‘Lil Miquela’ and the rise of the CGI Influencer
At first glance, 19 year old Brazilian-American model Miquela Sousa is the typical Instagram influencer. Dressed in streetwear brands, she’s perfected the art of the nonchalant selfie and witty one-liner. But what sets her apart is Miquela is purely digital. A CGI Influencer comprised of just animations and carefully-worded captions, designed by an LA start up called Brud. But with 1.1 million followers on social media, two magazine covers and a Barneys collaboration underway, she has quickly become more than the sum of her parts and looks set to change the face of influencer marketing.
Up until recently, there was fierce debate online questioning whether Lil Miquela was a real person. Online communities were convinced she was a model who photoshopped her head in pictures to look like a character. The surge in popularity following her admission in April to being a “robot” suggests an undercurrent of fatigue on Instagram. Social media users are bored of the sun-drenched villas, retouched images, and #spon posts that have all started to feel a little too generic and manufactured.
In an effort for brands to connect with their customer directly and move away from traditional advertising to the social media sphere, we have actually come full circle. Consumers scroll mindlessly past sponsored content and paid for posts, no longer falling for the ‘authenticity’ portrayed in standard influencer marketing. There is a drive for novelty and originality that Lil Miquela is fulfilling.
She’s not dissimilar to Deliciously Stella, the Instagram account that pokes fun at the ludicrously healthy diet and lifestyles of certain influencers. But unlike Deliciously Stella who is funny, relatable and parodic, Lil Miquela’s account presents huge opportunity to brands because she has a rare combination of aspiration and tech/sci-fi appeal. This is something that her creators clearly understand given the range of carefully selected brands with which she is collaborating.
Lil Miquela has the cool and compulsive draw of a popular human influencer, right down to her captions “I’m just at the point where I’m wearing white pants on a dirty bench and don’t give a f**kkkkk 🤷🏽♀️” but she avoids any cynicism mounting against her because her followers are in on the joke and view her as refreshing as a result. By replicating the beautiful, false perfection of Instagram and crucially, admitting it isn’t reality, her account subverts the norm and occupies a space online that feels fresh, intriguing even. Her followers play along, responding with enthusiasm and tongue-in-cheek humour. Comments on one of her most recent posts vary from admiration “Beauty”, “Dang”, “Queen” to the humorous“If I throw water on you will you glitch?”
In a world of increasingly conscious and cynical social media users, it is clear that brands and influencers must work harder than ever to produce influencer content that is unique and captivating for audiences, recognising what authenticity online means at the dawn of the AI era.
The implications for the world of content marketing could be huge here. If a brand can’t raise the fees to work with Kim Kardashian, but could afford to collaborate with her CGI account with her broad appeal, why wouldn’t they? Perhaps more exciting though is the possibility for companies to develop their own in-house CGI influencer, a humanoid embodiment of their brand values. This is actually a formula that has worked for decades.
From the KFC colonel, to Sergei the Meerkat and the PG tips monkeys, brands have long been creating characters that customers relate to, building personalities that are credible and emotive. The technology and social media platforms will allow these CGI influencers to interact with customers directly and there’s no human risk of the personality deviating from the brand’s aims or vision.
It must only be a matter of time before we’ll come to recognise and relate to the faces and personalities of Siri and Alexa, who will support customers in their needs and develop a tailored connection with each of them. Creating an interactive influencer who comes without a personal history will allow brands to align their values with the target consumer perfectly and generate attachment between their followers and personalities.
There are some who may be wary of this approach or question the likelihood of consumers relating to non-human beings. But the fact is, we develop attachments to our plants, pets and cars. People will relate to CGI influencers and AI assistants in just the same way- the film Her being a case in point here.
What seems to be key to Lil Miquela’s success, and brands should take note, is that she is human enough that her audience identifies with her and is captivated by her aspirational lifestyle — but her creators don’t attempt to mimic reality perfectly. Her skin has a smooth glassy sheen and her cool eyes betray her status as non-human. And this is part of the point. Brud have ensured she doesn’t fall into Uncanny Valley territory, a term coined in the 70’s to explain the disturbing zone where humanoid objects feel almost, but not exactly human. When you think about it, Uncanny Valley might be exactly the trap that so many traditional Instagrammers have fallen into lately.
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Words: Emma Lewis
Emma is an Account Manager working at Interstate with a particular focus on Bahrain and the MENA region. emma.l@interstateteam.com
