Virtual Influencers and How Marketers Can Use Them

Aside from just partnering with virtual influencers, brands can create the perfect brand ambassador or face for their brand. They don’t have to worry about their brand ambassador going off-script, aging or leaving for a competitor. Examples like KFC’s millennialized colonel and Mattel’s Barbie highlight the potential of having a virtual brand spokesperson.

A way for brands to personify themselves

We live in a world where brands are fighting for relevance and mindshare, and one of the key drivers of relevance is trust. People trust people.

That is why it’s becoming increasingly important for brands to personify themselves. A virtual influencer allows brands to anthropomorphize themselves, so they can be more relatable and connect better with audiences.

And in the metaverse, people can interact with these anthropomorphized characters. Think about the brand mascots we have seen in the past that are multidimensional and have a real persona, values and potentially even a character arc.

Can perfection be engineered?

Influencer marketing is undeniably powerful. With plenty of evidence to suggest that virtual influencers are effective, more brands will embrace their own avatars and take the next steps in building a deeper, richer community.

With virtual influencers, brands can tailor their creations to their audiences and communities, and they can engineer the perfect ambassador. Advancements in AI could provide the ability to go a step further, enabling brands to further engineer the perfect virtual influencer, so lifelike and socially intelligent that it blurs the lines between what’s real and what isn’t in the metaverse.

In the meantime, working with virtual influencers in the metaverse presents a massive opportunity for both new and established brands to build out their communities and establish deeper connections.