The Effect of Beverage Brand Co-Celebrities on Social Media

Research Article
Open access

The Effect of Beverage Brand Co-Celebrities on Social Media

Zhixuan Yu 1 , Xinyi Zhu 2*
  • 1 Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, 199 Taikang East Road, Ningbo, China    
  • 2 Department of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 99 Shangda Road, China    
  • *corresponding author 1750203901@shu.edu.cn
Published on 13 March 2025 | https://doi.org/10.54254/2754-1169/2025.21512
AEMPS Vol.168
ISSN (Print): 2754-1177
ISSN (Online): 2754-1169
ISBN (Print): 978-1-83558-991-5
ISBN (Online): 978-1-83558-992-2

Abstract

With the wide application of social media in today's society, brands gradually regard it as an important publicity channel. Among them, co-publishing content with celebrities has become an effective strategy to enhance the brand's influence on social media, and achieved remarkable results. Therefore, the in-depth study in this field is of great significance. Although the existing research mostly focuses on the celebrity joint effect of luxury brands, ordinary products and brands are equally worthy of attention. This study focuses on beverage brands in particular. Because drinks are daily consumer goods, their taste cannot be directly experienced through social platforms. Therefore, cooperation with celebrities has become an indispensable means in the promotion of beverage brands.Based on the theory of social identity, this paper discusses the relationship between the joint promotion of beverage brands and celebrities and the growth of likes, comments and shares on social platforms. The research mainly collects data from Weibo platform, and uses regression analysis for empirical research. The results show that all the dependent variables are significantly improved, indicating that joint promotion with celebrities is helpful to enhance brand influence and competitiveness. However, when the content contains elements such as money or lottery, which may violate the public's perception of celebrity images, the social identity effect will be limited. In view of this phenomenon, we use social identity theory to explain it in detail, and suggest that beverage brands should avoid introducing such elements into the promotion content when cooperating with celebrities in order to maximize the cooperation effect.

Keywords:

Beverage brand co-celebrities, Social media, Social identity theorem

Yu,Z.;Zhu,X. (2025). The Effect of Beverage Brand Co-Celebrities on Social Media. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,168,45-57.
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1. Introduction

Social media has become integral to daily life, prompting brands of all kinds to establish their presence on various platforms to attract customers. While luxury brands naturally attract people’s attention due to their feeling of disconnected from life, brands focus on daily products, particularly in the beverage sector, must employ innovative advertising strategies on social media.

The core advantage of beverage brands lies in the taste and aroma of their products. However, these sensory experiences cannot be directly transmitted through digital channels, which limits their influence in online space. Therefore, beverage brands need to explore alternative strategies to attract consumers on social media. Among many promotion methods, cooperation with celebrities has become one of the most common ways to attract attention and expand customer base.

Studying the influence of the joint promotion of beverage brands and celebrities on the number of likes, comments and shares on social platforms will help to reveal how celebrity joint promotion can enhance the brand image, make the brand stand out on social media and enhance its appeal, build trust with consumers and improve brand credibility. In addition, the study also discusses how these factors are influenced by consumers' social identity, thus providing support for brands to expand their customer base. This research can not only optimize the brand's social media strategy, but also effectively use the celebrity effect to improve user participation and brand exposure, and improve the interactive experience of consumers.

Based on this background, many beverage brands endorse their brands on social platforms by cooperating with celebrities to strengthen brand promotion. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the joint celebrity of beverage brands and the growth of likes, comments and shares on social platforms.

The hypothesis of this study is based on the theory of social identity. Social identity theory points out that personal choices and attitudes may be influenced by celebrities. We believe that this effect also applies to social platforms. Consumers usually construct their own image according to the social identity of celebrities. Therefore, when a brand cooperates with celebrities, they are more inclined to think that the brand is in line with their own identity, so they are willing to like, comment and even share relevant content.

This research focuses on Weibo, the largest social media platform in China, analyzing the content from five different beverage brands. We will measure engagement through the number of likes, comments and shares to assess the effectiveness of their posts. Regression analysis will be employed to explore the relationships between these metrics and user engagement.

Research on this topic has found that celebrity co-signing helps brands stand out on social platforms, enhances brand appeal and encourage customers to interact with the brands, then widening customer base. We have studied how these factors are affected by the effect of social identity and builds trust with consumers. We found that consumers build their own social identity according to the celebrities’ character and social identity. This means that if the celebrities show trust in a brand, the consumers will believe they are also interested in the brand naturally. They act as what they think the celebrities would like to do and therefore they are likely to interact on the social platform when the brand collaborate with celebrities.

The goal of this study is to quantify the specific impact of celebrity cooperation and analyze its role in the number of likes, comments and shares on social platforms. We pay special attention to the beverage brand, a daily consumer product, to verify the applicability of celebrity joint promotion in this field. Through the data analysis of social platform, we can quantify the user interaction rate and reveal whether this strategy can effectively enhance the reputation of beverage brands. The research results provide specific suggestions for brands to optimize their social media marketing strategies so as to achieve higher attention and user participation.

