Impact of Virtual Human Announcement Timing on Brand Affect and Trust

This study aimed to examine the impact of virtual human announcement timing on brand affect and trust. Specifically, as form realism is no longer a concern for virtual humans, we focused on behavior realism. Therefore, our study examined 433 Korean women aged between 20 and 30 years. The results revealed that announcing later that consumers are virtual humans induces a positive brand affect but diminishes trust. However, although it had a positive effect on brand affect, it was found to be not significant, only reducing brand trust to some extent. Additionally, it was found that individuals perceived the brand more positively if they were informed in advance that they were virtual humans. Contrarily, in the case of post-announcement, a more negative brand affect was observed toward stiff action. This suggests that if a company wants to create a positive brand affect through the wow effect of a post-announcement, behavior realism is required. Marketing implications were provided based on the timing of the virtual human announcement.