But it has always existed, even before social media marketing came about. Back then it existed in the form of articles (both online and offline), email and other media.

The rise of social media, especially Instagram is what popularised it to the masses so much that now any layman understands who influencers are and how influencer marketing works.

And now there are many more niches opening within influencer marketing itself. One of these is CGI influencer marketing.

What is CGI influencer marketing?

CGI influencer marketing is when a brand works with an influencer who was created using computer generated imagery (CGI) instead of a ‘real’ one. An example of a CGi influencer is Zoe Dvir. I created her.

Zoe has an online presence just like any other influencer. She shares it with her followers in Instagram posts and stories like this one.

And she occasionally teams up with brands to promote their products. Like in the below post.

How do you get started with CGI influencer marketing

When you venture into influencer marketing you have two options, one is to create your own influencers while the other is to work with a marketing agency that has its own CGI influencers.

The option you choose should depend on the goals you have set. If you have some short-term sales goals only and you need to achieve them quickly it would be better to work with an agency and get their influencers to promote your products and generate instant sales.

Whereas if you have more long-term goals where you want an influencer to promote your products for years, then it would be better to create your CGI own influencer(s) and take the time to grow them.

If you have both long-term and short-term goals, I recommend that you do both. First focus on the long-term goal and create your own influencer and begin building their presence.

After that you can put the effort on the short-term goal and drive sales. And while you do this you can rope in your long-term goals into the sponsored posts by adding your CGI influencers to the photos of the CGI influencer you hire. This way you will not just be promoting your products, but also your own CGI influencer.

You will gain both followers and sales. And at the end you will have your own popular CGI influencer, so you won’t need to work with other influencers. Your own influencer(s) will promote your product and drive sales.

How to create your own CGI influencers

When you work with influencers who are owned by an agency it is pretty straight forward. You go to the agency and inform them about your goals and their marketing teams will come up with a strategy for you and use their CGI influencers to help you reach your goals.

But when you use your own influencers it is not exactly straightforward. You will first need to survey your audience and figure out what their personalities are like and what sort of characters they look for in a friend/influencer.

You then use this data to develop an influencer persona. This should include the gender of the influencer, their age, location, political views, life history, etc. You then take these details to a CGI influencer designer and work with them to develop the looks of the character.

After you are happy with the preliminary design, you can get them to finally design the entire character for you.

Next all that is left for you to do is grow the account. This should include posting pictures and videos and using every other form of promotional strategy to gain followers, likes and comments. But you have to work within the persona/character you created for the CGI influencer. Don’t make the mistake of reflecting your own views and ideas through the influencer.

Over time you can incorporate the insights you get from comments and other forms of engagement to build the influencers character. This will get it to resonate better with the target audience.

If you are unsure about how to go about growing your own CGI influencer, I recommend that you hire an agency that specializes in this.

Conclusion:

This is how you can get started with CGI influencer marketing. So, take time to figure out your goals and then work towards achieving them by either creating your own influencer or hiring an agency that provides access to them.

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