2. Literature review

Recent literature has extensively explored the dynamics of celebrity endorsements and co-branding, emphasizing their impact on consumer perceptions, brand equity, and decision-making.

Many recent studies mainly focus on the special kinds of products the celebrities endorse [1][2][3]. A recent research showed that celebrities endorsements can improve green skincare product reputation and attract consumers [1]. Another study explored the influence of celebrity endorsement on the purchase intention of organic food [4]. Both of these studies emphasize the positive effect of celebrity endorsement on product reputation, which ultimately urges consumers to make purchase decisions. In addition, many studies also pay attention to the influence of celebrity endorsements on the advertising effect of luxury goods, such as beer and wine, and point out that celebrity endorsements significantly enhance brand awareness and encourage more consumers to choose these products, although their prices are higher than other competitive products [2][5]. They particular shows that more consumers tend to buy their products even though their price is higher than other products. Though the results are all positive, they only focused on products that have unique selling points or meanings and neglect daily products. Our research focus on the unique context of the beverage industry to find whether the celebrities endorsements effect is still positive and significant when meeting the daily products. We referred these researches’ methods of quantifying the effect of celebrities endorsements by focus on the change of attitude and improvement of the rate of purchase. We decided to measure the improvement of interaction rate to act as the method of quantifying the effect.

In addition to the above research, some literatures also discuss the influence of celebrity endorsement on specific consumer groups. For example, a research found that female college students’ consumer may be tempted to buy products endorsed by male celebrities [6].They showed that how young female consumers effected by male celebrities and the limitation of this effect. Other studies mainly discussed the effect of celebrity endorsements under different situations, both positive and negative ones [7][8]. A research showed that if consumers didn’t know the benefits of the brands, then the celebrities endorsements will bring their good image to the brand [8].This gives us the basic idea of how celebrities endorsements really impact the brands reputation. It shows that the main possible effect is no caused by reputation of the celebrities but the whole image of the celebrities, which lead us to the social identity theorem. However, these studies fail to explore whether the negative image of celebrities will have an impact on the brand, and also fail to examine the potential consequences when the advertising content does not match the image of celebrities. This study fills this gap and finds that when the advertising content is inconsistent with the celebrity image, it may have a negative impact on the endorsement effect.

In addition, with regard to the effect of celebrity endorsements on social media, there are also related documents that social media can enhance the influence of celebrity endorsements, and it is suggested to evaluate the endorsement effect by measuring the interaction rate [2]. The main discussion of these studies based on the high reputation of the celebrities and the celebrity charm and mainly focused on the food assumption.

We found that sometimes the effect of celebrity endorsements may not significant, which means the celebrity charm may have limitation as when combined with money and sweepstakes the celebrity endorsements effect will be weaken or even become negative. Combined with the social identity theorem we found that the celebrity charm is not only depend on the reputation of the celebrities, but on both the consumers and the celebrities’ identity.

Generally speaking, the existing research mainly focuses on the celebrity endorsement effect of luxury goods or special consumer goods, but the research on the special background of beverage industry is relatively scarce. In the beverage industry, celebrity endorsement plays a key role in shaping consumer participation and brand loyalty through social media channels. Therefore, this study aims to fill this research gap and explore how celebrity joint endorsement specifically affects the changes of consumer behavior in the beverage industry in today's dynamic social media environment.

3. Methodology

3.1. Data Collecting

The main goal of this study is to explore whether the cooperation between beverage brands and celebrities on social platforms will affect the number of likes, comments and shares of their content. The core data of the study comes from Weibo. As one of the most popular social media platforms in China, Weibo provides rich interactive opportunities for the cooperation between brands and celebrities. We selected five beverage brands with high activity on the platform of Weibo and having cooperated with celebrities as the research objects: Luckin coffee, Good me, CHAGEE, NAIXUE and ChaPanda. All the contents released by these brands from November 2023 to November 2024, together with the corresponding number of likes, comments and shares, constitute the sample data of this study.

3.2. Data processing

In this study, we first marked whether celebrity endorsements are involved in each content, and used LIWC tool to mark the proportion of control variables. We chose fifteen control variables, including: together, lottery, exclamation mark, label, brand, function, number, society, human, seeing, feeling, sports, time, work, leisure, realization, family, money and words. These variables can be divided into two categories: one is related to the composition of the content, such as whether the text mentions "together" and how many tags are used; The other category involves elements that may trigger emotional reactions or encourage interaction, such as lottery and exclamation point. The reason for choosing these control variables is that we want to ensure that the text characteristics of the content and the brand itself will not unnecessarily interfere with the final results, so as to ensure that the research results can accurately reflect the real impact of celebrity endorsements on interactive indicators (such as likes, comments and sharing).

3.3. Data analysis

Negative binomial regression analysis was used to analyze the data because it can show whether the dependent variable is related to the independent variables and in this research we need to control other variables while showing the relationship. Negative binomial regression analysis can also simplex the complex relationships between different variables, which makes the result more intuitive. We used Stata to do the regression analysis.

