A ‘VI’ is a digital character created by using computer graphics simulating human qualities. It has its own personality with quirks and realistic biases. Wataru Matsumoto, senior content director at Aww Inc., a virtual human agency, says, “Virtual humans are increasing day by day. When metaverse and Web3 will become a common thing, the existence of virtual humans will become natural.”
Just like real influencers utilise their social media to influence people’s buying behaviour, VIs, too, are developed as a marketing tool for brands to attract relevant customers. Gartner predicts 30% of influencer marketing budgets will be allocated to virtual influencers by 2025. “The influencer marketing industry is worth billions of dollars according to various estimates. In the coming years, brands will be investing a part of their influencer marketing budgets to innovations in this space,” says Goel, adding, “We already have a lot of interest from brands who want to work with Kyra.”
While in 2018, Balmain used digital models, Margot, Shudu, and Zhi, for one in every of its campaigns, Prada collaborated with Miquela to sell its fall in 2018 collection. Closer home, designers consisting of Manish Malhotra, Anamika Khanna, Pankaj & Nidhi, etc. have dabbled with the NFT world, witnessing firsthand the energy of virtual media. “Whether it's experimenting with NFT tasks the metaverse or digital influencers, designers getting into this area might open people`s eyes to the opportunity of digital influencers gambling a key position in style marketing,” says Malhotra. Recently, clothier Shubhika Sharma, founder and CEO, Papa Don`t Preach has become the primary Indian clothier to take part in a metaverse platform showcasing her clothes thrrough digital models. “Being the primary clothier on this class is actually thrilling, however additionally hard because of positive limitations. I hope, through this we open doorways for greater thrill and larger matters for the Indian style industry,” she shares.
