Lil Miquela is a 19-year-old influencer with over a million followers, thousands of likes, and hundreds of posts on her official Instagram account. The story of this digital creator is incredible because she is actually an artificial intelligence. On her Wikipedia page (yes, she even has one of those…), you can find a more detailed description of “Lil Miquela” (the nickname for Miquela Sousa), defining her as a “computer-generated digital art project of a Spanish-Brazilian-American model and musical artist.”
The startup that created this character is called Brud, a “transmedia studio” that uses a Google Doc as its website. The project is a revolution in marketing strategy, as Amanda Ford, Creative Director at the New York agency Ready Set Rocket, clearly explained: “People know the world we live in; nothing that appears on social media is truly authentic, and no one behaves or expresses themselves as they really are. So, whether it’s a real person in flesh and blood or a robot, I don’t think it matters that much anymore.”
The potential influencer marketing revolution
The real reason Lil Miquela, along with other fictional characters, was born (or rather, created) is marketing. Specifically, a highly innovative marketing strategy that has delivered great results on major stages.
In fact, Lil Miquela has already attended a Prada fashion show in Milan, and her publicist claims she now has deals with Chanel and Fendi. The business model is identical to the one used for human fashion influencers, with the added benefit that Lil Miquela requires no payment for her appearances and posts.
Lil Miquela hacked by Bermuda… Another AI influencer?
Last April, Miquela’s artificial nature was revealed to the world when her profile was hacked by another influencer, Bermuda, who forced Lil Miquela to reveal her true identity. The surprising part is that Bermuda… is also a robot.
To set the scene, on April 18, Bermuda shared an Instagram post featuring herself (blonde, on the left) alongside Lil Miquela (brunette, on the right), teasing the big reveal. In the caption, she wrote: “We need to stick together. We talked it over and she said she’s going to confess everything tomorrow.”
The confession arrived right on time the next day. This time, Lil Miquela chose not to pose for a photo, opting instead to let her words do the talking. It was a buildup of emotion, typed out “with a trembling hand,” leading to a final sentence that erased any lingering doubts about her story: “I’m not a human being.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the incident, the two seem to have become great friends. In recent weeks, they have shared two posts together, writing in the caption that they are “living their best life”—a somewhat awkward literal translation of the quintessential American phrase, “living our best lives.”
A small (yet big) reflection
Our question remains, though… how is it possible that thousands of users didn’t realize she was a digital creation and not a real person?! Sure, the production quality behind Miquela is high, but not quite high enough: there are CGI video games and movies that are much more realistic.
Because of this, we believe the context makes all the difference, specifically the medium where the content is shared. The superficial way content is consumed on a platform like Instagram allowed Brud to create a completely artificial identity without being caught by the majority of her followers. Above all, it allowed them to leverage her success to launch high-profile cross-media marketing campaigns.
How is Lil Miquela Doing in 2024?
Oh right, we almost forgot… We have a confession to make, too: the words you’ve read so far weren’t written recently. They actually come from an article we published back in May 2018.
Back then, Lil Miquela was still at the beginning of her “career” as a virtual influencer. To give you an idea of how much time has passed, Meghan Markle had just married Prince Harry, and Facebook was under investigation for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
And in 2024? Is Lil Miquela still active? Has she gained more followers, or secured partnerships with other brands…?
The New Commercial for the Launch of the BMW iX2, Featuring… Lil Miquela!
Of course she is. Lil Miquela is still active in 2024, having gained 1.5 million followers since 2018, and she is landing even more partnerships with major global brands than ever before.
The latest one is a stunning commercial created by BMW for the launch of its iX2 as part of the “Make it Real” campaign. The star? That’s right, it’s Lil Miquela herself.
The commercial explores the fine line that divides the real from the virtual, human from robot, and the physical from the digital. And Lil Miquela, a virtual creator living in the real world, is a living example of how we can change the future starting from the present, the very same vision BMW is pursuing with its new iX2.
The Most Famous Virtual Influencers of 2024
Artificial intelligence has been talked about a lot in recent years. Between ChatGPT and all the chatbots, self-driving cars, and a thousand daily applications increasingly assisted by AI, the speed at which innovation is traveling is exceeding all our expectations. Even in the field of influencer marketing.
Today, virtual influencers have reached such a level of development that, in some cases, it is truly a challenge to recognize the line that should divide reality from fiction. This is the case with Lil Miquela, but also with many other creators who collaborate day after day with the world’s most famous brands, without us even noticing.
Seeing is believing: among the most followed virtual influencers of 2024, we find Lu do Magalu (@magazineluiza), a Brazilian creator born on YouTube and now followed by 6.8 million fans on Instagram; Aitana Lopez (@fit_aitana), an influencer created by the Spanish fashion “AI-gency” The Clueless; and Shuduiss (@shudu.gram), “the world’s first digital supermodel,” who recently posed for Rabanne, Lanvin, and Louis Vuitton.
What’s Next in the Coming Months?
Given the exponential speed at which innovation is evolving, making an accurate prediction isn’t easy. We know that it’s better to make technology our friend rather than our enemy. That the boundaries between reality and fiction are becoming increasingly blurred. And we also know that this is just the beginning.
Unfortunately, what we cannot do is guess the future. But we will do our absolute best to stay updated on all the major innovations in AI and influencer marketing. So, we do have one piece of advice: to get the latest news from our MAG, join our newsletter. You’ll receive one article a month covering Web 3.0 social trends, tech, design, and much more, delivered comfortably right to your inbox.
