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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of two types of celebrities (Instagram celebrity vs traditional celebrity) on source trustworthiness, brand attitude, envy and social presence. The proposed theoretical model consists of the celebrity type as the independent variable, social presence as the mediator and self-discrepancy as the moderator. Design/methodology/approach A randomized two-group comparison (Instagram celebrity vs traditional celebrity) between-subjects experiment (n=104) was conducted. Findings The results indicate that consumers exposed to Instagram celebrity’s brand posts perceive the source to be more trustworthy, show more positive attitude toward the endorsed brand, feel stronger social presence and feel more envious of the source than those consumers exposed to traditional celebrity’s brand posts. Structural equation modeling (Mplus 8.0) and bootstrap confidence intervals indicate that social presence mediates the causal effects of celebrity type on trustworthiness, brand attitude and envy. Multiple regression analyses reveal the moderating effects of appearance-related actual–ideal self-discrepancy. Practical implications Ultimately, managerial implications for social media marketing and Instagram influencer-based branding are provided. From the perspective of marketing planning, the findings speak to the power of influencer marketing as an effective branding strategy. Originality/value The paper discusses theoretical implications for the marketing literature on celebrity endorsements.

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Personality is an essential feature for creating socially interactive robots. Studies on this dimension will facilitate enhanced human-robot interaction (HRI). Using AIBO, a social robotic pet developed by Sony, we examined the issue of personality in HRI. In this gender-balanced 2 (AIBO personality: introvert vs. extrovert) by 2 (participant personality: introvert vs. extrovert) between-subject experiment (N = 48), we found that participants could accurately recognize a robot's personality based on its verbal and nonverbal behaviors. In addition, various complementarity attraction effects were found in HRI. Participants enjoyed interacting with a robot more when the robot's personality was complementary to their own personalities than when the robot's personality was similar to their own personalities. The same complementarity attraction effect was found in participants' evaluation of the robot's intelligence and social attraction. Participants' feelings of social presence during the interaction were a significant mediator for the complementarity attraction effects observed. Practical and theoretical implications of the current study for the design of social robots and the study of HRI were discussed.