While not quite as popular as human influencers yet, more companies are playing with the idea of marketing through virtual influencers. These computer-generated public figures almost have a life of their own - reflected on their social media accounts - and even work with brands to promote the latest products.
Milieu Insight released the results of their ‘Perceptions of Virtual Influencers’ study with N=6000 respondents in Singapore (N=1000 each from Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia)
77% of Southeast Asians are very or somewhat interested to follow virtual influencers on social media, especially Indonesians, Filipinos and Vietnamese. However, trust needs to be built with virtual influencers - afterall, the products they endorse are not truly tried and tested by the influencers themselves; only 12% think that they are more credible than human influencers, while 31% think that they are less credible than the latter
Read more in the links below for the full features:
- MARKETECH APAC: What do Viets perceive of virtual influencers?
- MARKETECH APAC: Thais follow virtual influencers regardless of gender or ethnicity
And check out our infographics visualising the ideal virtual influencers below:
Singapore:
Malaysia:
Thailand:
Vietnam:
Indonesia:
Philippines: