Have you ever heard of Lil Miquela or Lu do Magalu? These are influencers who inspire millions, but they differ significantly from ordinary influencers in one thing: they exist purely virtually. This means that they are not real people, but avatars that have been created artificially and have an important mission: to increase the reach and engagement rate of companies. Virtual influencers also bring brands closer to the metaverse phenomenon.
What are virtual influencers?
The new faces of influencer marketing are computer-created fictional characters. They are fully programmed and consist solely of algorithms and pixels. However, they have one thing in common with real influencers: they inspire the masses, set trends and are absolutely in vogue. Plus, they have their own personalities, hobbies, and facial features. They interact with their followers and live lives worthy of a flesh-and-blood influencer. They cultivate relationships, walk dogs, eat junk food, and take selfies. They get emotional and write things like, “I was angry that the people I love the most lied to me. Angry that I had to fight to be accepted for who I am.”
The most successful virtual influencers of 2022
Take Lil Miquela, for example, a 19-year-old digital personality who, according to the narrative, lives in sunny Los Angeles, attends high-society parties and shares his daily life with other virtual friends, such as Blawko22. Lil Miquela is not only an influencer, but also a pop singer, activist and style icon.
Lil Miquela has her finger on the pulse, her songs have been streamed more than 60 million times. The virtual influencer has even created his own metaverse called Villa M, where the Miqaliens come together to play, explore, share stories, and get away from it all. She has been named “The Most Influential Person on the Internet” by Time Magazine. And rightly so: after all, she has a whopping 2.9 million Instagram followers, making her the second most successful virtual influencer of 2022 according to HypeAuditor and VirtualHumans.org.
Only Lu do Magalu from Brazilian magazine Luiza was more successful with six million followers. Third place goes to Barbie, who has 2.2 million Instagram followers.
The best-known German virtual influencer is Noonoouri. The digital native from Munich occupies the last place in the top 10 most successful virtual influencers, has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and has already worked with some big fashion brands such as Versace and Marc Jacobs.
Companies make the 3D character the way they like it
Lil Miquela was founded in 2016 by Brud, a California startup, with the aim of promoting the company’s products. Unlike real influencers, Miquela has the advantage that she does not age and thus remains loyal to her target group. In his case it is above all Generation Z, for which it will most likely still be of interest in the next five years. And if the target group changes, Lil Miquela will change too. Or customized.
Another “advantage” of virtual influencers: they behave as their creators want. They do exactly what they were programmed to do and will never refuse to do what they are asked to do.
From time to time, virtual influencers become “foreigners” – to collaborate with other companies. With her perfect face, Lil Miquela sometimes models for Prada or Burberry, for example. She was even allowed to kiss supermodel Bella Hadid for Calvin Klein’s “I Speak My Truth.”
The campaign was not well received, however, and drew negative criticism on social media after the company was accused of marketing a notoriously straight person like Bella Hadid in a queer role for attention. Calvin Klein apologized and wrote in a Twitter post: “We must acknowledge that by portraying a model kissing a same-sex person despite identifying as straight, this depiction could be construed as ‘queerbaiting.’ As a company with a long story advocacy for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, it was absolutely not our intention to misrepresent the LGBTQ+ community. We are sorry to have caused you any problems with our decision.
Whether there really was a calculation behind the announcement cannot be said. One thing is certain: the campaign has caused enough turbulence to achieve the most important goal: generating reach.
Why do people follow virtual characters?
A survey by The Influencer Marketing Factory found that 58% of respondents follow at least one virtual influencer, and 75% of 18-year-olds follow them. Content (26.6 percent), storytelling (18.6 percent), and music (15.5 percent) were cited as the most common reasons for interest. 15.5 percent even said virtual influencers would inspire them. Furthermore, in 2022, a whopping 35% of consumers will have purchased a product or service advertised by virtual influencers. Of these, 40% of all buyers belonged to the Gen Z or Millennial group.
Avatars do not involve staff or travel expenses
The biggest advantage for companies of working with virtual influencers over human ones is that they don’t ask for payment. You will also be able to travel the world without estimating travel expenses. So whatever brands earn from avatars goes into their pockets.
On the one hand, brands can enter into partnerships with existing profiles – here companies use the same advantages as well-known influencer marketing: They benefit from the already high reach and awareness of influencers. On the other hand, companies can create their own virtual influencers and thus create the perfect brand ambassadors.
Virtual influencers are especially popular in the US and Brazil, but they also have a large following in Asia. According to Kolsquare.com, the virtual influencer market in China will grow from $15.5 million in 2018 to over €200 million in 2023. The Corona pandemic has only increased the use of these influencers. Also, according to Kolsquare.com, virtual influencers get three times higher engagement rates than real influencers. When you also consider the dynamics of a metaverse and the importance of virtual avatars, it’s hard to imagine a future without virtual influencers.
Disadvantages: lack of transparency, artificiality and perfectionism
The downside of virtual influencers, however, is that followers can never tell for sure who is behind them. Furthermore, there is no room for truth or authenticity, because with virtual influencers everything is artificial and fictitious.
Also very great is the danger that followers constantly confront themselves with the perfect world of influencers and try to emulate them. As technology advances and more and more ways to program virtual influencers, the lines between reality and computer-generated reality are likely to become increasingly blurred. Whether they will eventually disappear entirely remains to be seen.
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