For today's blog post, I initially sat down to write about the future of influencer marketing. After a few minutes of research on the latter, I quickly slipped into a deep hole on the internet. This is when I found the term "digital or CGI (computer generated imagery) influencer". I recalled following Noonoouri on Instagram a couple years back, but never gave her persona a second thought.
Source: Bermuda's Instagram, Miquela's Instagram, Blawko22's Instagram
Who or what is a CGI/Digital influencer?
Present on social media channels, a digital influencer is a CGI who looks and acts like humans so effectively (but isn't human), that she/he has a massive following and an engaged fan base. A CGI influencer seems so realistic that 42% of the people who were following a digital Instagrammer didn't realize it wasn't a real person, according to Fullscreen's study, Can CGI influencers have real influence? Using a digital influencer not only creates buzz but also creates real impact, as is supported by the data from the same Fullscreen study -
53% of the survey respondents followed a brand and 55% made a purchase after engaging with a digital influencer.
Expert thoughts and opinions
Jamie Love, the CEO and founder of Monumental Marketing - Working with a digital influencer ensures that the human errors (like getting the posting time wrong, etc) can be eliminated and "allows you to be more direct with expectations and have more control over the campaign"
Brandon Relph, brand consultant - With the advancement of technology, digital influencers won't be unique; they will become "quite easy to replicate".
Buzz Carter, digital marketer at Bulldog Digital Media - Similar to Jamie Love's point, Carter believes that executing campaigns will become easier for brands because "CGI influencers don't have to be flown out for photoshoots with their hair and makeup stylists"
Hayley Smith, owner of Boxed Out PR - CGI influencers' edge over real influencers is that they are fascinating to a large audience, opposed to the latter that usually can only cater to a targeted audience. Here's where the appeal lies: "for older generations, they offer nostalgia" (remember the SIMs?) and "for younger generations, they dazzle us with the future of technology".
@Lil Miquela: Most popular CGI influencer with 2.3M followers on the Gram
While there are a couple other digital influencers like Shudu, Blawko, Lil Wavi, and Bermuda, I'm especially intrigued about Miquela and scoured the internet to learn more about her. She has an entire backstory like any other real human would (more on this in the next section). The innovative creation of the rather secretive LA robotics and artificial intelligence startup Brud, Miquela is a young Brazillian American virtual persona. Not much is known about the company or about this project that began in 2016, except from the names of the creators - Trevor McFredries and Sara DeCou. Sequoia Capital backs Brud, and the company apparently has BoxGroup and SV Angel as its investors too, according to Tech Crunch.
Instagram handle hack - Brud's Marketing stunt?
For the longest time, Miquela's comments were filled with questions about her identity and whether she was real or a robot. Bermuda, a pro-Trump CGI influencer who joined IG six months after Miquela, hacked into Miquela's IG account and blackmailed her into telling the followers the truth, after which Miquela announced that she is "not a human" through a post. While this reveal didn't come as a surprise as most people had guessed that she wasn't real, this social media scandal generated more buzz around the topic of virtual influencers. It is conspired that Miquela and Bermuda were both created by Brud and that this was just the company's marketing strategy to garner attention.
Source: Instagram
Miquela's online human-esque persona makes us like her
YouTube: Apart from her Instagram, Miquela is active on Youtube and Spotify because she makes confessional videos and music. As a part of the former series, she narrates personal stories which is very common on Youtube. Like other human influencers on YT, she zooms into her face and adds slang text and memes on the video for a comical effect. It gets especially creepy when she says speaks as though she's a real human - "I've had a lot on my mind" and "I've been meaning to talk to someone lately". She (supposedly) experiences human emotions and discusses it like one. Her relatability factor is so high because she talks about Bubble Tea, third-wheeling, Euphoria (the TV show), and the struggle of "Postmating way too much sushi" It's easy to forget for a second that she isn't real - she isn't one of us.
Comment section: On Youtube, a lot of the viewers are confused. From "what is going on I feel like the entire world is playing a joke on me" to "I mean this is totally weird but she's chill". But on the other hand, she receives a lot of love. "Why do I related to this cute robot girl so much?" and "I like how a robot has more personality than real people". On Instagram, her followers adore her as she receives plenty fire, heart, and heart-eyed emojis. She uses pop-culture references and a casual, friendly tone in her captions ("whateverth day of quarantine we are on", "can we all just agree that April Fools 2020 is cancelled?) that make her so easy to like and connect with, so human-like.
Source: Zach Sang Show on Youtube Video
Collaborations: I could write an entire article on just her (paid?) partnerships, but here is the abridged version. She has collaborated with popular model Bella Hadid for a short Calvin Klein video, interviewed J Baldwin and King Princess for Coachella 2019, and celebrated self-love with tattoo artist Soto Gang. Miquela videos look so real and believable, with her standing next to these pop-culture stars in these videos thanks to high-tech software. On the Zach Sang show, she declares that Brud programmed her to "have a human level of consciousness" and says that she has had an actual childhood and has memories of her family. Another example of her mimicking human behavior and lifestyle is her belief that "love is for everybody" and her song Money, which is based on the emotions one feels when he/she is at their "high moment of relationships". She even talks about being a Taurus, like a millennial talking excitedly about horoscope - can this get any stranger?
Is there some social commentary embedded in all of this?
Since most people initially asked if Miquela was real, in her interview she acknowledged that everyone on Instagram uses some type of filter or editing software/app, and most people don't look like their real selves - so how can one really ask her if she is real? In the broader scheme of things, this is, in some twisted sense, a reflection of how our generation functions - be it the rise in photo editing options or getting enhancements for our body.
Buzz Carter also believes that this CGI influencer culture is "a satire of social media and 'fake it till you make it' culture".
Did Brud create Miquela to prove a point that any human (in this case a CGI who thinks that she's human), who looks flawless, like most popular Instagrammers do, and connects with the audience through trendy references can build a fan base? I think that we accept Miquela because she fits in the ideal or "perfect" beauty mould and intrigues us - she is able to hold our attention for more than a few seconds, which is an achievement considering the declining attention span of humans, thanks to all the digital clutter.
Miquela has really stood out to brands like Prada, collaborated on merchandise launch with Ambush and Highsociety because she appeals to the millennial and Gen-Z females. The latter "are fascinated by her and so she’s a good source for brands" says Ryan Deterst, CEO Influential. She even ranked on Time's 25 most influential people in 2018. Is she taking up the moment of fame and success of another human who could've been on this list?
She has connected and engaged with a wide community by standing up for causes (she has a donation link for a Covid-relief fund and "change seeker" in her Instagram bio) and opened dialogue about the LGBTQ community by hinting at being a part of it. She, however, created an vlog (now deleted) about her sexual harassment experience in a ride sharing cab, which faced a lot of backlash - because her story (obviously not real, because she isn't real) trivialized and triggered the real experiences of many people watching her video. There's a hard line between narrating fictional stories about breakups and love that resembles the viewers' life experiences and talking about fictional-real issues that have no consequences.
The buzz around the virtual creators has fizzed out a little as compared to last year. Will brands continue to use these digital influencers in their campaigns because they don't need to follow the same regulations that need to with humans? (like adding #ad or tagging Paid Promotion on IG). Will brands create their own virtual influencers to appeal to their target audience? If this industry gets more dense in the future, the novelty will definitely die down.
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