Answers to the key questions
Today, virtual influencers are similar to the first bloggers who appeared 20 years ago when the internet was gaining popularity. Nobody could have predicted how digital consumption would alter our lives. The same is true for virtual influencers. They haven’t been around for long, but millions of people and thousands of brands are already on board. Of course, virtual models and artificial intelligence will impact influencer marketing and our daily lives.
Let’s investigate who generates virtual influencers and why. What is the price? What benefits do virtual models offer? Why not fully disregard the classics?
According to Bloomberg, a 19-year-old robot from Los Angeles reportedly made $8,500 for one Instagram advertisement in 2020. Welcome, Lil Miquela, the robot. The Brud marketing firm established Miquela. OnBuy, a British trading site, predicted that Miquela would make roughly $11 million in 2020.
Another example is Lu do Magalu, who has nearly six million Instagram followers. She does product reviews and unboxing videos.
Magalu earned $552 million in 2019.
Who creates this?
Brands and creative agencies create influencers. Typically, large group of 3D artists create the digital personality. The cost is as little as $10,000 to draw a 3D model. First, however, you need a group of content producers who will “live” with a model in order to animate a virtual influencer. But at the same time they can be one of the highest paid influencers on the internet.
The key challenge is not sketching but instead coming up with a plot and developing characters that engage readers and draw attention to a brand. For instance, the virtual modeling agency, The Digitals, showcases several virtual supermodels who work with fashion labels simultaneously.
Another method for brands to create their own virtual ambassadors exists. Renault is one company that used this strategy. In 2019, the Renault Kadjar crossover was represented by the virtual model Liv.
However, the advertisement fell short of its full promise. Perhaps it was because it was made a little too soon. Virtual influencers are only now beginning to infiltrate the European influencer market three years later. Asia, however, has quite a different scenario.
The audience in China is 390 million
Bloomberg reports that the Chinese market for virtual influencers has increased by 70% since 2017 and will reach $960 million by 2021. Their primarily millennial and Gen Z audiences currently number close to 390 million.
The only thing the top three virtual influencers in China have in common is their fans’ adoration. For example, on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, the anime character Luo Tianyi has more than five million followers.
Ayayi is a model who has a beautiful graphic drawing. In some scenes, it would be difficult to tell her apart from a real person. She does not have many Instagram followers, but she has already worked with well-known companies like Louis Vuitton.
2020 saw the creation of the virtual model Angie. “Imperfection” is a primary trait of it. According to its creator and director of a Shenzhen-based CGI animation firm, Jesse Zhang, “Her traits and details all have a touch of this ‘real-life’ sense.”
Angie has more than 300,000 fans on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. But, her creator hasn’t yet profited from brand collaborations. In general, virtual idols can be less expensive than real-life celebrities. However, top virtual models can be highly expensive to hire too. According to Hong Kong-based marketing specialist and brand consultant Miro Li, just one shout-out by a prominent virtual influencer during a live stream might cost up to $140,000.
What important individuals make up the virtual influencer team?
Rozy.gram[SG1] , a 21-year-old model, is the first Korean virtual influencer, with over 100K Instagram followers.
According to local media, rozy.gram has already run more than 100 advertisements and is expected to earn more than one billion Korean won by 2021. Of course, not by her, but by Sidus Studio X, which promotes rozy.gram.
Rozy.gram isn’t just for Instagram. The advertisement for the Korean insurance company Shinhan Life, which featured the virtual model, has been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube. “These days, celebrities are sometimes pulled from dramas they were filming due to school violence scandals or bullying controversies. Virtual humans, on the other hand, have no scandals to worry about,” said CEO Sidus Studio X Baek Seung-Yeop. According to the company’s CEO, a team of about ten people creates the content. It takes two to three days to complete the content, depending on the scene’s complexity. Young people create the majority of the content. The team is the same age as rozy.gram —all members of Generation Z. “I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over so that I can meet up with my friends again. Being a virtual human, I can visit any place, but it’s not fun to be alone all the time,” rozy.gram said.
The plans of the model and her creators are not limited to Influencer Marketing. Perhaps she will appear in films or television series in the future. Given the success of “The Squid Game,” rozy.gram has a good chance of taking over the world.
Are virtual influencers more effective than real ones?
Virtual influencers may outperform real influencers when comparing HypeAuditor’s reports over the last three years. For example, virtual influencers have nearly three times the engagement rates of real influencers.
Women between 18 and 34 make up most of the virtual influencers’ audience (44.76%). However, there are also many younger people (14.64%) between 13 and 17. This is twice as many young people as the typical influencer, whose young audience makes up only 7% of their entire audience on average.
Let’s also take note of the optimistic expert predictions for Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta cosmos, which may be the ideal setting for online influencers. “Zuckerberg is establishing a new location for communication in the metaverse,” Moriya Takayuki, CEO of Aww Inc., the company that created Imma.Gram stated. “Our virtual persons will become something that people will unavoidably require in the metaverse.”
Uncanny Valley: What is it?
Finally, let’s be clear that there are drawbacks to using virtual influencers. And it goes beyond the time spent creating the material. Since virtual influencers are a relatively new phenomenon, some people may experience anxiety if they come into contact with them in real life. Uncanny Valley is a moniker for this phenomenon. When someone encounters a virtual twin, they experience anxiety and discomfort.
Virtual content may eventually bear particular labels, for example, 18+ on movie posters. But for now, we’re working on developing influencer marketing with nearby[SG2] virtual influencers
