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Social Media: Meet India’s first virtual influencer
A social media firm created Kyra, a virtual character who will use social media to curate an audience, then market herself as a medium with reach
If you’ve watched Black Mirror or Love, Sex + Robots with rapt fascination, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that not only do virtual influencers exist, but are fast becoming immensely popular.
A virtual influencer is a fictional person or character with a social media account that is run by a content creating team, which in turn collaborates with brands. Late last year, India ventured into the virtual influencer space with 21-year-old Kyra (@kyraonig with 88.1K followers), the brainchild of Himanshu Goel, business head at Top Social India.
“We focussed on it as an entire business. Eventually, Kyra will be independent and unrelated to an agency. Even now, the name of our brand isn’t part of her profile,” he says.
Part of the influencer marketing space since 2019, Chandigarh boy Himanshu, 26, is an engineer with an MBA from Ahmedabad, and has been leading the project since its ideation in 2020. Kyra had a soft launch in December 2021, though officially, her date of birth is January 28, 2022.
Causing confusion
“We didn’t know how audiences would react. Would they even know of the concept? But the amount of engagement Kyra got was encouraging, even though there were some trolls,” says Himanshu. “We are getting 1k new followers a day.”
Was there confusion to deal with? Yes, there most certainly was. Some comments asked, ‘Is this Black Mirror?’ Some people called the concept stupid. Some people were like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ and ‘Yeh toh fake hai’. Himanshu and his team had expected these reactions and had prepared for them.
“But even brand managers said that Kyra looked more real than virtual,” he says. “There were comments like ‘aapki asli shakal kaisi hai’, ‘filter kyun laga raha hai’ given the umpteen filters that people use on Instagram. Fortunately, a lot of people already know about the concept of virtual space, especially since Facebook changed its name to Meta.”
Kyra is a hit with brands that follow international trends and are in the fields of technology, lifestyle and fashion, says Himanshu. But her team is being careful about partnerships and is yet to announce any, wanting to set a benchmark for collaborations right at the beginning.
What’s in it for the collaborating brand? “They get their first virtual ambassador,” Himanshu puts it simply. “Plus, imagine this: There’s a brand that wants to do a travel campaign. Flying an actual influencer around the world will be much more expensive than a virtual influencer, who can be placed in front of say, Hawa Mahal, using an actual picture or one recreated in 3D. Kyra has already done ‘shoots’ in front of Amer Fort and so on. Also, virtual influencers will never age or get into controversies. If there is a controversy, you can replace a copywriter or designer and end the controversy instantly. It helps that Kyra’s existence is more of a business or creative decision, not an emotional one. If the story is right, there’s no getting swayed by money.”
Relatable much?
Kyra’s target audience is aged between 18 and 26, extending up to 30, in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Her following, at the moment, is 90 per cent Indian.
“We will be doing content related to what’s happening, like the IPL matches, and post things people care about. Is it possible that people won’t relate to Kyra because she isn’t real? Yes, but that doesn’t mean people won’t engage,” says Himanshu.
The most important thing while developing Kyra’s persona was having a great storyline.
“We looked at the gender and genre she will cater to. Creating her persona was then a business decision since most followers and businesses are in the spaces of lifestyle, technology, fashion, make-up and beauty. And women are followed more than men. That’s the nature of the internet, which has a bigger male audience,” says Himanshu.
Looks weren’t secondary. “We wanted to create someone who looks Indian and can also appeal to a broader audience. We looked at lots of features and went with what was popular among a wide variety of people. In CGI (computer-generated imagery), most artistes create American characters, so getting the Indian-ness was difficult,” Himanshu reveals.
Challenge this
The biggest challenge? To get the CGI right. “There are two types of virtual influencers: Photorealistic virtual influencers and the ones that look more cartoon-ish. We went with the former,” Himanshu says.
Asia’s most popular virtual influencers come from Indonesia, China and Japan. “Imma from Japan has some of the best CGI in the world; it’s better than the US. Imma has 385k followers on Instagram. We have millions of internet users in India, so if we do it right with a great story, we can make Kyra Asia’s most popular virtual influencer,” says Himanshu.
But Kyra, at the moment, is losing out due to lack of access to TikTok, which is wildly popular abroad. Instagram is primarily what works in India, which makes it Kyra’s primary partnership platform, though Himanshu says they may explore Indian platforms like Josh and TakaTak later. Kyra has a soft YouTube channel too, though the focus is on short form and static content. But the plans are endless: a series, music videos and lyric videos.
“The US caters to more of a global audience. India is unique because of the numbers we have on social media; India has great potential. With the Metaverse, we are on the fence right now as audiences are still reacting rather than taking part. But virtual influencers and the Metraverse can actually come together in games like PUBG, and others that have playable characters. Maybe we will see virtual influencers on TV? All you need is powerful storytelling and marketing tools!” Himanshu says.
karishma.kuenzang@hindustantimes.com
From HT Brunch, June 4, 2022
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