How Companies Digital Influencers Miss the Point of Influencers

Charlie Savidge

cs351916@ohio.edu   

Over the past two decades we have seen the rise of not just social media, but the people who become popular because of it as well. These people are usually known as influencers, content creators, or streamers. Their reach is far as they often have large audiences that they interact with and work to build relationships and trust with their fans. These influencers often work with brands in order to market their products with them. These influencers have a platform to promote the product or service and are reputable and trustworthy for the consumers. These consumers also, like any group have demographic and psychographic data that influencers can use to sell to brands in order to get paid promotions.

Picture source: Verdict.co.uk

 

However there are companies that look to not pay the influencers but rather use technology to create an influencer. In Tiffany Hus's New York Times piece, "These Influencers Aren't Flesh and Blood, Yet Millions Follow Them," she addresses the ethical issue that could arise out of this. A lot of the article is spent explaining Lil Maquela, a virtual influencer, that does not physically exist. She interviewed Bryan Gold, the CEO of #Paid, a company that connects influencers with companies, who said, that virtual influencers could lead companies into “a dangerous area,” adding, “How can consumers trust the message being put out there?” This question is critical when understanding the point of influencers.

The answer is quite simple, they can't. Influencers rise to prominence through commit to themselves or at least an entertaining persona of themselves. A lot of them become popular because of the effort the put into their content, showing their charisma, and having similar interest or opinions to that of their audience. Any semblance of trust or realism is lost with a corporate animation or artificial intelligence because they are not sentient. They're just a product of a company. They ultimately will do whatever the company wants and says, in spite of any possible ethical concerns. They exist solely to sell a product or service to consumers.

While this may seem weird to people in western society, this isn't the first time it has happened. however it is more common and popular in Japan as they have anime idol characters. A popular one is known as Hatsune Mikku and is a character based out of vocaloid software and is known for being a music artist and performs real life concerts as an animated projection. She often works as a part of the companies greater public relations. Recently she has been enlisted by the Japanese governments list of celebrities' to make videos about preventing the spread of Covid-19 as seen in this Kotaku Article that Brian Ashcraft wrote.