Most of us would be new to the term “virtual influencers.” we all have heard about influencer marketing and how it works; virtual influencing works on the same principles; the only thing which differentiates them both is that in the case of virtual influencers it’s not a real person influencing as the name suggests, just like a virtual character like Avatar these virtual influencers are designed by computer graphics, and they are either designed into a human-like character or a robot, these are then made to have a social media account; usually an Instagram account which is pretty much ran like your regular social media account, either by a person or a brand’s PR department.
So the question that arises why make virtual influencers when we have real influencers with quite a huge following?
Firstly, when it comes to real influencers, it’s true that they do have a huge following and influence on people, but they are not 100% reliable, they might not stick to the brand for a long time, they take a massive sum of money for advertising a particular brand, and in case of some controversy, they are stuck in which defames them then the brand suffers too.
Secondly, though the concept of the virtual influencer being relatively new, they still have a vast number of followers, as many as millions, and if some of the top brands make their own virtual influencers, they can easily hit a million followers.
So the question is, how will this new concept of virtual influencing affect the world of social media influencing?
That only time can tell; for now, let’s look at some top virtual influencers as of 2021.
1). Lu do Magalu:
Going by the name @magazineluzia on Instagram is the most followed virtual influencer as of 2021; this account originates from Brazil and is white famous in that country; she has over 20 million followers on Facebook, over 5 million followers on Instagram and over a million followers on Youtube, Twitter and Tiktok too, she made her appearance with magazine Luzia over a decade ago and is quite active on all social media platforms, it advertises a wide range of products on its page.
2). Lil Miquela:
The fact that she has a singles of her own called “Not Mine,” you can guess by that how popular virtual influencers are, she also has a music video that she starred in called “Hard feelings” Lil Miquela is a fashion model robot who has modeled for top brands such as Calvin Klein, Parda, and Dior, created by a start-up company called brud, based in Los Angeles now with over 3 M followers on Instagram she is the second most popular virtual influencer as of 2021.
3). Barbie:
Needing no introduction, one of the most famous virtual characters from the 1950s, has made her appearance on social media as well; with over 14 million followers on Facebook and over 1.8 million followers on Instagram, she is soon to overthrow her competitions.
4). Guggimon:
This virtual bunny made its appearance in 2019, and just in a year, it has reached over a million followers, from Montreal Canada, owned by superplastics one of the world’s leading creators of designer toys and animated celebrities; you might know him as one of the hype stars from the famous DJ Steve Aoki.
5) Knox frost:
From Atlanta, the 20-year-old is a top virtual male influencer A of 2021, with over 850k followers on Instagram; he has a huge following amount of teens and people in their early 20s, he is quite active on his social media pages.
6). Any Malu:
Another Brazilian virtual influencer, this one being totally animated, more popular on Youtube but has well over 500k Instagram followers too; the YouTube star has over 289 million views and is one of the few virtual influencers having their own tv channel which is in partnership with cartoon network which makes her stand out of the others.
7). Ana Cattish:
Originally from Russia with over 500k followers, this fully animated virtual cat has been very active, with over 750 posts on Instagram; the full attitude cat, just like real cats, has quite a lot of cute content on her page.
8). Thalasya:
This virtual influencer runs a travel blog, originally from Indonesia has a content full of travel stories in Indonesia itself and other countries like the USA; she also advertises other products on her page, which helps her raise money for more traveling.
9). Janky:
The virtual influencers have replaced stunt men’s too; this one also owned by superplastics from Los Angeles; it’s a cartoon stuntman and has his name attached with big brands like Red Bull, Tinder, and Parda, it started in 2019 and now has well over 785k followers on Instagram.
10). Body by Ralph:
From Los Angeles, this animated virtual influencer is a personal trainer; Ralph was created by Shadow Interactive and had well over 185k followers; just like a regular fitness trainer, this virtual model also posts videos on fitness, giving tips to his followers on diet, exercises and many more, it has its own fitness all as well.
To conclude, virtual influencing is still not that popular yet. Still, it will indeed dominate the world of social media influencing in the near future due to its low cost; unlike real human influencers, stability, and many more factors as such, virtual influencers have a bright future ahead, and these 10 that we mentioned above are a proof to it.
