Virtual Influencers- new best way of marketing?

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You are probably aware that influencers these days play a significant role in marketing. They can promote your products by adding photos on their social medias or by showing with them publicly. It really does work, but on the other hand big companies can’t control what a public person is doing. What if an influencer gets embroiled in a scandal? It can ruin brand’s reputation.

That is why, to eliminate potential risks, companies started to use virtual influencers. They are defined as non-human online celebrities and are created by many digital artists. The main companies, which dominate this growing industry are Brud in California and ModelingCafe in Japan. 

 

Lil Miquela

The most popular computer generated image (CGI) influencer is Lil Miquela, which was created by Brud in 2016. Now, with 1,7 million followers on Instagram, she became a great marketing tool. Her posts are full of emotions, she even has a real boyfriend and best friends, which were created by the same company. Furthermore you can listen to her music on Spotify or watch her videos on YouTube.

 

You can follow her on Instagram at @lilmiquela.

 

Shudu

Created by photographer and 3D artist Cameron-James Wilson, Shudu is considered as a first digital supermodel. You can easily mistake her with a real human, because of her fashion campaigns. She can be spotted in photo sessions from all around the world. She worked for brands like Tiffany&Co or Fenty Beauty, but she is most known from Balmain’s Virtual Army.

You can follow her on Instagram at @shudu.gram.

 

Imma

Imma is a Japanese virtual influencer, created by ModelingCafe in 2018. What differs her from other artificial ‚colleagues’ is that her 3D animated head is transposed into the real body and background. 

You can follow her on Instagram at @imma.gram.

 

When it comes to influencers, the most important things are trust and realness. Are artificial influencers willing to give that to the audience? How can they connect with people if they do not feel anything, they do not have emotions? Their posts might sound real, but everyone knows that they are written by someone else.

Isn’t it to much? Maybe we don’t need to substitute humans in every field? Maybe in some business areas we are just better as real human beings? 

 

References:

https://itp.live/content/5994-cgi-virtual-influencers-2019

https://interestingengineering.com/9-virtual-influencers-taking-over-the-internet

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/virtual-influencers 

 

One thought on “Virtual Influencers- new best way of marketing?

  1. Nedilenko Oleksandra says:

    I guess these models are the great way to avoid various conflicts and loosing reputation among consumers for the company. However, it is a great way to lose trust too. I would never rely on “robot’s” opinion, as well it’s all sponsored and falsified. By the way, real bloggers can say their own thoughts and it doesn’t matter were they paid or not. It matters to see the SOUL in the person, who advertises us the product. In this way, it is impossible. So, perhaps, I would say as a orthodox, but traditional ways of presenting new products to audience are much better)

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