We use whether celebrities were contained as the independent variable and the number of likes, comments and shares were chosen as the dependent variables respectively. To show whether the independent variable is significant or not, we mainly focus on the P>|z|. If the value of P>|z| is smaller than 0.05, then it is significant, otherwise it’s not significant.

The coefficient shows whether the variable is effective or not. If the coefficient is huge, that means the existence of the independent variables can cause huge change on the dependent variables.

4. Result and discussion

4.1. Result analysis

The research mainly shows whether the engagement of celebrities in the content on social platform will effect the number of likes, comments and shares. We first discuss the effect on the number of likes.

Table 1: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0230

Like

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.041592

0.2550766

8.00

0.000

1.541652

2.541533

together

1.650565

0.1340106

12.32

0.000

1.387909

1.913221

sweepstakes

0.5725968

0.1129125

5.07

0.000

0.3512923

0.7939012

Exclamation mark

-0.3649396

0.1313204

-2.78

0.005

-0.6223228

-0.1075564

tag

-0.2741957

0.1354011

-2.03

0.043

-0.539577

-0.0088145

brand

0.032031

0.043486

0.74

0.461

-0.0531999

0.117262

Funct

0.7593982

0.3891878

1.95

0.051

-0.0033958

1.522192

Number

5.080208

2.040766

2.49

0.013

1.080381

9.080035

Social

-3.053274

1.023996

-2.98

0.003

-5.06027

-1.046278

Humans

-7.610581

2.84397

-2.68

0.007

-13.18466

-2.036502

See

5.704872

2.307148

2.47

0.013

1.182946

10.2268

Feel

-1.940427

1.687595

-1.15

0.250

-5.248051

1.367198

Motion

0.8600161

0.9571089

0.90

0.369

-1.015883

2.735915

Time

-2.061418

0.9968286

-2.07

0.039

-4.015166

-0.1076698

Work

-4.94689

0.9803302

-5.05

0.000

-6.868302

-3.025478

Leisure

2.09893

0.8906679

2.36

0.018

0.3532527

3.844607

Achieve

-1.481819

1.786601

-0.83

0.407

-4.983493

2.019854

Home

-5.605636

4.18851

-1.34

0.181

-13.81496

2.603692

Money

6.427464

2.503772

2.57

0.010

1.520162

11.33477

WordCount

-0.0009157

0.006647

-0.14

0.890

-0.0139436

0.0121123

_cons

7.929471

0.2108887

37.60

0.000

7.516137

8.342805

According to the regression analyze, we can see that the P>|z| is 0.000,which means that the relationship between celebrity and the number of likes is significant. Then as the coefficient is positive, it shows that if they corporate with some celebrities then the number of likes will increase. As the coefficient is about 2.0416, it shows that the number of likes will possibly increase 7.7 times if celebrities are contained. This means the effect of celebrities is significant.

Table 2: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0269

Comment

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

1.653763

0.2200023

7.52

0.000

1.222567

2.084960

together

1.085617

0.1098948

9.88

0.000

0.870227

1.301087

sweepstakes

0.870049

0.0961264

9.05

0.000

0.6816006

1.058499

Exclamation mark

0.5572743

0.1052714

5.29

0.000

0.3509461

0.763625

tag

0.0323108

0.1007832

0.32

0.749

-0.1652206

0.2298423

brand

0.1036918

0.0346427

2.99

0.003

0.0357933

0.1715902

Funct

0.5559201

0.356548

1.56

0.119

-0.1429011

1.254741

Number

4.962784

1.674355

2.96

0.003

1.681108

8.244466

Social

0.5567561

0.9225287

0.60

0.546

-1.251367

2.364879

Humans

-3.418736

2.304716

-1.48

0.138

-7.935896

1.098424

See

4.867916

1.80021

2.70

0.007

1.339569

8.396262

Feel

-0.676117

1.530364

-0.44

0.659

-3.675575

2.32334

Motion

0.7958274

0.8497825

0.94

0.349

-0.8697157

2.461371

Time

0.3818648

0.8557645

0.45

0.655

-1.295403

2.059132

Work

-3.518593

0.7851669

-4.48

0.000

-5.057492

-1.979694

Leisure

2.234272

0.7097355

3.15

0.002

0.8432161

3.625328

Achieve

-1.23019

1.444401

-0.85

0.394

-4.061165

1.600784

Home

-4.766632

3.418286

-1.39

0.163

-11.46635

1.933086

Money

-3.57679

1.821586

-1.96

0.050

-7.147032

-0.0065477

WordCount

0.0031225

0.005514

0.57

0.571

-0.0076847

0.0139296

_cons

5.133616

0.1800057

28.52

0.000

4.780812

5.486421

The regression analysis shows that the P>|z| is 0.000, which means there is relationship between the engagement of celebrities and the number of comment. Also the coefficient is positive, about 1.6538, which means the existence of celebrities will help the number of the comments increase for about 5 times. It means the corporation with celebrities is useful.

