With an eye on the metaverse, digital avatar companies move millions

Major fashion magazines, Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, have already given pages to model Shudu. She campaigns for Hyundai, wears Tiffany jewelry and has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.

Shudu is not a person, he is a 3D digital character and agent.

She, Miquela, J-YUNG 준영, Daisy, Candy and a host of other profiles represent a market that is hard to name, but one that moves millions of dollars.

They cannot be called digital influencers, because that term designates people who use the internet to promote products, ideas or anything else. They are digital characters, avatars or virtual influencers, as they are called.

Shudu was created in 2018 by designer Cameron-James Wilson, owner of The Digitals, an agency in California dedicated only to virtual models. She can easily be mistaken for a real person if printed in a fashion catalog alongside real models.

She and Miquela (the most famous, with 3 million followers on Instagram) have been successful on the internet for four years, but today their creators come out ahead as the industry begins to invest in possibilities for the metaverse.

Technology companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft are investing for the next decade to be one of even more fusion between physical and digital, with virtual environments accessed through glasses and other augmented reality objects.

“I started the agency in 2018, when I wanted to take a step back in my photography career and find something more creative. With 3D art, you can create anything you can imagine, all from your home computer,” says Wilson.

With the appeal of the metaverse, he claims that his digital models started to make more sense for brands.

“They even represent sustainability benefits. Recently, we’ve seen fashion events go digital to reduce the carbon footprint associated with the event,” he says.

The designer doesn’t talk about finance, but his characters are associated with brands like Mercedes-Benz, Coca Cola and Samsung, in addition to all the fashion publications in which they appeared.

With an eye on this scenario, a Brazilian company founded nine months ago has already received a contribution of R$ 20 million to create avatars. The first copy is called Satiko and was commissioned by Sabrina Sato. The amount paid for the character is not disclosed.

“It was a three-month work to define his personality, image, how it would be, what it would represent”, says Rodrigo Tavares, president of Biobotics. “The celebrity has to love her avatar. If not, we don’t release her.”

Sabrina and Satiko interact through social media. Satiko has a mole in the middle of her forehead, slanted eyes and a ‘good vibes’ personality.

“I am a being in constant change. I adapt as the world evolves. I grow and learn all the time. I am ageless. I am free. I am now. I am multiple,” he says in an Instagram post.

Biobotics, the self-styled first digital modeling agency in Brazil, has a multidisciplinary team of 25 people. Develops 3D avatar modeling to animation and character management on social media.

“We saw that it was a trend in the United States, in Asia, with large companies and artists sponsoring avatars. There was no work in this direction in Brazil, except for Lu, from Magalu [Magazine Luiza], the most engaged virtual influencer on the planet,” says Tavares.

Magazine Luiza’s character is a good example of the sector. It started as an e-commerce aid robot in 2003 and is now even “hired” to appear in profiles for other brands.

Why would a company hire a virtual character if it can pay a celebrity to advertise? For Fátima Pissara, owner of Mynd8, an influence marketing and influencer management project agency, an avatar can work as an extension of the artist.

“For the brand, it may be worth it because the character gets closer to the public, generates a feeling of virtual friendship. Sabrina Sato doesn’t have time to do everything, but Satiko can represent her on the internet,” he says.

Miquela’s YouTube channel has more than 280,000 subscribers. It gives a dimension of the marketing potential that a fictional animation can generate for other brands.

Miquela’s clips became the theme song for a series on Amazon and she appears with dozens of artists on her channel, which mainly dialogues with TikTok’s young and connected audience.

According to American Vogue, companies pay at least US$ 8,500 (R$ 48,400) for Miquela to mention their brands on Instagram.

An estimate by influence marketing company MediaKix points to global spending of $5 billion (BRL 28.4 billion) to $10 billion (BRL 57 billion) with influencers in 2020, with $2. 3 billion (R$ 13 billion) on Instagram alone.