Recent years have seen the rise of CGI/Virtual Influencers. Lil Miquela or Miquela Sousa is one of the most popular virtual influencers who is considered a musician, change seeker, and style visionary. She was also featured in TIME magazine under the ’25 most influential people on the internet’. She has over 2M followers on Instagram, which brands use to market their products.
The Drum recently published an excellent article about the rise of virtual influencers and how brands can adapt their strategies for success. The article reports how brands also create virtual influencers to represent their products. For example, companies like Prada have branded avatars that are completely in line with the brand’s values and image. For example, Prada ‘Candy’ was imagined and relaunched this year across print, film, and social media as the digital avatar interacted with a real-life fragrance bottle. Additional brands are certain to follow this trend in future years.