User:Vy Trieu

What's Virtual Influencers?
Virtual influencers or CGI influencers are computer-generated characters on the internet. They appear on the internet like other real influencers with personalities, realistic features, and dispositions of humans. Their images on the internet are created by CG artists, their voices are dubbed by actors or actresses and the posts people see on social media are written by scriptwriters. Creators (individual or company) play as the managers and also the virtual influencers simultaneously. How a virtual influencer appears depends a lot on the creator's reference, aesthetic, and characteristics.

How did this trend start?
The fashion industry was the first field to collaborate with a virtual influencer. In 2018, Balmain hired three virtual influencers Margot, Shudu, and Zhi for their “Army” project”. As it got popular, more virtual influencers have been created and more brands started to join in the trend of partnering with those virtual characters instead of real models. Maya, also a virtual influencer, once be the ambassador of Puma in the South East Asian area. After the fashion industry was a technology as Samsung, food as KFC, and also The World Health Organization (WHO).

Why do brands choose virtual influencers?
The reasons why brands like to work with those virtual influencers are brands can have more control on models, models can be modified into what shape brands need without taking too much time, it definitely costs less than real models and brands have the ability to control their value and messages.

For starters, virtual influencers are not real people; they are always contained within a computer system that brands can access at any time. It will not happen in situations like the shooting begins at 3 p.m., but due to traffic, the models are late. Secondly, virtual influencers are created by computer so they can be changed into any shape to qualify with brands’ requirements, skinner, bigger, or taller, shorter and also clothes can be changed and created so quickly. Thirdly, a real influencer with around a million followers can charge up to $250,00 for a post on their page. And with a virtual influencer with 3 million followers, Lil Miquela, the price per post is $241,000. The difference is $9,000 for a post and this difference can be more or less. But in any case, virtual influencers are always less expensive than real influencers. Last but not least, what the brand's ambassador says can have a significant impact on the brand's reputation. Virtual influencers do not speak or post on social media on their own; script writers are in control of that. So everything is arranged ahead of time, and there will be no situations where the ambassador says or does something incorrectly.

The disadvantages of virtual influencers.
Despite the many benefits of this trend, there are some drawbacks. Virtual influencers, as the name implies, are not real, or in other words, humanoid. Viewing virtual influencers can induce a state known as the "uncanny valley." And brands are often forced to take the risk of making customers feel uneasy when collaborating with virtual influencers.

When creating virtual influencers, skin colors, facial features, and body structures can all be problematic. Because racial and cultural appropriation are sensitive topics, it may offend the minority while also being detrimental to the majority. For example, Shudu is a black virtual influencer, created by Alek Wek, a white man. After Shudu went famous, Wek was accused of taking advantage of the black women feature.

Some famous virtual influencers
There are about 144 virtual influencers in the world, but only a few of them stand out and really are hired by brands. Here are some of the successful virtual influencers.


 * Miquela - https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/
 * Shudu - https://www.instagram.com/shudu.gram/
 * Noonoouri - https://www.instagram.com/noonoouri/
 * Knox Frost - https://www.instagram.com/KnoxFrost/
 * Maya - https://www.instagram.com/mayaaa.gram/
 * Zhi
 * Margot