CGI influencers such as Miquela Sousa, Shudu, Sophia the Robot, Bermuda, Blawko, Noonoouri, Seraphine, Imma and more are becoming an integral part of brand marketing strategies.

The most infamous virtual influencer is Miquela Sousa also known as Lil Miquela. She has over 2.9 Instagram followers and has appeared on the cover of Highsnobiety as well as other publications. Miquela was engineered by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou, co-founders of Brud, a transmedia studio in Los Angeles. Lil Miquela identifies as a 19-year-old half Brazilian half Spanish avatar. She has released a top 10 Spotify single, posed wearing brands like Chanel and Vetements, and collaborated with Off-White, Moncler, Prada and Calvin Klein to name a few. In 2018 she even became an arts editor at Dazed Beauty.

Because of the popularity Lil Miquela received, Brud has since created Bermuda and Blawko, two virtual influencers who interact and even feud with Lil Miquela. Like real life influencers, Lil Miquela posts photos at popular restaurants, expresses her opinions on current social issues, and promotes clothing brands she loves. Miquela’s storylines are created by a group of writers at Brud but the specifics behind each post are not divulged to the public. Brud wants to continue to expand their virtual influencers to create an almost Marvel-like universe filled with characters who interact with one another (Koh and Wells, 2018).

In 2018, Lil Miquela collaborated with Foo and Foo, Elizabeth Hilfiger’s brand. Initially, Hilfiger did not know Lil Miquela was a virtual influencer. Lil Miquela reached out saying she loved Foo Foo and Hilfiger sent Miquela a tank top which she sported on her Instagram. Hilfiger requested that they meet in person, and discovered that this would not be possible. This experience is still a running joke between the two. The collaborative collection was only available for 24 hours and was showcased at a pop-up on Canal Street in New York City. The pop-up featured $30 blue ribbed tank tops adorned with the word “Overheating” and Lil Miquela’s face, which commented on the unstable state of the world through clever computer word play (Mercer, 2018).

As Elizabeth Hilfiger found out Lil Miquela only exists in the digital sphere and her every action is controlled by a team behind a screen. But, not all virtual influencers exist solely in the digital world. Sophia the Robot is an AI bot who was recognized as a citizen of Saudi Arabia in October 2017. She is a robot who possesses artificial intelligence and therefore can in some ways take on a life of her own. She has met and interacted with celebrities such as Will Smith, Chrissy Teigan, and Cristiano Ronaldo. She has even posed for covers of Cosmopolitan India and Elle Brazil.

Shudu, another well known digital avatar, appeared in Vogue and WWD, was featured in campaigns for Balmain and Ellesse, and has over 200K followers on Instagram. Shudu is a 3-D work of art, much like a character in a video game. Her work only goes as far as her creator, Cameron-James Wilson allows. Shudu belongs to a group of models called the Diigitals. They are a group of seven virtual influencers all created by Wilson. Most of the models are quiet lifelike although one called Galaxia looks like a being from another planet. Shudu and her digital counterparts only exist within the digital space and can therefore only interact with other avatars despite how real they may look. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty brand reposted an image of Shudu wearing their “Saw-C” matte lipstick. It is still debated whether the brand knew she was an avatar. Fenty has since deleted the post and declined to comment (Tietjen, 2018).

Noonoouri is a vegan virtual influencer, signed to IMG models and created by Joerg Zuber. She was interviewed by Vogue Australia and has collaborated with brands such as Dior, Versace, and KKW beauty (Chekoufi, 2018). Noonoouri secured a deal with Vogue China which allows Condé Nast to represent her in all collaborations and activities in China. The British brand Mulberry was one of the first brands to collaborate with Noonoouri. She hosted a pop-up store for the launch of the brand’s new Iris bag as well as “appearing” at other Mulberry events. Mulberry’s community can also play games with Noonoouri through their e-commerce site including changing her outfits and earning points (Tianwei, 2019).

