Last Monday, on the occasion of New York Fashion Week, the American brand PH5 appointed Ama, a CGI character, as “chief decision scientist”, in order to relay its approach in favor of the environment to the public. The pixels-made creature explained why, this Saturday, on Instagram.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

In this article :

Ama, virtual influencer in the PH5 lookbook
Virtual influencers criticized
Ama's role as sustainability spokesperson
Higher engagement rate for CGI influencers

"I’m not here to replace anyone’s potential job, I am here to help Wei and Zoe to connect with you." A week after being appointed "chief decision scientist", on the occasion of New York Fashion Week, the computer-generated character Ama, explains her point of view on virtual influencer to her potential detractors. Ama is a pixels-made creature, like Lil Miquela, Imma or Noonoouri, in a less famous way, since she just started her career, last Monday, by participating in the lookbook of the new ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2021-2022 collection from the American brand PH5.

The virtual influencer Ama poses for the lookbook of PH5's Fall-Winter 2021-2022 ready-to-wear collection, on February 15, 2021, during New York Fashion Week (© Kun-Seok-Lee for PH5)

And if the 3D character gives an explanation a priori, it's because virtual influencers and virtual models are accused by some fashion observers of depriving real professionals of their work. This was the case in 2018 for Shudu, designed by the digital artist Cameron-James Wilson, who was criticized for creating a black-skinned 3D supermodel, rather than paying an actual one to pose for him, in a world of fashion, where diversity is not yet the order of the day.

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Une publication partagée par Shudu (@shudu.gram)

“There are people questioning my existence and the idea of a CGI or AI having a job, and I get it”, wrote Ama, in a post on the Instagram account of PH5, Saturday : "The thing is, they think CGI and AI are replacing their jobs, but the truth is, I was simply brought in to help Wei and Zoe, and the small PH5 team. We are not a big company that can afford to hire our own in-house spokesperson, or a permanent model/face of the brand, the best solution for Wei and Zoe was to create me.”

Wei Lin, the brand's co-founder in 2014 and Zoe Champion, a knitwear stylist who joined her a year ago, worked with the 3D artist Daniela Krol to create Ama's character whose role will be to represent the sustainable approach of PH5 to the public. “We want to make PH5 a more responsible brand, and at the same time, we want to motivate our industry to be more responsible for its impact”, Ama said, in her Instagram post: “Even though fashion is a really traditional industry, we still want to innovate and change, and be a part of the movement.”

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Une publication partagée par Digital Creator | Daniela Krol (@iamdani1)

An initiative with the potential to shake things up or a zeitgeist mediatic move, only time will tell. Still, virtual influencers seem like a good investment, as they are popular with their In Real Life followers. According to the report "The Top Instagram Virtual Influencers in 2020", published on November 9, 2020, by Nick Baklanov, marketing specialist at Hypeauditor, a consulting company specializing in social media influence analysis, “virtual Influencers have almost three times the engagement rate of real influencers”. 3 times more possibilities, let’s hope, of raising awareness in the right way.