Virtual Influencers in India: Impact of Unreal on Real

We are pretty sure that you watched movies like “Ready Player One” or “Blade Runner 2049”, and were left in awe because of their futuristic vision.

So how was it different from a normal movie? The content of the movie highlighted various extrapolations of many contemporary elements like Augmented reality, Virtual Reality, Metaverse, Web3, Virtual Influencers, Artificial Intelligence, etc.?

Like in the ‘Ready Player One’, you will experience a whole new level of AR/VR, in ‘Her’ you can experience how an AI can adapt and evolve. As we are slowly and steadily progressing towards the future, these elements will evolve and shape our destinations.?

In the digital industry, the metaverse is the next iteration of the internet; and Web3 is bound to direct us into a decentralized future where we will get more personalised space and high data security and it is guiding many futuristic trends.?

One of the emerging trends is Virtual influencers. Virtual influencer’s popularity is bullish and Social media users are following them because of their similar inherent traits and public personas.????????????

Before we proceed further, Let’s unravel the virtual influencers of various social media platforms and all related aspects of it in a more detailed fashion.

The Digital Trendsetters of Our Parallel World - Virtual Influencers

Virtual influencers are computer-generated characters. Who is designed to engage and interact with audiences on social media platforms? The digital personas of virtual influencers are created using modern and sophisticated technologies, like animation, artificial intelligence, and 3D modeling.

In simple words, they are the visual representation of our ingenious mind and ability to blow life into something extraordinary. A rather intangible but the computer-generated and the visual elements are congruently perceptible.?

Virtual influencers are getting a lot of attention globally because of their human-like appearance and social consciousness. They have been crafted with the notion of a ‘Human-Like persona’ and they can express themselves, and talk about various things that can range from personal use items to global-relevant topics and trends.?

The History of Virtual Influencers

The history of virtual influencers goes back to 2003 when in Brazil, Lu Do Magalu was introduced as a virtual mascot to represent local e-commerce sites. In 2009, her developers launched her own YouTube channel. Across social media platforms, now she has more than 30 million followers.?

For Instance, bee_nfluencer talks about the importance of bees, on the other hand,? Quiteria Jesus, the Brazilian virtual influencer promotes body positivity.?

The trends have opened an avenue of opportunities for influence marketing. Brands are partnering with virtual influencers who are acting as brand virtual agents. Let's check out some of the virtual influencers and their performances.??

Virtual Universe's Trendiest and Influential Personas and their collaborations on Instagram:?

These virtual influencers have already started working with brands, as we can see them with their respective associated brands.?

The phenomenon is getting accelerated and the craze of virtual influencers has become very evident. Now, in 2024 there are many virtual influencers and they are getting mainstreamed.? Various brands are racing towards collaborating, if not partnering for the long term for their promotional activities with virtual influencers.

Let’s delve into how brands are incorporating virtual influencers into their marketing segments and opportunities.?

How to use Virtual Influencers for Promotions:

Vision Alignment:

Virtual influencers offer a very futuristic and unique approach to marketing. Brands can utilize them to create highly curated and harmonized content as per the brand’s vision, objectives, and requirements.?

The notion of using virtual influencers for your brand can attract magnanimous attention, brand chatter, and buzz, and spiked curiosity around the brand.?

For instance, the Automobile brand MINI collaborated with Miquela (VI) to promote the brand. The campaign garnered 695K views with more than 31.8K likes.

Audience Engagement:

Virtual influencers can function round the clock with any pause. They can provide engaging content, interact with the audience in real-time, make followers feel more valued, etc. All these small but consistent efforts will boost the engagement to newer heights.??

The fantasy element associated with virtual influencers often resonates with younger demographics, who find the digital, otherworldly persona appealing.

For Instance, Barbie is a Virtual influencer on Instagram. During the launch of Brabie: The movie, the VI actively promoted the movie and generated massive engagement through numerous campaigns. Like 818K views through one post, another 76.2K in another post, and so on.

Desired Personas Through Innovation:

Virtual influencers are our tools to stretch our imaginations and inculcate limitless creativity, innovate our offerings, and broaden our storytelling efforts.?

Brands planning to work with virtual influencers can showcase and experiment with content and narrative and exceed limits that are not humanly possible or are highly challenging in nature for the real world.

Cost Efficiency:

The initial investment of developing a virtual influencer is high but already taken care of. Brands can easily collaborate with virtual influencers for promotions or endorsements. They can be easily hired and maintained at a lower cost as compared to human influencers.

Diverse Paths That Brands Can Integrate Virtual Influencers in Influencer Marketing:

How brands are using permanent brand ambassadorship:

Brands who think long-term can integrate virtual influencers into their overall persona and brand persona harmonization. They are highly sustainable, efficient, and consistent in promoting products, engaging audiences, and preaching brand values.

How Virtual Influencers are Doing Product Launches:

Virtual influencers offer a massive shroud of curiosity, excitement, and anticipation around the brand and the brand’s products & services. Virtual influencers are capable of weaving exclusive and engaging content with superlative storytelling.?

How Virtual Influencers Can Be Used For Social Causes and Campaigns:

Virtual influencers like bee_nfluencer are very vocal about bees and environmental issues, Barbie supported Black Lives Matter, etc. Virtual influencers hold great promise in advocating social causes, raising awareness, and helping in funding with a consistent voice and tone.

How to Get Global Reach With Virtual Influencers:

Virtual influencers are not constrained by geographical limitations. They have a far and wide follower base. Global audience appeal makes them very suitable for global brands that are diverse in their offerings.?

How To Target Niche Audiences:

Virtual influencers can be easily utilized to curate specific content, consistent brand voice, and targeted messages for specific audiences. It will allow brands to easily connect with the right audience segments that are necessary for the brand's growth.?

How to Create Personalised Responses:

As stated above, Virtual influencers are active round-the-clock. They can interact with the audience in real-time and provide a very personalized response to every follower.

Virtual influencers can also create contests, quizzes, and various engagement-driven campaigns to increase audience penetration.

Real-Life Case Studies of Virtual Influencers and Brands

Lil Miquela and BMW: Make It Real

Lil Miquela, one of the most recognized and appreciated virtual influencers, collaborated with BMW in the “Make it Real” campaign. The campaign involved Lil Miquela driving the latest BMW iX2 in an Instagram reel. The promotion narrative talks about the “Wildest dreams, imaginations, etc. to become all real”. The campaign cleverly integrated the most advanced and futuristic features of the car with one of the most advanced virtual influencers and charted out a very harmonized brand message.?

Overall, the campaign was a huge success. More than 1.5M audience viewed the post, around 40K likes, and numerous comments.

2. American? Tourister India and Kyra: Born To Cross Boundaries

American Tourister India, collaborated with India’s first virtual influencer, Kyra in the “Born to Cross Boundaries”. Kyra crafted a short reel where she showcased various places with American Tourister Products.?

The campaign is a massive hit. The Instagram reels were viewed more than 22.4M times with more than 53K likes and numerous comments and shares.

Way Forward

Virtual Influencers are the epitome of creativity in the human mind. An element that a machine can never replace. But Humans and Virtual Influencers can go hand in hand. Brands can utilize this creativity to be directly associated with them. They can go for a long-term relationship or can use them for once or for a few posts based on their requirements.?

We at Grynow excel at creating strategy and influencer campaigns. Brands can use our services and can easily integrate themselves with virtual influencers. We can provide value addition to your brand and can create high authentic campaigns.

An Article by: Ashish Mishra and Nisha P.