Competent Singles and Warm Teams: The Congruence Effect of Endorser Type and Advertising Appeal in Sport Advertising Communication

Athlete endorsement is a widely used strategy in marketing, yet little is known about how the design of advertisements should vary depending on whether the endorser is a single athlete or a sports team. Drawing on meaning transfer theory and processing fluency theory, we propose the congruence effect between endorser type (single athlete vs. sports team) and advertising appeal (competent vs. warm) on brand attitude. Specifically, single-athlete endorsements align more congruently with competent appeals, while sports-team endorsements align more congruently with warm appeals. This congruence effect is mediated by processing fluency and moderated by consumers’ thinking styles—it is more pronounced among holistic thinkers than analytic thinkers. We conducted four studies to test our hypotheses and found convergent support. Our findings contribute to the literature on advertising communication and brand endorsement, and offer actionable guidance for marketers on tailoring advertising appeals to endorser types to maximize impact.