Influencer marketing has been getting a ton of buzz over the past few years. It's always been there, but it rose into prominence along with Instagram, where this marketing technique is extremely popular.
Everybody knows how influencer marketing works. But there's been a new trending niche within influencer marketing called CGI (computer generated imagery) influencer marketing that has baffled a lot of people.
If you would like to learn how it currently works and what it will evolve into, checkout the answers I got from my interview with Tal Melenboim. Tal is a leading marketer with years of experience and several patents related to marketing under his belt.
And he has a ton of experience with CGI influencer marketing. He not only creates CGI influencers for other businesses, but he also helps them grow their presence. In fact, he has his own CGI influencer, Zoe Dvir, who has 30,000+ Instagram followers. Zoe and him have teamed up with several brands for influencer marketing campaigns.
In this interview you will learn about his mindset behind the advertising potential of CGI influencers and what they mean for brands...
How does CGI influencer marketing work?
"CGI influencer marketing works just like any other form of influencer marketing where you team up with an influencer or a bunch of influencers for a sponsored post. You pay them a fee and let them know what you want to promote and then they promote your products to their followers.
The only difference with CGI influencers is that their accounts won't be owned by several individuals. Instead they will be owned by an agency. And sometimes the company itself will own its own influencers, if they would like to create their brand ambassadors."
Why should people choose this over regular influencers already out there?
"Regular influencer marketing works great. People have seen some great results with them. But it has its own set of disadvantages. When you work with an influencer directly it can sometimes not get the best results even if the influencer has a ton of followers. As the influencer isn't really a 'marketer' who can device a well-planned strategy.
This is why you need to hire an agency that will develop a strategy and then find influencers to work with. All this will add up to a really expensive campaign.
But with CGi influencer marketing you cut out the middleman. Actually, the middleman becomes the 'endman'. As the agency will own the CGI influencer themselves, so they won't need to hire one separately on your behalf.
They will just use the CGI influencers they own for your campaign. This will not just help the agency make a bigger profit, but will also work out cheaper for the brand.
And if you are a brand you can own your own influencers. The marketers within your own company can manage their accounts or you can outsource an agency specialising in CGI influencer marketing to help you with this.
This can save you even more money."
Would people really follow and engage with someone who isn't exactly real and buy the products they recommend?
"Yes they will. A CGI influencer not being a 'real' person isn't exactly a big deal now. As for years people have been following accounts that aren't really human. For example take Nala Cat, it is an Instagram account for a cat that has 4 million+ followers.
People know that the cat isn't a real person, but they chose to follow it, engage with it and buy the products it recommends because they can associate with the cat's character (probably because they like cats or have one of their own).
Another popular influencer who isn't exactly real is Aunty Acid.
People follow her and are influenced by her because they can associate with her character. And this is what matters most. If you can create influencers with personalities that your audience can associate with they will follow them and buy the products they recommend."
Why is there a lot of talk about motion graphics in CGI influencer marketing? What's so special about it?
"Right now, CGI influencer marketing is still in its beginning stages and most of the content the accounts publish are photos of the influencer. But soon you will have the ability to create motion graphics with your CGI influencer like in the below video.
This will make it extremely easy for you to get your influencer to pose in anyway in the photos you create. For example, take a look at the below video where I got Zoe Dvir to pose in numerous ways quickly.
You can also create video content using this technology. This is great as videos drive more engagement on networks like Instagram. You can also use them to create video ads as they perform better."
