Virtual Influence

Our world is becoming less and less tangible. Everything is stored in the cloud for the future. Virtual money. Virtual reality. What we see in the TV series Black Mirror is not that far from what we are somehow building. Hopefully our stories will have better endings. Today I want to present you the next generation of Fashion influencer.

Yes, we are talking about an avatar, @lilmiquela. 544k followers, no one knows who is behind her but she is getting viral.

She does not live in a very different way from the other major influencers we see on Instagram such as Chiara Ferragni ($9 million revenues in 2015, who has also been the subject of a case study of the Harvard Business Review).

@lilmiquela posts daily outfits, she engages with her followers with several Instagram stories, takes snaps with her Polaroid and she also released a single which you can find on Spotify. Like all the active bloggers she attends events like the ComplexCon (Long Beach, CA - Nov 4 2017) and of course she shares pictures with other influencers and friends of her.

Some brands such as Givenchy even started to create personalised fashion items for Miquela.

The trend of creating virtual appearances and virtual has been already largely exploited in many marketing campaigns.

Toms for example, one of the most sustainable shoes brand which gives one pair of shoes to children in needs for every pair of shoes purchased, used VR to make its customer feeling the experience of a trip in one of the community where the brand operates. Customers are always open to new experiences and virtual reality is for sure a great addiction to the typical campaigns.

However, with Miquela we’re talking about something different. An avatar which may able to influence the trend and which may be able to affect our preferences and purchasing behaviors.

This may appear scary but it is definitely something that brands and associations may exploit in the future. We will see Miquela in the next releases of the most famous fashion magazines and we will also see how people will react.