3D digital garments are modelled onto virtual influencers with idealistic-fictional personas. Many of these icons exist in the Metaverse and many have upto 3 million followers on Instagram and TikTok. Yet only a handful of them talk about IRL problems of climate change and sustainability. Here’s the tea on who’s who.
Who and what are virtual influencers?
Created from CGI, (computer-generated imagery) and AI, (artificial intelligence), some virtual avatars have now amassed a huge social media following and thus, the reputation of an influencer. These digital-only influencers are the reason for a whole new industry that is focused on breathing life-like personalities and attributes into fictional identities.
Shudu by British photographer, James Cameron was the world’s first digital supermodel, and Lil Miquela sky-rocketed in 2016 as the first virtual influencer. Digital humans need digital clothing and luxury brands. Shudu has collaborated with Balmain, Fenty Beauty, Balenciaga, Ferragamo to name just a few. Lil Miquela appeared beside Bella Hadid in a Calvin Klein ad among other such collaborations.
While virtual fashion was initially limited to gaming and avatar skins, the Metaverse has widened its horizons, as digital avatars now also represent real people. Moreover, conversations about the sustainable factor of digital clothing echo into the debate of virtual vs. traditional influencer marketing.
Identity design and the questionable authenticity of VI
Agencies and brands alike have long established the superiority of influencers as unbeatable tools in their marketing strategies. Influencers cultivate audiences with shared values and interests, creating a transparent communication channel and trust, that is hard for brands to establish themselves. Virtual influencers aim to do the same – but what differentiates them is that their personality, interests and values are pre-determined by a team of humans working behind the scenes. Given this, it is imaginable that a fictional identity could struggle to gather a loyal community. However, according to Influencer Marketing Factory, 58% of respondents in their survey on virtual influencers confirmed following at least one VI.
No doubts remain regarding the authenticity of virtual influencers, especially as Lil Miquela nears 3 million followers on Instagram and over 3.6 million on TikTok. Other virtual influencers in a similar ballpark include Imma, 401K followers and Noonoouri, 403K followers.
Traditional vs. virtual influencers – a carbon footprint stand-off
Virtual clothing advocates believe it is an intentional step for the fashion industry, in the direction of pro-planet choices. The Fabricant, an online digital fashion marketplace has reported that such 3D garments emit 97% less carbon emissions than IRL clothing, and can save up to 3,300 litres of water per garment.
Since virtual avatars and influencers are dressed in digital designer labels or virtual outfits of luxury labels, they have garnered the reputation of being more sustainable per se. The lack of carbon emissions due to custom-produced physical samples and shipping plays out in their favour. However, the large amount of energy used in data storage and transmission, simply for these virtual assets to exist, increases the overall carbon footprint.
On the other hand, Ekaterina Gorbik, a Russian fashion influencer who dabbled in digital garments says, “Every tenth shopper purchases clothing exclusively for content creation. After that, at best, items are returned to the store; at worst, they are sent to landfill.”
Taking this into account, Berlin-based influencer marketing agency Buzzbird attempted to measure and offset the carbon footprint of such campaigns. Partnering with Media4Planet, they developed a sustainable media KPI using a custom formula.
The emissions generated by collaborations between influencers and brands were to be determined and where emissions could not be completely avoided, companies would be required to offset them through certified climate protection projects via Media4Planet. The idea was to introduce this new KPI in addition to the usual media KPIs. The ‘CO2PM’ could provide information on the sustainability of the media plan, based on the kind of content requirements and production emissions; it could then show the emissions caused per 1000 contacts in kilograms.
Are brands using virtual influencers to talk about sustainability?
There may be many climate activists in the Metaverse-affiliated community, but of the 150+ virtual influencers that exist today, there isn’t one that can be exclusively labelled as such. However, it is still a young industry and opportunities for brands to use virtual influencers in their sustainable campaigns are many.
