Swedish H&M and other major brands are turning to AI-generated virtual influencers to promote their products on social media.
Faced with escalating fees from human influencers, companies like H&M have been spotted creating virtual personas. (AI) tools have thereby broken into the growing $21 billion content creator economy, reports The Financial Times.
Diana Nunez, co-founder of The Clueless ad agency, was taken aback by the rising costs associated with human influencers. This prompted her to explore the creation of virtual influencers, leading to the inception of Aitana Lopez.
“We were taken aback by the skyrocketing rates influencers charge nowadays. That got us thinking, ‘what if we just create our own influencer?'” Diana Nunez, co-founder of Clueless said.
With her pink hair and entirely fictional existence, Lopez has captured over 200,000 followers on social media. Because of that, the simulated character earns a substantial monthly income. Despite being entirely artificial, brands are willingly paying around $1,000 per post for Aitana Lopez to endorse their products on social media.
H&M has leveraged virtual models like Aitana Lopez. According to a Meta ad analysis, the use of virtual models in H&M advertising resulted in a 91% cheaper ad recall per person. An Instagram analysis further demonstrated the effectiveness of virtual influencers. The study showed that an H&M advert featuring virtual influencer Kuki reached 11 times more people. It also achieved a 91% decrease in the cost per person remembering the ad compared to traditional advertising methods.
Several luxury brands like Burberry and Givenchy have also embraced virtual influencers, signaling a transformative shift in the content creation landscape, with H&M at the forefront of the transformative trend.
Source: daijiworld.com
