[Dive #37] Virtual Influencers

Human Influencers

We all know what influencers are. With the proliferation of social media came the proliferation of influencers for every topic imaginable and on every platform. Those that were already famous automatically became influencers as well — athletes, actors, musicians, you name it.

I’ve never been crazy about influencers but I have like 3 newsletter subscribers (all of which are my alt e-mails) so I’m an influencer too I guess 😂

Cristiano Ronaldo, world-famous footballer and the most followed Instagram account that’s not Instagram

Influencers have not only become a source of entertainment and inspiration, but they have become a massive channel for advertising. Why?

They’re more ‘organic’: When a company makes posts, you usually think ADVERTISEMENT. When you see an influencer talk about a product, it’s more natural, has more personality, and
There’s inherent trust: Followers have built a relationship with the influencer over time and therefore are view them as more trustworthy.
Convenient way to reach a new audience: As long as the advertiser has the budget, they can easily reach thousands or millions of new prospective customers.

Put that all together and you get a marketing effort that’s another tool in the Marketing toolbox. Companies and brands need to continually diversify the the channels and strategies in which they advertise and influencers help with that.

But what if you’re a small company that doesn’t have the budget to work with Kylie Jenner (343 million Instagram followers)? What if the influencer(s) you work with improperly represent your product? What if you work in a boring space like insurance?

Brand Influencers

Recognize this character?

For those that don’t, it’s the GEICO Gecko, famous for appearing in GEICO TV commercials since 2000.

Why would GEICO create a character vs. partnering with someone famous like Oprah Winfrey for insurance? In one word: Composability.

What? Isn’t that a Web3 Crypto term? Yup, and it’s applicable in this example as well. How is the GEICO Gecko composable?

Can integrate the gecko into the GEICO brand in any medium.
Can extend the GEICO brand even outside of the standard insurance ecosystem. Heck, they could even license the GEICO gecko out to other brands if there was interest.
Can build upon the character and the character lore. GEICO could introduce an ‘evil gecko’ and weave a storyline around how the evil gecko creates accidents around the neighborhood.

On top of that, no need to schedule time, worry about bad behavior, or negotiating prices.

Dang look at this fan art. Definitely evil gecko lol.

Alright thanks for the crash course on influencers TPan, what does this have to do with virtual influencers?

Virtual Influencers

Again, I’m not crazy about influencers (I do love my memes though heh). But I’ve understood the influencer space well enough as a discipline to stay on top of with my growth/marketing background.

So when I came across this page with the lens of Web3, it piqued my interest much more than it would have in the past.

I will gladly be the first to say that I’m a little creeped out at this. However, being exposed to all these NFTs of animal PFPs and spending lots of time in Discord and Twitter helps me realize that this is a direction society is headed, whether we want to participate or not. Ready Player One is still a ways away, but the building blocks have been placed.

A quick overview from the screenshot I pasted:

Lu is a character created from Magalu, a $5 billion retail brand based in Brazil
We know who Barbie is
Nobody Sausage is a dancing sausage….with 15 million followers on Tiktok and 4 million on Instagram 😵
CB is the virtual character of Casas Bahia, one of the biggest retail chains in Brazil.

There was one virtual influencer that caught my eye on the second row, Miquela.

I remember her face several years back reading about her in an article. She has a backstory, and at one point was represented by a PR firm.

Who are the creators of Miquela? Brud.

What has Brud been up to? Apparently, getting acquired.

And who acquired Brud? None other than Dapper Labs, creators of NBA Topshot, CryptoKitties, FLOW blockchain, and more.

But why? Oh snap…

Frankly, I’m not sure what that exactly means, but I’m sure the Dapper Collectives team will be building some very interesting platforms and tools that will enable a paradigm shift in what social media and communities can become. Which leads to…

What is the future of influencers?

First of all, let’s reset the stage around this topic. We’ve categorized influencers from a human, brand, and virtual. But what does it look like when you view influencers through an ‘and’ lens instead of ‘or’?