Some brands have already begun to experiment in this vein: Burberry developed AI avatars and virtual worlds in 2020 to emphasize the brand’s investment into environmental strategies, with a focus on ‘making less, more carefully.’ United Colors of Benetton collaborated with VI Noonoouri to launch a sustainable summer collection of swimwear made of ECONYL® regenerated nylon – yarn derived from fishing nets, and other pre-and post-consumer waste. Hyundai launched a fashion collection by upcycling discarded vehicle materials and fabrics called ‘Re:Style 2021,’ for which virtual supermodel Shudu modelled.
However, the question does arise – if sustainable brands aren’t inclined towards or lack the funding to create digital twins of their physical merchandise, how can VI advocate for them? Are we at risk of duplicating an already damaged business model of profit first planet second even in the virtual worlds?
Early VI climate activists and questions of role play
Digital influencer, Leya Love’s Instagram bio reads ‘Love ambassador for Planet Earth.’ Zoe Dvir, an Israeli virtual icon, speaks out on veganism and healthy living. Noonoouri is anti-fur, anti-plastic and talks about inclusivity and #BLM movement.
Hailing from Tel-Aviv, Zoe is made to stand for animal adoption, women’s rights and veganism. She promoted the brand Amika for being cruelty-free, promotes climate change awareness and frequently speaks out on the effects of our impact on Earth. Noonoouri created by Joerg Zuber has become a luxury fashion icon, collaborating with brands such as Gucci and Versace. However, according to Zuber, her identity has very specific goals – she should not only fascinate but also open people’s eyes to social problems. She often posts on Instagram about ocean plastic pollution and saving bees, among other planet-friendly themes.
In India, a fashion tech company by the name AdamEveFamily has set out to highlight the human impact of the climate crisis through their virtual avatars and influencers. Their roster of digital models hails from islands and geographies lost to natural disasters and climatic changes. From RaroEve to KumarAdam, the ethnic diversity of their influencers is on display.
Despite such impressive identity design and man-made personalities, sceptics believe that VI may simply be role-playing as planet warriors. Do they have the potential to bring about real attitude change about consumption and sustainable living in a rapidly expanding audience?
BTS: the making of a green virtual influencer
Sann Carrière, director and founder of Orobo, a digital solutions provider for the circular economy, is venturing into the virtual influencer industry with Sun, who may be the first green virtual influencer. Slated to launch by this August, she is being modelled after Sann herself. Sun will advocate for environmentally focused brands, circular economies, women entrepreneurs and conscious lifestyle across travel, fashion and food.
Sann shares, “I am a very pragmatic activist, so I decided to contribute to building an alternative sustainable economy instead of creating awareness or educating people on sustainability. Sun is an extension of me, so one pillar to input into her system is the circular economy. The other pillar is about being a female entrepreneur. The angle of lifestyle through conscious travel, conscious food and conscious clothing is also included. Since she is fully driven by AI, what we’re doing is quite pioneering, because there is not a lot of data existing on the real-world implementation of the circular economy. We are training her based on existing information online and real-life experience, which we gather on the go in our other projects.”
Sann reveals that the making of her virtual icon involves using open AI sources, such as ChatGPT to construct and build the identity. She also needs to play editor/curator in the learning loop with the AI, in order to give the final nod on what fits Sun’s identity. While current cost models indicate funding of around 600 grand to train AI, Sann contradicts this through her experience, “The time to manifest is so short and the reality of Sun is here already.”
By sharing her learning curve through Instagram with a semi-open development process, Sann hopes to create a blueprint for many sustainable virtual influencers to follow. She believes that the market has not yet realised the potency of virtual influencers in sparking social and environmental movements. “The market has not made the click yet. When this sets off, there will be influencers like Sun who may be focused, for example, on gender equality completely and have those specific types of brand engagements. There’s so much newness that this specific positioning is still getting there.”
With novelty as an advantage, virtual influencers are currently at the peak of a trend curve, but as this wears off, the masses will once again gravitate towards human connection and realness. There are pros and cons to both virtual and traditional influencers, shares Sann. One of them is measuring carbon footprints.
Sann concedes, “Sun will take computing power, and she’ll need energy to run but we will be quantifying her impact, and we hope to understand to what degree she can be a role model and find her optimum effectiveness in the community.”
FEATURED IMAGE: via Glamour UK | IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Shudugram in pink virtual garments against same pink backdrop