Virtual influencers are a new and uncharted communication strategy for brands but as they become more common, what will keep the momentum? For one they could be attractive to brands because they limit the potential for controversy. Andrew Dunst, the vice president of Sage Group, says “One of the attractive elements [of Virtual Instagram influencers] is that you remove some of the PR risks from influencers who may do something that could impact their base of customers, given that everything this virtual influencer does is in a controlled setting by the people who are managing that account” (Tietjen, 2018). In the age of cancel culture brands, designers, models, actors, and influencers are all under close scrutiny. Some of the pressures brands face to uphold a certain image could be lifted with the involvement of virtual influencers rather than human ones who are subject to all the imperfections of being, well human.

Knitwear brand PH5 recently created AMA, a virtual influencer who is the face of their brand. AMA has dark black hair cropped in a bob with an athletic build. She uses her Instagram platform to promote sustainability measures at PH5 and beyond. In her Instagram bio it says that she is the face of PH5 and that is a living embodiment of their brand identity but her official job title is chief decision scientist. PH5 plans to use AMA as a form of communication between the brand and their consumers. Her main purpose will be to inform customers of the brand’s sustainability practices. Chantal Fernandez for BOF says, “For decades, designers have routinely served as the face of their company, whether it’s Ralph Lauren appearing in his own campaigns as the epitome of preppy taste, or ‘girl boss’ executives who in recent years used the founder-as-influencer approach to build an authentic-seeming connection with consumers on social media” (Fernandez, 2021). Wei Lin, founder of PH5, said “I feel like the brand is missing a face, but this is a face I’m not comfortable being, AMA became a safe place for us to be personal with our followers.”

Digital models can radically reduce the environmental footprint that comes with photoshoots and clothing production. A single photoshoot can involve more than 50 samples a day with many of the clothing used ending up in landfills. Anastasia Edwards-Morel, a 3D fashion design expert working for CLO, explained that by using computer generated models and her company’s design software they are drastically reducing their environmental impact (Bovell, 2020).

Another relevant upside to virtual influencers is that they can work during the pandemic. Seraphine, a virtual influencer created by Riot Games Inc. is known for her pink hair and resemblance to League of Legends characters. She is also known for posting photos throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many in masks. While people are unable to socialize, virtual influencers can be more active than ever. Bloomberg predicts that brands are going to spend $15 billion a year annually on influencer marketing by 2022. A bigger and bigger cut of that money is going to virtual influencers (Ong, 2018).

Christopher Travers, founder of virtualhumans.org, a website that tracks the virtual influencer industry, says, “They (virtual influencers) are cheaper to work with than humans in the long term, are 100% controllable, can appear in many places at once, and, most importantly, they never age or die'' (Ong, 2018). The appeal of virtual influencers is clear, however there are many reasons why people are hesitant as well.

Virtual influencers are not fashion’s first foray into VR. Over ten years ago Alexander McQueen used a hologram version of Kate Moss in the finale of his X season runway. Nicolas Ghesquière used the Final Fantasy XIII character called Lightning for a Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2016 campaign. Cameron-James Wilson, the creator of Shudu, told Vogue, “When drones came out we were up in arms, never mind driverless cars! Our natural reaction to technology is to worry” (Newbold, 2018). He has received a lot of backlash for his creation of Shudu. Firstly, he is a white man so people question how he could possibly accurately represent a black woman even with the help of Ama Badu, a woman of color who is the voice of Shudu. Additionally, people question if he is taking away jobs from real BIPOC models. Wilson says, “CGI could become a massive benefit to real life-models, because there will be the potential for them to make very detailed scans of themselves. Once someone is scanned, they are, in a way, immortalized. A person’s career could last decades, centuries.” (Newbold, 2018). Many people do not share Wilsons faith in CGI influencers. There are many ethical dilemmas that make it difficult for the masses to get onboard. For instance, whose intellectual property would the scans of models (and others) be? What happens when the person dies and who protects them from identity theft? What about issues of counterfeiting? What about all the issues in the industry that already exist including a lack of diversity, and a lack of inclusion especially in body size? Would these issues be further exacerbated if you could create someone with virtually no flaws? And these are just some of the many ethical dilemmas people face.

