The influencers of the future will no longer be real people, but could be virtual personalities.
This is not the third Blade Runner film but a practice already in use by several companies, which delegate the role of "virtual influencer" for their brand to characters created in CGI (computer graphics) and animated by artificial intelligence.
Who uses virtual influencers/virtual influencers
Ikea Japan recently entrusted a girl with a red bob to promote its new store in Tokyo.
Her name is Imma and she does yoga in IKEA living rooms, cuts zucchini on IKEA cutting boards, but above all she talks and acts like a real person. Basically, she is indistinguishable from a real-life influencer.
This is not such big news for the Swedish major, if we consider that 75% of an IKEA catalogue - as the company itself reveals - consists of images created using computer graphics.
So, is the virtual influencer the definitive solution for business promotion?
It is very important to understand if it is an investment worth making. But above all: you need to understand which companies can do it today.
Virtual influencer is fine… but how much does it cost?
Like real-life influencers and testimonials, virtual influencers are not for everyone. Just look at who uses them: they are mostly clothing brands, like the Italian YOOX, which has a real virtual model - Daisy - created specifically for the brand and who wears clothes chosen by customers.
Still in French haute couture, we have Balmain, who commissioned two virtual Influencers, Margot and Zhi. Or, we have large retail chains, such as the Brazilian Magalu, which gave birth to the cordial Lu Do Magalu.
The young virtual girl does not disdain interviews with newspapers, and now has 5.1 million followers on Instagram.
In general, creating a character from scratch still has prohibitive costs for most companies, for now. To verify this, you can consult a complete list of branded virtual influencers at this link.
“Renting” a virtual influencer for your brand
However, there is an alternative possibility to creating from scratch: using already famous avatars created by others.
In fact, many virtual influencers are the creation of a collective of graphic designers or photographers, who then populate their social page with photos and videos; only later brands “rent” the virtual influencer for targeted campaigns, or interviews with product placement, and the like.
This is the case for example of Imma, whom we talked about before, a girl passionate about fashion who posts her own photos and selfies, has a strong civic conscience, goes out with friends and has 330 thousand followers on Instagram. She also makes incredibly realistic music videos on YouTube. Were these the ones that earned her the contract with IKEA?
Also on Instagram we have Lil Miquela (3 million followers), who has collaborated with Prada, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Diesel.
Is there a future for virtual influencers?
To address the budget issue, we need to start from a technological point of view, and consider the current development and diffusion of low-cost computer graphics and artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence for Business
Today, a very high number of e-commerce sites are equipped with chatbots that can analyze and process natural language and respond to customer requests for information. This is artificial intelligence, just like that of virtual assistants, our cell phones, and our home automation.
While it is prohibitive for a company to create its own branded virtual assistant, such as Alexa, Cortana, or Google, it is not prohibitive to “hire” a chatbot for its website.
3D Computer Graphics for Business
Another technology to consider is 3D computer graphics, especially CGI (computer generated images). Here too, we could see a slow and gradual reduction in costs and mass diffusion, as is already happening in cinema.
Soon software houses and agencies will be able to create the perfect influencer for every brand. And it may be impossible to distinguish him from real people.
