Virtual Influencers - From Cartoons to Deep Fakes

Studio71 Germany has recently launched not one but two virtual influencers and they’ve done a great job with the implementation and marketing around this project (disclosure: I am the global CTO of Studio71). I’ve been thinking about it a lot and on the one hand this idea of a “fake” or “virtual” influencers comes and goes over the years and every time it comes back we all like to pretend that it’s a crazy idea. On the other hand, this time around does feel different as the “virtual influencer” collides with emerging technology such as “deep fakes”.

I don’t want to alarm any of you or spoil the surprise, but Joe Camel isn’t real. You could say he’s “virtual”. Same with Yoda being in a bowling alley to discuss Vodaphone’s new support line queue. Yes, that’s a little different than a virtual girl having an Instagram account while “living” in Berlin, but also…no it’s not, so why do we keep pretending it’s new and writing think pieces about if virtual influencers will work? They work because, if it’s executed correctly, marketing works, and brands love the control and cost savings. What are the downsides? Well, they aren’t real. Some might not care that a fake character likes a certain product or a brand, but time and time again, we’ve seen that most people don’t think that way.

When asked who would most likely capture their attention in an ad out of Wonder Woman or Gal Gadot, 78% of the UK public selected the fictional superhero over the otherworldly actress that plays her. 38% the UK public said they ‘most like’ to see fictional characters in advertising compared to celebrities (22%), musicians (22%) and sports stars (18%).

The big issue is the risk of pissing off the real creators. Are they going to see a virtual creator as an attack or as companies grabbing for their cut of the margin? Again, this seems to not be much of a problem as for every Bugs Bunny drink mix, there is still plenty of opportunity for creators to get in on the massive scale of global advertising.

What about Deepfakes, a technology that uses machine learning to digitally alter someone in a video to appear as someone else? Isn’t that really a “virtual influencer” too just with a real person’s face? This is becoming a hot topic in the creator community with Hank Green talking at length about being unsettled with the rise of channels using Deepfakes for parody accounts.

This is a good thread and certainly something that we (society) need to develop norms around.

Where does “Sassy Justice”, a show based on Trump deep fakes, or Tom Cruise TikToks fall in to this? You can’t draw the line when only your friends are involved. https://t.co/B3off4gp0e

— Mike Flynn (@thatmikeflynn) October 2, 2022

To be clear, these accounts Green is referencing are clearly marked as parody and not using Deepfake technology to make these creators appear to be selling products directly, but they are collecting revenue from the YouTube Partner Program based on content specifically featuring a famous creator’s face. Is that OK? Parody has long been a protected art, but parody has never been potentially so covert. Trey Parker and Matt Stone produced a show called “Sassy Justice” that was entirely based around deepfakes.

It never ran on air, relegated to a YouTube channel, but could the Sassy Justice star, with Donald Trump’s face, promote products or maybe a new CNN show? Probably not, but if the creator was in on the plan? Maybe a creator wanted to maximize their brand capital by allowing a team to deepfake the ads? Would that be a good way to burn out your fan base, an excellent way to undercut the competition with less of a creator fee, or both? It’s a fascinating topic but a question that ultimately needs be answered by society and society doesn’t have an answer yet. It will. Human’s always adapt, just as we adapted after the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast, or the advent of Photoshop by not automatically believing everything you hear or see that seems too wild to be true. We’ll all collectively vote with how we view deepfake technology at some point. How will we get there? By reinventing and tweaking the “virtual influencer” concept again and again, of course!