Virtual influencers are having a ‘makeunder’ in 2023
Genuinfluencers: A new class of influencer is emerging.
Meet the ‘genuinfluencer’, a term first coined by trend forecasting company WGSN. These are avatars who garner followers by being relatable rather than aspirational.
Angie, a virtual influencer on Douyin (the original Chinese version of TikTok) created by Jesse Zhang, is setting new beauty standards in China by celebrating her “imperfections.” Think of it as a glow down rather than a glow up.
Credit: Jesse Zhang
Unlike other virtual influencers, whose skin has been smoothed to perfection and whose faces are perfectly symmetrical, Angie’s skin is sometimes dry or flushed, she gets acne and acne scars, her makeup creases and her teeth aren’t perfectly aligned. Instead of posing in designer clothes, she wears simple white T-shirts and athletic shorts.
“The reason I like Angie is that she is more realistic than many people who are actually real,” Xiao Qi, a millennial living in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing and one of Angie’s nearly 300,000 followers, as of December 2021, told CNN.
Yoox, an online luxury marketplace owned by Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, first launched its virtual influencer Daisy in 2018 and is now shifting its strategy.
Yoox’s priority for Daisy in 2021 was to make her more relatable, Yoox brand and communication director Manuela Strippoli told Vogue. “We’re moving away from her initial image where she always seemed flawless and we’re humanizing her by giving her likes and dislikes as well as flaws.”
This includes developing her voice, and having her engage more in social issues. “She has a point of view, whether it’s on fashion or social causes. It’s important that she’s not neutral,” added Strippoli.
Credit: Jesse Zhang
Gen Z’s approach to brands is likely a significant contributor to this shift—the vast majority prefer a brand that they can relate to and that shares their values. In the United States, 73% of gen Zers want a brand that understands them and 76% want a brand that is accepting of a range of identities and experiences, according to October 2020 findings from Wunderman Thompson.
“Being too aspirational is repellent now,” the Guardian reported in August 2021. This sentiment has also filtering into the virtual realm, where brands now have an opportunity to craft their avatar influencers around core values and relatability.