: The Birth, The Pull & The Rise Of Virtual Influencers… #IndiaNEWS #Experts Speak Be it Fentys Shudu Gram or Pradas Candy, virtual influencers are catching up fast with their human counterparts.

The Birth, The Pull & The Rise Of Virtual Influencers… #IndiaNEWS #Experts Speak
Be it Fentys Shudu Gram or Pradas Candy, virtual influencers are catching up fast with their human counterparts. Ankit Agarwal of Do Your Thng speaks about the rise of virtual influencers and what their future looks like, as brands increase spends on this front.

According to Wikipedia, a virtual influencer can be a virtual persona or model. It is a computer-generated fictional character that can be used for marketing, but most frequently for social media marketing, in lieu of human influencers.

Virtual influencers prove that sometimes the real deal is not better.

Captivating consumers through their digital and narrative-led personas, they can generate 3 times the engagement of a human influencer, according to HypeAuditor.

A brainchild of artists and tech companies, virtual influencers are fictitious characters with partially or wholly artificial appearances. Their forms can differ, be more human-like Lil Miquela, who was created by Brud, a transmedia studio, or more animalistic. But all of them come to life through storytelling.

The Birth Of Virtual Influencers

The first brands to embrace virtual influencers as a trend were luxury fashion brands. In 2018, Balmain used virtual models Margot, Shudu, and Zhi for its fashion army. Fenty Beauty campaigned with Shudu Gram, who now has 231k followers. Lil Miquela, a perpetual 19-year-old with 3 million followers, took over Prada’s Instagram for Milan Fashion Week.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shudu (@shudu. gram)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Miquela (@lilmiquela)

After that, the floodgates opened. Other brands and businesses quickly followed suit. KFC introduced the CGI model, Colonel Sanders. Nike, Samsung, and Calvin Klein partnered with Lil Miquela. Nissin, the instant ramen noodle brand, collaborated with Kizuna AI, a virtual YouTuber.

The World Health Organisation collaborated with Knox Frost, a 21-year-old AI, to spread awareness of COVID. India created its first virtual influencer, Nila. Puma launched Maya to advertise their Future Rider sneaker line in Southeast Asia.

The Pull Of Virtual Influencers

Gartner predicts that by the time 2025 rolls around, 30% of influencer marketing budgets will be allocated to virtual influencers. Once marketers wrap their heads around the concept of computer-generated imagery (or rather, influencers), the draw is crystal clear.

Also Read: How to merge influencer marketing & remarketing techniques for maximum conversions

Novelty is the obvious pull, but creativity is not far behind

There are limits to how brands can collaborate with human influencers because they are hesitant to give over the reins of creativity to a third party.