levels of other product related celebrity as AGD (G3) had the worst results: only
statements recall, which, together with AGD recall 5 percent of respondents believed the ad effectively
levels, suggests that this ad showed the highest risk of grabbed their attention (G1 = 45%; G2 = 35%). Sta-
a vampire effect as compared to the related AGD ad or to tistically, the difference was signiÞcant (Chi-square =
the ad without any AGD. Compared to the results of the 9,486; p = 0,009). The difference laid between groups
eye-tracking experiment, this conclusion is consistent as 2 and 3 (Chi-square = 8.142; p = 0.004 < 0.05) and groups
well: the gaze scans of the unrelated AGD ad showed 1 and 3 (Chi-square = 6.080; p = 0.014). The mean ranks
almost no coverage of product/brand related statements, of the Kruskal-Wallis test were the following: G1= 35,1;
whereas gaze scans of the related AGD and non AGD ad G2= 35,6; G3= 20,8. Indeed, the control group was much
partially covered these statements. less likely to perceive the advertisement they saw to be
Noteworthy, however, was also the fact that even though catchy, whereas the groups exposed to advertisement
the gaze scan coverage of the control ad was much broader with celebrities as AGD had the opposite result.

20
CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

Additionally, the hypothesis that the risk of vampire than an end itself. As warned by previous researchers,
effect is higher for unrelated celebrity advertisement is this study showed once again that the race for creativity
also supported by the perception of advertisement consis- and attention getting could easily become a false priority.
tency. The analysis of the survey results revealed that If the level of association between the AGD and the
the advertisement that used unrelated celebrity as AGD product or brand is not sufÞcient enough in the minds of
had the worst perception of consistency – 20 percent of the target audience, no value will be generated from such
respondents thought the ad was consistent as compared advertisement. The fact that the audience remembers
to 55 percent in group 2 and 25 percent in group 3. the advertisement does not automatically mean they
Participants in the group had the weakest belief that all received the core message about the product or a brand.
messages in the advertisement made sense all together. Using unrelated celebrities as AGD has a higher risk of
Statistical analysis of signiÞcance conÞrmed there creating a vampire effect. Nevertheless, even though an
was a difference (Chi-square = 5,972, p = 0,05 = 0,05) advertisement without any special AGD could be a safer
between the three groups. Mean rank distributions were option, it has a higher risk of being simply ignored by
the following: G1= 25,53; G2= 38,08; G3= 27,9. Yet, the target groups. Therefore, in order to pass through the
difference was only between groups 1 and 2 (Chi-square = Þlter of consumers and get their attention, marketers
5.773; p = 0.017 < 0.05). There was, however, no statis- might still need to use special AGDs. Consequently,
tically signiÞcant difference between groups 1 and 3 when choosing to use celebrities as AGD, marketers
(Chi-square = 0.109; p = 0.741 > 0.05), as well as should use related celebrities since, as discussed earlier
between groups 2 and 3 (Chi-square = 3.070; p = 0.080 by Speck, Schumann and Thompson (Erdogan, 1999)
> 0.05). Even though no deeper analysis of such percep- and proven by this study as well, they produce higher
tion was done, it could be assumed that unrelated celeb- product recall. Nevertheless, this relation should be
rity created an imbalance in communication effort of the pre-tested prior to launching an advertising campaign.
company and, thus, could eventually lead to a vampire However, it should be noted that levels of relatedness
effect. Coming back to previous studies, Erdogan (1999) between the celebrity and the target audience is hard
had already theorized that when a celebrity endorser did to test, since this is a subjective and individual matter.
not have an associated relation to the product, a vampire Thus, in this regard, the study faces its limitations.
effect tended to occur. The fact that the control advertise-
ment was also perceived as quite inconsistent, since only
25 percent of participants believed it was, could be due References
to the low levels of the ad recall. Erdogan, B.Z. (1999). Celebrity Endorsement: A Literature
Furthermore, as was discussed previously, Speck, Schu- Review. Journal of Marketing Management. 15 (1):
mann and Thompson (Erdogan, 1999) found out that 291-314.
related celebrities produced higher product recall than Erdogan, B. Z., Baker, M. J. (1999). Celebrity Endorsement:
unrelated, but did not have statistical proof for that. This Advertising Agency Managers’ Perspective. The Cyber-
study shed more light on the discussion. The statistical Journal of Sport Marketing, 3 (3).
analysis of survey results showed positive statistical
Gobe, M. (2009). Emotional Advertising: Expressing Real
association between the levels of the celebrity recall and
Emotions Online, in Emotional Branding: The new
the level of product recall in the group exposed to the paradigm for connecting brands to people. New York:
advertisement with related celebrity (Table 1). Thus, the Allworth Press, 223-244.
theoretical belief that in cases of using celebrity endorse-
ments, if done correctly by achieving the degree of consis- Heath, R. (2012). Problems with Getting Attention, in
Seducing the Subconscious: The Psychology of Emotional
tency between the product and the celebrity endorsing
Inßuence in Advertising. Hoboken: Wiley, 86-98.
it, movement of meaning may occur. In other words, if
consumers see a logical link between an endorser and McLeod, S. (2008). Selective Attention. Simply Psychology.
a product, they are more likely to remember the product. (accessed January 20, 2014), [available at http://www.
simplypsychology.org/attention-models.html]
Conclusion and Managerial Implications
Okorie, N., Oyedepo, T., Akhidenor, G. (2012). The
Marketers should be able to Þnd a balance between Dysfunctional and Functional Effect of Celebrity
gaining the attention of their target audience and Endorsement on Brand Patronage. Online Journal of
delivering product and brand related message. Gaining Communication and Media Technologies,
attention is the Þrst step only; it is a means to an end rather 2 (2): 148-149.

21
 CENTRAL EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW RESEARCH PAPERS VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3 , SEPTEMBER 2014

Quentin, J. (2004). Information Overload and the Message Authors

Dynamics of Online Interaction Spaces: A Theoretical
Tetyana Kuvita
Model and Empirical Exploration. Information Systems
Research, 15 (2): 194-210. M.A. in International Business
University of Applied Sciences, Mainz
Salyer, G. (2013). Information Overload: The effects of Koenigsgartenstrasse 1, 55583,
advertising avoidance on brand awareness in an online
Bad Muenster-Ebernburg, Germany
environment. (accessed January 20, 2014), [available at
[email protected]
http://web02.gonzaga.edu/comltheses/proquestftp/Salyer_
gonzaga_0736M_10263.pdf ]
Assoc. Prof. Miroslav Karlíþek, Ph.D
Stein, J. (2003). Inside Chrysler and Celine Dion Advertising Marketing Department
Disaster. Advertising Age. November 24. University of Economics, Prague
Nám. W. Churchilla 4

This study was realized in cooperation with INCOMA GfK

research agency and it was supported from the resources
for long-term conceptual research development of the
University of Economics, Prague (IP300040).

22

View publication stats