Table 3: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0311

Share

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.309203

0.2898152

7.97

0.000

1.741175

2.87723

together

1.869662

0.1616509

11.57

0.000

1.552832

2.18649

sweepstakes

2.161364

0.1285016

16.82

0.000

1.909505

2.413222

Exclamation mark

-0.303917

0.1480142

-2.05

0.040

-0.59402

-0.01381

tag

-0.496982

0.145344

-3.42

0.001

-0.781851

-0.21212

brand

0.240332

0.0531901

4.52

0.000

0.136082

0.344583

Funct

1.416736

0.4822376

2.94

0.003

0.471567

2.361904

Number

5.67022

2.147405

2.64

0.008

1.461383

9.879057

Social

0.8461451

1.228304

0.69

0.491

-1.561286

3.253576

Humans

-8.179371

3.44732

-2.37

0.018

-14.93599

-1.42749

See

7.586985

2.653581

2.86

0.004

2.386061

12.78791

Feel

-1.78427

1.891024

-0.94

0.345

-5.490613

1.922066

Motion

-1.42033

1.034936

-1.37

0.170

-3.448766

0.6881064

Time

-2.343403

1.118914

-2.09

0.036

0.036

-1.150371

Work

-4.167527

1.20635

-3.45

0.001

-6.53193

-1.803123

Leisure

2.802656

1.039765

2.70

0.007

0.764755

4.840558

Achieve

1.463601

2.150065

0.68

0.496

-2.750449

5.677651

Home

-7.170972

5.237665

-1.37

0.171

-17.43661

3.094662

Money

7.693237

2.499219

3.08

0.002

2.794857

12.59162

WordCount

0.0227373

0.008087

2.81

0.005

0.006887

0.03858

_cons

5.310905

0.2574631

20.63

0.000

4.806286

5.815523

The results of regression analysis show that there is a significant correlation between celebrity endorsements and the number of shares, specifically, the P value is 0.000, indicating that this relationship is statistically significant. Further analysis shows that the regression coefficient is positive, about 2.3092, which means that the participation of celebrities has significantly promoted the increase in the number of shares. In addition, the existence of celebrities is also closely related to the increase in the number of comments, which has increased by about 10 times.

In the negative binomial regression analysis, we further found that lottery and money factors play an important role in the interaction. To this end, we cross-analyze celebrity endorsements with these factors, especially paying attention to the influence of lottery activities on the interactive effect. Through this cross-analysis, we can more comprehensively evaluate the comprehensive effects of celebrity endorsements and other promotional factors (such as lottery and money) on social media interaction.