Many models are not as pleased with the idea of virtual influencers as Cameron-James Wilson believes they should be. Sinead Bovell, a model from Canada, living in New York has been working in the industry for over five years. Unlike Shudu, she has been trying to make her way since 2015. Bovell says, “Miquela, like Shudu, is a computer-generated image (CGI), not artificial intelligence (A.I). That means that Miquela and Shudu can’t actually do anything on their own. They can’t think or learn or offer posing variations independently. But that won’t be the case for much longer” (Bovell, 2020). Bovell explains how DataGriad, a Japanese tech company, uses A.I algorithms that threaten her job. Through the use of generative adversarial networks, which is a type of machine learning and subset of A.I. DataGrid is able to offer digital models that can mimic what real models do in both e-commerce and commercial modeling. Additionally, Bovell explains how many models are upset that the creators of CGI influencers like Miquela and Shudu go beyond just designing them as avatars. Although these CGI influencers do not possess artificial intelligence they seem very human because their creators give them backstories, personalities, and causes that they care about. Bovell says, “But we human models have worked really hard to have our stories heard and out authentic experiences considered, and we’ve found to change the perception that we are just a sample size or a prop for clothes.” Models have put in a lot of work and activism into making the industry what it is today and digital models can now take jobs that human models have taken risks to obtain. Even worse, brands can now create CGIs that stand for the core values of the brand without actually having a real investment and relationship to the causes themselves.

Ultimately, Bovell believes that the future of the modeling industry much like the future of many other industries is uncertain. She says, “We will have to exercise skills such as adaptability and creative intelligence to ensure that we too can sustain the shift to digital.” Bovell believes that whatever happens in the future there is a necessity for the unique human story whether this comes from the human themselves or through a virtual façade.

Works Cited

Bovell, Sinead. “I Am a Model and I Know That Artificial Intelligence Will Eventually Take My Job.” Vogue, Vogue, 21 July 2020, www.vogue.com/article/sinead-bovell-model-artificial-intelligence.

Chekoufi, Farouk. “Meet Noonoouri, the Virtual Instagram Influencer Loved by Kim Kardashian West and Dior.” Vogue Australia, 19 June 2018, www.vogue.com.au/vogue-codes/news/meet-noonoouri-the-virtual-instagram-influencer-loved-by-kim-kardashian-west-and-dior/news-story/dfeb2658e3bbc7b2cfd11d0d26eb5bbc.

“The Diigitals Models.” Thediigitals, www.thediigitals.com/models.

Fernandez, Chantal. “The CGI Influencer Gets a Promotion.” The Business of Fashion, The Business of Fashion, 15 Feb. 2021, www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-week/the-cgi-influencer-gets-a-promotion.

Koh, Yoree, and Georgia Wells. “The Making of a Computer-Generated Influencer.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 13 Dec. 2018, www.wsj.com/articles/the-making-of-a-computer-generated-influencer-11544702401.

Mercer, Emily. “Elizabeth Hilfiger's Foo and Foo Collaboration With Lil Miquela.” WWD, WWD, 19 Sept. 2018, wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/elizabeth-hilfigers-foo-and-foo-collaboration-with-lil-miquela-1202823443/.

Newbold, Alice. “The Numerous Questions Around The Rise Of CGI Models And Influencers.” British Vogue, British Vogue, 15 Aug. 2019, www.vogue.co.uk/article/cgi-virtual-reality-model-debate.

Ong, Thuy. Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 29 Oct. 2020, 5:00, www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-29/lil-miquela-lol-s-seraphine-virtual-influencers-make-more-real-money-than-ever.

Semic, Sara. “Meet The Man Behind The World's First Digital Supermodel.” ELLE, ELLE, 15 July 2019, www.elle.com/uk/fashion/a28394357/man-behind-worlds-first-digital-supermodel/.

Tietjen, Alexa. “Influencer Ex Machina.” WWD, WWD, 11 July 2018, wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/influencer-ex-machina-shudu-lil-miquela-virtual-celebrities-instagram-1202755789/.

“Trevor McFedries & Sara Decou Is Part of the BoF 500.” The Business of Fashion, Business of Fashion, 5 Sept. 2019, www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/trevor-mcfedries-sara-decou.

Zhang, Tianwei. “Alibaba Taps Virtual Influencer Noonoouri for Tmall Luxury Pavilion.” WWD, WWD, 26 Aug. 2019, wwd.com/business-news/marketing-promotion/alibaba-taps-virtual-influencer-noonoouri-for-tmall-luxury-pavilion-1203245170/.