Future of Influencer Marketing for CPG Brands | AI, Virtual Influencers, & Metaverse Avatars

Love it or hate it…artificial intelligence (AI) has started to take over different areas of our lives and there’s no escaping it. While everyone is talking ChatGPT, I’ve been captivated by another AI revolution that has just started to impact the CPG industry. Did you know that some of the "influencers" you follow might not even be real? I mean its common knowledge by now that influencers are great at adding digital platform filters, using photo editing software, and understanding which angles or poses are the most flattering…but I’m talking about something even more fake than that. Virtual influencers are computer-generated characters that can be human-like, with realistic features, personalities, and characteristics. While they're not yet mainstream, they're certainly growing in popularity with some of them amassing millions of followers and equally large earnings from paid brand partnerships…some within the CPG industry. And while the idea of a virtual influencer achieving legitimate, wide-scale fandom may seem like a modern idea, fictional celebrities can be traced all the way back to a time well before computers were invented. But where these virtual humans hit the digital platforms was in 2011 when Ami Yamato started creating YouTube vlog content with a virtual persona. Then five years later, @lilmiquela started posting photos on Instagram that had people questioning if this character was real. Now...AI systems like ChatGPT could soon blur an important line. So far, it has been well understood that there is a real person behind the scenes of these digital characters, but that likely won’t be the case going forward. Combine that with that fact that today’s virtual influencers look less like anime characters and more like humans each day, and CPG brand portfolios like Pernod Ricard are starting to go “all in” on them. The Olmeca Tequila virtual influencer Maria Margarita is he best example of this extreme usage by a CPG brand…outside of creating virtual versions of brand mascots. Additionally, this content will cover the "pros" and "cons" of working with virtual influencers and why they might one day become ubiquitous in our metaverse-filled world. FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS LINKEDIN - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaschallmba⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TWITTER - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FACEBOOK - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/jschallconsulting