Virtual Influencers Part One: Artificial People, Real Results

Executive Summary

Virtual influencers offer brands a compelling option to engage with their followers. These online characters can resonate as strongly as, or sometimes more than, human influencers. While they cannot present authentically as an actual patient, that’s not always a serious issue. Historically, fertility, dermatology, headache, eye care, and other conditions have played well in this consumer-oriented space and, like always, you need to look at your audience closely before proceeding with a new approach.

For brands that can try this tactic, the benefits can be substantial including potentially higher engagement, complete control over the messaging, images that don’t adhere to the physical world, and even non-human representations.

Imagine leveraging everything that generative AI images can create in a suitable context of an imaginary person or character.

Why Virtual Influencers for Pharma?

Pharma marketers have been considering the impact of influencers and many have approached their MRL teams with the idea. However, only a few have been able to get programs in-market. Virtual influencers can answer some of the concerns MRL teams often have with human influencers and can be as effective with some accounts featuring follower numbers in the millions.

Hospital systems have the opportunity to amplify their in-house digital opinion leaders (DOL) with virtual avatars. Given the potential of virtual influencers, we believe some hospitals will start investigating, but maintaining trust is critical:

Meta is leveraging this trend by working with well-known influencers and celebrities. To promote Meta AI (think of a text-based Siri), 28 new AI profiles were created on Instagram that leveraged the likeness of A-list celebrities to make interacting with the tool feel more personal. From Kendall Jenner as Billie, the “no BS, ride or die companion,” to Tom Brady as Bru, the “wisecracking sports debater who pulls no punches,” users can befriend and even DM these characters.

What are Virtual Influencers?

If you haven’t heard of them, virtual influencers are fictional characters created by artists to gain an audience and promote products. While virtual influencers aren’t new, with new generative-AI technologies hitting the market weekly, they have become much easier to create and more prolific.

Virtual influencers exist only online—they are not physical people. Although often confused with AI, virtual influencers do not have to rely on AI to operate; instead, companies or individuals control them (though, some new virtual influencers do, in fact, use generative AI for interaction).

Virtual influencers are experiencing a spike in interest because of the buzz around generative AI for images, text, video, and audio. The path to fame for a virtual character is as varied as for a real human influencer.

Ethical Considerations

The FTC has made it clear that disclosure rules apply equally to virtual and real human influencers. Disclosures must be clear, conspicuous, and easily understandable, emphasizing that merely including a hashtag in Instagram or TikTok posts is insufficient.

TikTok has led the charge with its new policy requiring users to label AI-generated content to prevent the spread of misleading content. Meta plans to start labeling AI content in May 2024. Meta’s “Made with AI” labels on AI-generated video, audio, and images will be based on detection by 100 independent fact-checkers or people self-disclosing AI-generated content. Meta has warned of potential penalties if users fail to do so. However, details on the actual penalties have yet to be disclosed.

Pharma marketers looking at various influencers need to ensure that they have a pattern of complying with these rules and plans to remain compliant.

1 - nobody sausage, 2 - world_record_egg, 3 - O, 4 - guggimon, 5 - janky, 6 - lilmiquela, 7 - Teflon Saga, 8 - Phoenix McEwan, 9 - magazineluiza

Conclusion

An Influencer Is an Influencer Is an Influencer...

The audience that follows influencers—whether they are “real” people like Kylie Jenner or virtual characters like Lil’ Miquela—isn’t worried about whether or not they exist in the physical world. They care about the entertainment they get from the influencer’s stories and the often parasocial connections they form with online celebrities.

Virtual influencers are an intriguing option for brands that want to look into influencers. Seeding these influencers with stories of health challenges can resonate with patients, educating them about treatments that could transform their lives.

For more information, reach out to Klick’s Influencer team to learn more about influencers in healthcare, whether they are real or virtual.

Appendix A

Platform Analytics

We looked at the top virtual characters and influencers with over one million combined followers and found their rankings to be as follows:

Appendix B

Current State of Virtual Influencers

The Virtual Humans site has been tracking “real” virtual influences (with 1,000 or more followers) since 2019 and has some insight into its growth. Interestingly, while the hype around virtual influencers is taking off, the number of actual entities with substantial followings is slowing down.

However, millions of people follow these accounts.