Virtual Influencer as a Brand Avatar in Interactive Marketing

Alice Audrezet () and Bernadett Koles ()
Additional contact information
Alice Audrezet: Institut Français de La Mode
Bernadett Koles: IÉSEG School of Management

Chapter Chapter 16 in The Palgrave Handbook of Interactive Marketing, 2023, pp 353-376 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Social media influencers have become an integral part of most brands’ interactive marketing strategy for the past 15 years. Leveraging their unique content and substantial follower base, brands benefit from innovative forms of consumer engagement above and beyond more traditional firm-driven approaches. Alongside the numerous human influencers, a new opinion leader—virtual influencers—entered the stage with early examples launched in 2016. Virtual influencers are computer-generated characters or avatars designed and maintained by experts and digital agencies that help brands appeal to and reach desirable target groups effectively through their digital personalities. Despite their potential impact, little is known to date about these virtual opinion leaders. The purpose of this chapter is to offer a detailed presentation of virtual influencers within their ecosystem, taking into consideration their human influencer counterparts as well as consumer perceptions. Building on an extensive review of the literature and exploratory interviews with a group of young consumers, we make specific recommendations for brands as to how to incorporate virtual influencers into their interactive marketing strategy. This chapter is concluded by offering avenues for future research to help scholars and practitioners interested in pursuing this area and boost their understanding of this innovative and promising digital entity.

Keywords: Virtual influencer; Computer-generated images (CGIs); Avatar; Influencer marketing; Social media influencer; Interactive marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-14961-0_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031149610

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-14961-0_16

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().