Table 4: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0238

Like

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.654982

0.3356848

7.91

0.000

1.997052

3.312912

together

1.575839

0.1354045

11.64

0.000

0.000

1.841227

sweepstakes

0.679456

0.1138346

5.97

0.000

0.4563442

0.9025677

Exclamation mark

-0.324169

0.1316534

-2.46

0.014

-0.5822048

-0.0661331

tag

-0.222851

0.1355013

-1.64

0.100

-0.4884286

0.0427268

brand

-0.150963

0.044759

-0.34

0.736

-0.1028223

0.0726298

Funct

0.741722

0.3906022

1.90

0.058

-0.0238442

1.507288

Number

5.007417

2.034005

2.46

0.014

1.020841

8.993994

Social

-3.095938

1.021109

-3.03

0.002

-5.097275

-1.094601

Humans

-7.147789

2.858782

-2.50

0.012

-12.7509

-1.54468

See

6.087452

2.309171

2.64

0.008

1.561561

10.61334

Feel

-1.985153

1.682824

-1.18

0.238

-5.283427

1.31312

Motion

0.619587

0.9876742

0.63

0.530

-1.316219

2.555393

Time

-1.908511

0.9998503

-1.91

0.056

-3.868181

0.0511601

Work

-4.110079

1.030004

-3.99

0.000

-6.12885

-2.091308

Leisure

1.867874

0.8913845

2.10

0.036

0.1207922

3.614955

Achieve

-1.820991

1.785731

-1.02

0.308

-5.320958

1.678977

Home

-5.935547

4.165744

-1.42

0.154

-14.10026

2.229162

Money

6.884233

2.551995

2.70

0.007

1.882415

11.88605

WordCount

-0.001054

0.0065864

-0.16

0.873

-0.013963

0.011852

Celebrity

Sweepstakes cross

-2.25627

0.5267451

-4.28

0.000

-3.288671

-1.223868

_cons

7.959438

0.2105911

37.80

0.000

7.546687

8.372189

Table 5: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0281

Comment

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.251683

0.2885137

7.80

0.000

1.686206

2.817159

together

1.036080

0.1092591

9.48

0.000

0.821936

1.250224

sweepstakes

0.942045

0.0961069

9.80

0.000

0.7536793

1.130411

Exclamation mark

0.587812

0.1050715

5.59

0.000

0.3818762

0.7937487

tag

0.0431725

0.0998834

0.43

0.666

-0.1525952

0.2389403

brand

0.073814

0.0349425

2.11

0.035

0.0053287

0.1423008

Funct

0.475765

0.3538051

1.34

0.179

-0.2176805

1.16921

Number

5.099058

1.666578

3.06

0.002

1.832625

8.365492

Social

0.445087

0.912543

0.49

0.626

-1.343465

2.233638

Humans

-3.145597

2.295372

-1.37

0.171

-7.644442

1.353249

See

5.060734

1.793772

2.82

0.005

1.545006

8.576463

Feel

-0.7986844

1.522883

-0.52

0.600

-3.78348

2.186111

Motion

0.6860027

0.8535132

0.80

0.422

-0.9868523

2.358858

Time

0.5521525

0.8530177

0.65

0.517

-1.119731

2.224036

Work

-3.081837

0.7962496

-3.87

0.000

-4.642458

-1.521216

Leisure

2.012725

0.7035365

2.86

0.004

0.6338185

3.391631

Achieve

-1.375601

1.433155

-0.96

0.337

-4.184533

1.433332

Home

-5.102313

3.374673

-1.51

0.131

-11.71655

1.511924

Money

-3.228798

1.832262

-1.76

0.078

-6.819967

0.36237

WordCount

0.0036337

0.0054698

0.66

0.506

-0.0070869

0.0143

Celebrity

Sweepstakes cross

-2.097316

0.4295288

-4.88

0.000

-2.939177

-1.255455

_cons

5.166741

0.1787531

28.90

0.000

4.816391

5.517099

Table 6: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0323

Share

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.951158

0.3744188

7.88

0.000

2.217311

3.685085

together

1.822167

0.1609712

11.32

0.000

1.586669

2.137664

sweepstakes

2.255798

0.1273265

17.72

0.000

2.006242

2.505353

Exclamation mark

-0.286962

0.1476456

-1.94

0.052

-0.576342

0.002419

tag

-0.4442515

0.1443591

-3.08

0.092

-0.7271991

-0.1613129

brand

0.1951003

0.0533778

3.66

0.000

0.0964817

0.2997189

Funct

1.369682

0.4800847

2.85

0.004

0.428896

2.310474

Number

5.5884

2.12637

2.63

0.009

1.420791

9.756009

Social

0.9709295

1.227537

0.79

0.429

-1.434999

3.376858

Humans

-7.901808

3.441101

-2.30

0.022

-14.64624

-1.157374

See

8.624983

2.642985

3.64

0.002

2.844827

13.20514

Feel

-2.236464

1.874518

-1.19

0.233

-5.916452

1.437523

Motion

-1.729015

1.072846

-1.61

0.107

-3.830186

-0.3721552

Time

-2.85875

1.120724

-1.84

0.066

-4.255329

-1.138295

Work

-3.38679

1.249820

-2.71

0.067

-5.836392

-0.9371872

Leisure

2.484194

1.937239

2.40

0.017

0.4512424

4.517146

Achieve

1.222282

2.131414

0.57

0.566

2.955212

5.399776

Home

-7.457163

5.178545

-1.44

0.158

-17.60692

2.692598

Money

7.918448

2.522085

3.14

0.002

2.967253

12.85364

WordCount

0.0209752

0.0079991

2.62

0.009

0.0052974

0.0143

Celebrity Sweepstakes cross

-3.095536

0.5736098

-5.40

0.000

-4.218614

-1.972457

_cons

5.382176

0.2565474

26.98

0.000

4.879353

5.885

We can see that though both celebrity and sweepstakes are significant alone and they have huge positive coefficient, when they are combined with each other, though it still has significant relationship with the number of likes, comments and shares, the coefficient becomes very small, means the effect becomes weak.

