If you are thinking that Virtual Influencers or Artificially Intelligent (AI) influencers are futuristic, then you are in the wrong notion. These influencers are already making a buzz on digital platforms with millions of followers and wide viewership in their bucket.
Though they are not real humans with flesh and blood, they are giving neck-to-neck competition to their human counterparts. It’s not a recent occurrence that brands are using Virtual Figures for influencer marketing. In the year 2018, the luxury fashion brand Balmain turned to virtual influencers like Margot, Shudu & Zhi for promoting their brand.
This trend quickly caught the digital market space where other brands like KFC, Nike, Samsung, Nissin (instant ramen noodle brand), Calvin Klein etc. turned to virtual influencers for brand endorsement. And this trend didn’t just limit to brands. In 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated with Knox Frost, a 20-year-old virtual influencer from Atlanta to spread awareness about Covid-19 and also for their fundraising campaign for the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Why did Big Shot Brands turn to Artificially Intelligent Influencers?
A great marketing strategy is a key to any brand’s success and the AI-run influencers are a great catch for them. Are you still fathoming how these virtual faces can influence people in real? Let’s dig a little bit to understand this. We have to remember that behind these influencers are a group of creators who have a keen eye for technology and who understand the influencer marketing business quite well. These real creators have given their virtual creations not only bodily human features but molded their characters to dress and act like real humans. In a nutshell, these virtual humans can have all the attributes of a human, like how they talk, interact, dress and carry their personalities.
Virtual Influencers & NFTs – Multi-Dollar Industries
Made of algorithms, these AI influencers may not have a real-world physical existence, but they certainly have a real and loyal fanbase. It may sound quite unbelievable, but they do have millions of followers and subscribers on their social profiles like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Lu Do Magalu, Lil Miquela, Barbie, Shudu Gram, Guggimon and a lot of other AI-run digital creators have taken the internet by storm and also bagged huge endorsement deals from billion-dollar brands. Brands like Prada have introduced their computer-generated muse ‘Candy’ to promote an eponymous fragrance collection. This campaign was quite successful in targeting the younger demographic and creating digital interaction. Quite unbelievable, but luxury brands are also doing million-dollar business by selling stuff online to real people, and the irony is that the buyers can never have or wear those in real as all these are virtual entities. A British start-up called “The Dematerialised” sells nothing but digital luxury as NFT (Non-Fungible Token) and does million-dollar business every year.
AI Influencers – The Strength & The Possibilities
The core strength or differentiating factor that let these AI-run personas stand apart is their perfection, which is almost impossible to get in terms of real human influencers. Secondly, these digital characters can be created from scratch and thus they can have any characteristic or can present any story with the narrative and style that their clients want. They even can be given a non-human appearance, like mascots. Hence, the brands can take advantage of this to mold the digital marketing campaigns that let them stay different from the competition. Let’s have a look at how do the brands can leverage the power of this new technology for their benefit:
Engagement & Awareness
This era of information abundance is putting a challenge before the marketers as to how to determine the best channel for influencing their target audience. However, social media has turned out to be a potent platform for engagement and awareness because of the total of active users they have. According to the “Jamika Manajemen Informatika” journal, the global influencer marketing industry has seen exponential growth from 4.6 billion Dollars in 2018 to 13.8 billion Dollars in 2021. And in this billion-dollar industry, the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) based virtual influencers have offered new growth prospects. The immense popularity of virtual figures is evidence of the fact that they can engage people in many ways possible. And as a result, it opens up a completely new social media marketing ballgame where brands can develop relationships with their target groups and trigger engaged conversations.
Freedom of Narrating the Brand Story
As these influencers are not real human beings, there are immense possibilities for brands to fully customize their narrative for running campaigns on social media networks. Everything can be customized according to the wish of the clients or the brands, as long as it resonates with the personality of that AI character.
Connection with the Alpha Generation
For millennials and gen-z, the artificially intelligent figures might still be an unfamiliar phenomenon, but the Alpha Generation, born as of 2010, can connect with the new age technology more naturally and emotionally as they are growing up in this digital era. The technology industry is leveraging this familiarity of the Alpha generation with the digital world to build an ecosystem where technology will drive the users to make better buying decisions in the near future.
From Fantasy to Reality
Human influencers have limits; on the contrary, virtual influencers can transport the viewers to a fantasyland with visuals and graphics that resemble reality. That means, with these digital figures, the brands can tell their story the way they want. For example, if Tesla wishes to show people how it would be to live in space, they can easily do that with virtual figures, which is almost impossible with human influencers. These AI-run figures are tailor-made to tell any story with the most engaging elements and thus have better power to achieve the brand’s objective.
Wrap Up
To sum up, we can say that virtual influencers are here to open up a new horizon of digital marketing and brand endorsement. They can spark genuine interest and engaging conversations among the customers and the brands because their possibilities are limitless. They are here to transform the relationship between humans and robots with the support of advanced technology. So, from now on stop thinking of these digital figures are non-real, because they may not have a real physical existence, but they do exist in social media marketing strategies and influence the lives of millions across the globe.
