A scoping review of celebrity endorsement in environmental campaigns and evidence for its effectiveness

Abstract

The use of celebrities in marketing campaigns is widespread globally, including in environmental conservation. Celebrity endorsements are pervasive, but there is limited evidence of their effectiveness. We conducted a review of celebrityendorsed environmental campaigns. We report on the extent to which celebrities have been used in these campaigns, whether evaluation of the endorsement has been conducted, and assess whether there is evidence that the celebrities achieved the objectives they set out to accomplish through their engagement. We searched the peer-reviewed and grey literature in six languages from July 2018 to January 2019 and found 79 campaigns implemented in nine countries from 1976 to 2018. Two thirds of campaigns were implemented in China and reported in Chinese. Only four campaigns were evaluated, but none of the evaluations provided evidence of the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. Evaluation focused instead on overall campaign outputs and outcomes. Claims of effectiveness were made, but the lack of measurable objectives, theory of change, outcome indicators, and critical evaluation renders it impossible to determine whether the outcomes achieved by the campaigns can be attributed to celebrity endorsement. It thus remains unclear whether celebrity endorsement can contribute to conservation efforts. It is essential for environmental practitioners and researchers to report the outcomes and lessons learned from celebrity endorsements to ensure that their future use in conservation marketing campaigns is evidence-based, thereby improving conservation practice.

Leveraging shark‐fin consumer preferences to deliver sustainable fisheries

“…Our findings corroborate previous studies suggesting that many remaining Chinese shark-fin consumers have limited concern for conservation and fisheries sustainability, and do not support the notion that these declines are due to increasing conservation concerns from consumers (Fabinyi & Liu, 2014;Fabinyi et al, 2016). Although this may seem surprising given the investments in high-profile demand-reduction campaigns over the past decade, it is consistent with recent studies on the limitations of celebrity-endorsed behavior change interventions, which may have a large reach but for which there is limited evidence of impact on behavior (Olmedo et al, 2020).…”

Trends in Digital Marketing for Biodiversity Conservation

“…The rise of influencer marketing, which focuses on individuals with a substantial online following (often on social media) who promote products and brands, has changed the way businesses communicate with consumers (Kadekova & Holienčinova, 2018). This trend is paralleled in the context of biodiversity conservation, with environmental non-government organisations, for example, increasingly relying on celebrities to make their messages heard (Olmedo et al, 2020). One aspect that, however, remains largely unexplored is the use of virtual influencers, those influencers that are based on Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) or artificial intelligence, as opposed to a real person.…”

Influencing consumer demand is vital for tackling the illegal wildlife trade

“…• There is an increasing amount of literature that points to the critical importance of trusted messengers when communicating with IWT consumer groups (Olmedo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020).…”

“…While it is possible that illegality influences social norms and supports the perception that using a given product is unacceptable (Fischer, 2004), bans also push trade underground where it is harder to monitor, and in certain contexts may create a forbidden allure around products, rendering them more attractive to some consumer groups. It is unknown the extent to which wildlife traffickers generate or stimulate demand using their own marketing activities. If they do, understanding them is critical if conservationists are to design effective counter‐marketing actions. There is an increasing amount of literature that points to the critical importance of trusted messengers when communicating with IWT consumer groups (Olmedo et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). Yet, we know very little about their comparative effectiveness and efficiency. We have limited information about the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions to manage demand for IWT products, both in terms of regulation and in terms of voluntary behaviour change (Bachmann et al., 2020; Dang Vu et al, 2020).…”