Table 7: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0273

Comment

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

1.704561

0.2233596

7.63

0.000

1.266784

2.142337

together

1.096923

0.1100852

9.96

0.000

0.8811603

1.312687

sweepstakes

0.8758323

0.0959435

9.13

0.000

0.6877864

1.063878

Exclamation mark

0.5590687

0.1050896

5.32

0.000

0.3530968

0.7650406

tag

0.0206956

0.1007988

0.21

0.837

0.1768507

0.218242

brand

0.102606

0.0346739

2.96

0.003

0.0346465

0.1705655

Funct

0.5378787

0.3574672

1.50

0.132

-0.1627441

1.238501

Number

4.906076

1.670909

2.94

0.003

1.631154

8.180998

Social

0.5657953

0.9212643

0.61

0.539

-1.23985

2.37144

Humans

-3.534727

2.301499

-1.54

0.125

-8.045583

0.9761281

See

4.90081

1.797705

2.73

0.006

1.377373

8.424246

Feel

-0.6651103

1.529318

-0.43

0.664

-3.662518

2.332298

Motion

0.808209

0.8494821

0.95

0.341

-0.8567453

2.473163

Time

0.4015867

0.8558535

0.47

0.639

-1.275855

2.079029

Work

-3.590701

0.7823193

-4.59

0.000

-5.124019

-2.057383

Leisure

2.150027

0.7067513

3.04

0.002

0.7648203

3.535234

Achieve

-0.920867

1.469694

-0.63

0.531

-3.801407

1.959673

Home

-4.819586

3.422447

-1.41

0.159

-11.52746

1.888286

Money

-2.772522

1.90039

-1.46

0.145

-6.497217

0.952174

WordCount

0.0030673

0.0055043

0.56

0.577

-0.0077209

0.0138556

Celebrity

Moneycross

-17.17762

4.848163

-3.54

0.000

-26.67985

-7.675399

_cons

5.137993

0.1797131

28.59

0.000

4.785762

5.490224

Table 8: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0317

Share

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.359625

0.293495

8.04

0.000

1.784386

2.934865

together

1.868894

0.1612286

11.59

0.000

1.552091

2.184096

sweepstakes

2.164198

0.1279578

16.91

0.000

1.913486

2.414991

Exclamation mark

-0.387433

0.147414

-2.89

0.837

-0.5963595

-0.8185873

tag

0.5853693

0.144884

-3.49

0.800

-0.7891799

-0.2215587

brand

0.2413114

0.0530963

4.54

0.000

0.1372446

0.3453782

Funct

1.482346

0.4825049

2.91

0.004

0.4566561

2.348037

Number

5.693463

2.139628

2.66

0.008

1.499869

9.887056

Social

0.7968541

1.223242

8.65

8.515

-1.608656

8.187948

Humans

-8.187948

3.438147

-2.36

0.018

-14.84267

-1.373224

See

7.683433

2.646799

2.98

0.004

2.495883

12.87186

Feel

-1.775659

1.887962

-2.94

0.347

-5.475996

1.924678

Motion

-1.487537

1.037011

-1.36

0.175

-3.440844

0.4249664

Time

-2.282403

1.117384

-2.84

0.841

-4.472436

-0.092695

Work

-4.221686

1.197716

-3.52

0.000

-6.569166

-1.874285

Leisure

2.748446

1.835281

0.84

2.65

-2.425805

4.777483

Achieve

-7.179651

5.227201

-1.37

0.170

-17.41878

3.071474

Home

-7.173651

5.227201

-1.37

0.170

-17.41878

3.071474

Money

8.489336

2.572575

3.30

0.001

3.447182

13.53149

WordCount

8.227225

3.8888492

-7.47

2.82

8.885

-4.63583

Celebrity

Moneycross

-46.83893

6.273624

-7.47

0.000

-50.1111

-34.53895

_cons

5.31

0.2567212

20.68

0.000

4.806835

5.813164

Table 9: Result analysis.

Prob> \( {chi^{2}} \) =0.000

Pseudo \( {R^{2}} \) =0.0236

Like

Coefficient

Std

Z

P>|z|

95%interval

celebrity

2.101383

0.258531

8.13

0.000

1.594672

2.608095

together

1.664136

0.1340005

12.42

0.000

1.4015

1.926772

sweepstakes

0.579035

0.1124366

5.15

0.000

0.3586631

0.7994066

Exclamation mark

-0.361326

0.1308481

-2.76

0.006

-0.6177831

-0.104868

tag

-0.2917433

0.1349326

-2.16

0.031

-0.5562064

-0.0272803

brand

0.0283964

0.0434627

0.65

0.514

-0.0567889

0.1135817

Funct

0.7149653

0.3894737

1.84

0.066

-0.0483892

1.47832

Number

4.997784

2.033363

2.46

0.014

1.012466

8.983102

Social

-2.995538

1.023455

-2.93

0.003

-5.001472

-0.9896035

Humans

-7.733411

2.830784

-2.73

0.006

-13.28164

-2.185177

See

5.815463

2.301363

2.53

0.012

1.304874

10.32605

Feel

-1.909326

1.684502

-1.13

0.257

-5.210891

1.392238

Motion

0.8682841

0.9610247

0.90

0.366

-1.01529

2.751858

Time

-1.991641

0.9964971

-2.00

0.046

-3.94474

-0.0385

Work

-5.072803

0.9723475

-5.22

0.000

-6.978569

-3.167037

Leisure

2.044498

0.8864945

2.31

0.021

0.3070008

3.781995

Achieve

-1.051986

1.815955

-0.58

0.562

-4.611192

2.507221

Home

-5.542524

4.191382

-1.32

0.186

-13.75748

2.672434

Money

7.600424

2.587459

2.94

0.003

2.529098

12.67175

WordCount

-0.0011305

0.0066112

-0.17

0.864

-0.0140883

0.01827

Celebrity

Moneycross

-38.50025

5.786191

-6.65

0.000

-4.94098

-27.15953

_cons

7.942515

0.2102249

37.78

0.000

7.530481

8.354548

In addition, the analysis results show that celebrity endorsements and money factors are both significant variables, among which only celebrity endorsements have a positive coefficient, indicating that they have a positive impact on interaction (such as likes, comments and sharing). Specifically, the money coefficient of comments and sharing is negative, while the money coefficient of likes is positive. However, when celebrities are combined with money factors, although they are still significantly related to the number of likes, comments and shares, the coefficients all turn negative and become more significant. This shows that the combination of celebrity endorsement and money will weaken or even adversely affect the interactive effect on social media.

