Artificial Influence
Virtual influencers are on the rise— here’s why they’re here to stay and how we can build our own virtual presence in the metaverse
The concept of customisable digital avatars isn’t new—if you’ve played videogames like The Sims or joined virtual platforms like Second Life, you’re probably familiar with the mechanics of creating a character from scratch. From skin tone, body size, hair styles, wardrobe and the little facial features that make your character unique, the possibilities are endless when it comes to virtual personas.
And the same applies to the virtual influencers we see today; whether it’s a space bun-wearing 19-year-old robot living in LA, an anthropomorphic rabbit with a sense of style (and some very sharp teeth) or an animated sausage with over 4.2 million followers on Instagram, everything, given a good story, can be a virtual influencer.
But aside from being digitally programmed avatars, they function, in essence, the same as their human counterparts: they are vehicles that market an entity—be it a brand, an organisation or a product. They influence in the spheres they operate, albeit a touch different, but the end goal is still the same.
The fashion industry in particular has been leaning heavily on the use of these virtual influencers; using a myriad of computer graphics to simulate the textures of textiles in real life, the lines between the virtual and the physical have blurred and dove straight into uncanny valley with how life-like these computer programmes have gotten.
Of course, there are limitations as to how far a virtual influencer can truly interact with the real world; take skincare products for example, they can talk about it and ‘use’ it to a certain extent (read: they can be animated to do it), but they can’t market it because they aren’t real.
However, that’s not to say that we’ll disregard the potential pros of virtual influencers. For one thing, they don’t need to travel back and forth, so all the team behind this digital character needs to do is to superimpose the character onto real-world images—you can customise them depending on the narratives you craft or utilise them in many digital mediums. While it’s evident that they do provide brands some flexibility, whether or not every industry out there can utilise these virtual influencers remains to be seen.