Sports celebrities and advertising on Instagram: a case study of brand sponsorship in Spain

PurposeThe aim of this paper, which analyses the use of sports celebrities in advertising discourse, is to understand the strategic use to which brands put them in their commercial and corporate communication on Instagram.Design/methodology/approachTo this end, a content analysis was performed on the Instagram posts of the brands Santander, Movistar, Red Bull and Iberdrola during the period 2021-2022.FindingsThe results indicate that, strategically speaking, these brands use the celebrity endorsement strategy to pursue emotional objectives and to adopt a position depending on the type of user. Likewise, these findings show that they single out uniqueness as the principal celebrity characteristic, while also mainly leveraging sports values, especially competence. These values represented by sports celebrities are markedly social in nature, which implies that they enjoy a degree of public recognition that is transferred to the brand to which they lend their image.Research limitations/implicationsThe conclusions connect celebrity endorsers with strategic branding issues and aspects of sports.Originality/valueAn empirical approach is followed here to study the representation of sports celebrities in the advertising of well-known brands linked to the sports world.