5. Conclusion

According to the results of regression analysis, this study found that the brand content that cooperated with celebrities on social platforms had a significant positive impact on the number of likes, comments and shares. This phenomenon can be explained by social identity theorem. The social identity theorem points out that celebrity endorsement may affect fans' choice and attitude in advertising and marketing. When fans interact on social platforms, they often shape their social identity according to their star status. This kind of recognition makes it possible for fans to trust the brand endorsed by celebrities and connect this trust with their own personality, thus enhancing the emotional connection with the brand.

Because celebrities have a huge fan base on social platforms, the social identity effect is particularly significant on this platform. Brand content with celebrity endorsements can attract fans' attention and encourage them to like, comment or share the content to express their identity with celebrities. This behavior not only helps to increase the amount of interaction, but also expands the brand's exposure and influence. Therefore, celebrity endorsement helps to enhance the brand's popularity on social platforms and attract more potential customers by increasing interaction.

However, although celebrity endorsement can significantly improve the interactive effect, the study also found that the addition of elements such as money and lottery may have a negative impact on this effect. This can be explained by the limitation of social identity effect. When advertising or brand content involves secular elements such as money or lottery, fans may feel that such content conflicts with their identity as celebrities. Specifically, fans may think that this kind of content violates the noble image represented by celebrities, thus reducing their participation and interaction with brands.

To sum up, celebrity endorsements can significantly increase the number of likes and comments on social platforms, especially in the promotion of beverage brands. Because the taste and experience of beverage products cannot be directly conveyed on social platforms, celebrity endorsement is an effective strategy to attract consumers' attention and build brand trust. However, brands should choose their content carefully when cooperating with celebrities, and avoid involving elements that may affect fans' social identity, such as money and lottery. By optimizing the brand content, the brand can not only enhance the social identity effect, but also expand its customer base and promote the development of the brand.

This study has made some empirical contributions to the existing literature. First of all, we verify the role of social identity on social platforms, especially in the field of beverage brands. Secondly, this study provides a new perspective on how to effectively use the social identity effect, especially by avoiding the use of words such as money and lottery. Finally, our research method shows the innovative application in empirical research and promotes the academic development in this field. Before finalizing the report, we think it is necessary to point out several key limitations of this study, and put forward the potential direction of future research according to these limitations. First of all, this study is mainly based on Weibo platform, and whether the conclusions are applicable to other social platforms needs further verification. Therefore, future research should be extended to other platforms in China (such as Tik Tok) and international platforms (such as Facebook and Google) to compare the similarities and differences of celebrity endorsement effects on different platforms.

Secondly, this study only selected five well-known beverage brands in China as the research object, and more brands, such as HEYTEA and Starbucks, can be considered in the future for comparative analysis. Different brands may have significant differences in market positioning, product types and target groups. For example, Starbucks and Luckin Coffee mainly focus on coffee, while other brands focus on drinks such as milk tea. Further research can analyze whether there are differences in the cooperation effects of these brands and how the social media performance of different brands affects fan interaction.

In addition, future research can consider using a longer time-span data set to further expand the data samples. Our current analysis is only based on the content from November 2023 to November 2024. In the future, we can study the content published in the past two to three years to explore the potential impact of long-term trends on brand interaction. At the same time, the influence of the combination of independent variables can be discussed. For example, if celebrities and exclamation points are included in the content at the same time, will this further increase the number of likes, comments and sharing? Will this combined effect have a greater interactive effect? Finally, efforts should be paid on solving the problem of the limitation of the effect of social identity. They should focus on whether the bad reputation of the celebrities may effect the reputation of their brands and thus losing trust. Will customers believe that the brand is as poor as the celebrities and avoid purchasing products from the brand? Even though the numbers of the likes, comments and shares are increased, the attitude of customers should be concerned. In addition, how to evaluate the benefits of cooperation with celebrities by small brands with limited resources is also a topic worthy of further exploration.

To sum up, this study shows that cooperation with celebrities can effectively attract attention on social platforms, and help to enhance the brand exposure of beverage brands and expand the customer base. Although there are some limitations that need to be further explored, the positive role of celebrity endorsement in enhancing brand awareness and interaction is obvious. Future research can verify these findings in a broader context and further enrich the theory and practice in the field of social media marketing.

Authors Contribution

All the authors contributed equally and their names were listed in alphabetical order.


References

[1]. Al Mamun, A., Naznen, F., Yang, Q., Ali, M. H., & Hashim, N. M. H. N. (2023). Modelling the significance of celebrity endorsement and consumer interest on attitude, purchase intention, and willingness to pay a premium price for green skincare products. Heliyon, 9(6), e16765.

