With the value of the influencer market projected to reach $110.4 billion by 2033, there is no denying that this marketing strategy can add incredible value to a campaign. Influencer marketing is often associated with consumer brands. We see it regularly on our personal newsfeeds in the form of social media posts and product endorsements. However HR-focused business brands can also use it successfully and effectively through guest blogs, Q&As and even speaker line ups at industry events.
Influencer marketing has become an established part of the modern marketing mix, driven by the growth of social media and the creator economy. Today, influencers and content creators engage directly with their audiences across multiple platforms, building communities based on shared interests and trust. As consumers continue to seek authentic and relatable content, brands can benefit from collaborating with creators whose recommendations feel more credible than traditional advertising, helping to drive awareness, engagement and purchasing decisions.
As with any marketing tool, influencer marketing is constantly evolving. But an oversaturated market has forced brands to create innovative ways of using this technique in their strategies. Where once there was an abundance of trust between the virtual influencer and their following, this has become fractured and unstable following numerous scandals and comical online blunders. Whether that’s selecting the wrong influencer for a specific audience or brand instructions being left on social post captions. Or worse, influencers using hateful, derogatory language and making guarantees they are unable to keep, there is a lot that can go wrong when dealing with influencer marketing.
The main problem with this form of marketing is that humans are imperfect and likely to slip up and make mistakes at some point. This is something that, on a human level, can often be forgiven but in the world of social media, no mistake is too small for the trolls and this can have detrimental impact on brand reputation.
The virtual solution
In an effort to overcome challenges around consistency, brand safety and content scalability, many brands have turned to AI and digital creators. Virtual influencers, such as
Lil Miquela, have worked with the likes of BMW, Prada, Samsung and Calvin Klein. Unlike traditional influencers, virtual personalities can be carefully controlled, allowing brands to maintain messaging consistency and minimise reputational risks. However, their growing popularity raises important questions about authenticity, transparency and trust. In a social media landscape built on human connection, can audiences form genuine relationships with influencers who don’t actually exist, and does it matter if the content still resonates?
Social media has a successful history of putting pressure on users to obtain the unobtainable and brands have homed in on the value that this can bring to them. The idea of everyone always wanting more, bigger, better products, holidays, facial features and lifestyles, means that we will never stop investing in brands that we feel can deliver this to us. Virtual influencers are perfect for this. They’re so photorealistic they can hardly be distinguished from actual humans, aside from the fact that they do not possess any flaws. And the real benefit for businesses? Virtual influencers are unpaid, unbiased, available at the click of a button and increasing in popularity.
Although the concept of virtual influencers has a futuristic feel to it, there has been a build up towards it for many years. Back in 1998 the virtual band Gorillaz curated such a following that they collaborated with brands such as G-shock, Microsoft and Converse, who saw the value in incorporating their personas in their products.
A future for HR-focused brands?
While virtual influencers may be a natural fit for consumer brands, their role is less clear in the HR sector, where influence is typically earned through expertise rather than aspiration. HR professionals are often wary of the term ‘influencer. As a result, many HR-focused brands are embracing a different model, bringing together multiple respected voices to create a collective source of industry insight. Platforms such as
HR Leaders have built thriving communities where CHROs, workplace experts and industry analysts contribute content, share experiences and discuss emerging trends. Rather than creating a single ‘super influencer’, these ecosystems combine diverse expertise to offer brands and HR decision-makers a more credible, collaborative and trusted source of information.
Whether influence comes from a human creator, an AI-generated avatar or a collective community of experts, the principle remains the same: trust is the currency that drives engagement. For HR brands, the future is likely to belong not to virtual celebrities, but to credible networks of voices that combine expertise, authenticity and shared experience to help organisations navigate an increasingly complex world of work.