[2]. -Porral, C., Rivaroli, S., & Orosa-González, J. (2021). The influence of celebrity endorsement on food consumption behavior. Foods, 10(9), 2224.

[3]. Calvo-Porral, C., Rivaroli, S., & Orosa-González, J. (2023). The influence of social media celebrity endorsement on beer and wine purchase behaviour. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 35(3), 390-412.

[4]. Islam, S. M. M., Kalam, A., & Akterujjaman, S. M. (2024). Momentum for organic food purchase intention and actual adoption- moderating effects of social media influencer and celebrity endorser. Food Quality and Preference, 122, 105307.

[5]. Shubin, Y., & Hu, Y. (2020). When luxury brands meet China: The effect of localized celebrity endorsements in social media marketing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 54, 102010.

[6]. Ma, H., Qin, M., Wan, J., Zhou, W., & Li, P. (2024). The study of female college students’ consumer psychology mechanism toward male celebrity endorsed products: Tempted or coerced? Heliyon, 10(9), e30401.

[7]. Jun, M., Han, J., Zhou, Z., & Eisingerich, A. B. (2023). When is celebrity endorsement effective? Exploring the role of celebrity endorsers in enhancing key brand associations. Journal of Business Research, 164, 113951.

[8]. Labrecque, L. I., & Aw, E.-C.-X. (2020). Celebrity endorsement in social media contexts: Understanding the role of parasocial interactions and the need to belong. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 37(7), 895-908.

[9]. Crespo, C. F., Ferreira, A. G., Ribeiro, F. M., & Popa, E. (2024). The Effect of Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Equity: A Cross Cultural Comparison. Journal of International Business, 20 March 2024.

[10]. Goulart-da-Silva, J., & Lopes, E. L. (2022). The effect of celebrity endorsement on omission neglect at different levels of skepticism. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 46(3), 803-817.

[11]. Zhou, Y., Ruan, W., Li, Y., Zhang, S., & Yang, T. (2024). Who should the spotlight be on? The interactive effects of celebrity endorser type and destination personality. Tourism Management, 82, 104579.


Cite this article

Yu,Z.;Zhu,X. (2025). The Effect of Beverage Brand Co-Celebrities on Social Media. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,168,45-57.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume title: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Business and Policy Studies

ISBN:978-1-83558-991-5(Print) / 978-1-83558-992-2(Online)
Editor:Canh Thien Dang
Conference website: https://2025.confbps.org/
Conference date: 20 February 2025
Series: Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
Volume number: Vol.168
ISSN:2754-1169(Print) / 2754-1177(Online)

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References

[1]. Al Mamun, A., Naznen, F., Yang, Q., Ali, M. H., & Hashim, N. M. H. N. (2023). Modelling the significance of celebrity endorsement and consumer interest on attitude, purchase intention, and willingness to pay a premium price for green skincare products. Heliyon, 9(6), e16765.

[2]. -Porral, C., Rivaroli, S., & Orosa-González, J. (2021). The influence of celebrity endorsement on food consumption behavior. Foods, 10(9), 2224.

[3]. Calvo-Porral, C., Rivaroli, S., & Orosa-González, J. (2023). The influence of social media celebrity endorsement on beer and wine purchase behaviour. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 35(3), 390-412.

[4]. Islam, S. M. M., Kalam, A., & Akterujjaman, S. M. (2024). Momentum for organic food purchase intention and actual adoption- moderating effects of social media influencer and celebrity endorser. Food Quality and Preference, 122, 105307.

[5]. Shubin, Y., & Hu, Y. (2020). When luxury brands meet China: The effect of localized celebrity endorsements in social media marketing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 54, 102010.

[6]. Ma, H., Qin, M., Wan, J., Zhou, W., & Li, P. (2024). The study of female college students’ consumer psychology mechanism toward male celebrity endorsed products: Tempted or coerced? Heliyon, 10(9), e30401.

[7]. Jun, M., Han, J., Zhou, Z., & Eisingerich, A. B. (2023). When is celebrity endorsement effective? Exploring the role of celebrity endorsers in enhancing key brand associations. Journal of Business Research, 164, 113951.

[8]. Labrecque, L. I., & Aw, E.-C.-X. (2020). Celebrity endorsement in social media contexts: Understanding the role of parasocial interactions and the need to belong. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 37(7), 895-908.

[9]. Crespo, C. F., Ferreira, A. G., Ribeiro, F. M., & Popa, E. (2024). The Effect of Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Equity: A Cross Cultural Comparison. Journal of International Business, 20 March 2024.

[10]. Goulart-da-Silva, J., & Lopes, E. L. (2022). The effect of celebrity endorsement on omission neglect at different levels of skepticism. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 46(3), 803-817.

[11]. Zhou, Y., Ruan, W., Li, Y., Zhang, S., & Yang, T. (2024). Who should the spotlight be on? The interactive effects of celebrity endorser type and destination personality. Tourism Management, 82, 104579.