š§¬ Amazonās Reality-Bending Metaverse Campaign for Upload
Plus meet one of the Brazilās biggest brand mascots and learn about Metaās new VR software
Good afternoon!
Welcome back to The Splice š§¬ by VirtualHumans.org: a weekly newsletter curating the latest news, developments, and insights in the virtual influencer space.
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This week, weāre introducing š Brand Campaign Spotlight,Ā a new section where we highlight new, notable virtual influencer campaigns. Check it out!
š§¬ Core Strands from This Week
Amazon Hires Virtual Influencers To Promote New Show: Upload
š The Synopsis:Ā Amazon tapped not one, not two, butĀ four unique virtual influencers to promote the new season of their show āUploadā about a digital afterlife in virtual reality.Ā
š§¬ The Splice:Ā āUpload: The Metaverse Experienceā is a virtual experience that allows fans to explore a virtual version of the show. Each virtual influencer then posted a video of them trying to figure out how to āupload themselvesā to the Metaverse experience.Ā
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Who is Virtual Mascot and Brazilian Icon, CB of Casas Bahia?Ā
š The Synopsis:Ā CB is the brand mascot for Casas Bahia, one of the largest retail brands in Brazil, but heās so much more than just a spokesperson. We learned that heās a gamer, environmentalist, and much more in our interview with CB.Ā
š§¬ The Splice:Ā Many of us know and love familiar advertising icons like the GEICO Gecko. Casas Bahia leaned into the popularity of their brand mascot and then transformed him into a virtual influencer that brings a fresh, Gen-Z perspective to their brandās social feed.Ā
š Brand Campaign Spotlight [NEW]
Vote For Your Favorite Huawei AI Laptop Assistant
š§¬ The Splice:Ā Hong Kong startup āPantheon Labsā created four different AI virtual humans to promote the new Huawei Matebook E laptop. H@na, N0elle, Mav!s, and Pri$ci11a each represent four character types ranging from girl-next-door to powerful businesswoman. Fans who give a reason for voting for their favorite AI will be entered to win a free Huawei smartphone.Ā
š What Weāre Looking at This Week
Metaverse 101: The Basics For Businesses
š Key Quote: "The internet takes data and transforms it into a 2-D image that people can see and sometimes interact with, such as playing a video game on a television. On the other hand, the metaverse takes that same data and puts it into a 3-D image that heightens peoples' senses by making the experience immersive. This time instead of just playing that video game on a screen, the metaverse allows them to put themself into the game for a greater play session. With the metaverse, someone is in the game with bullets flying by their head while performing normal physical actions that alter what theyāre encountering.ā ā Forbes
Metaās next hardware play showsĀ high-endĀ VR is going mainstream
š Key Quote: āThe company is promising that the Cambria VR headset will offer a better ergonomic design, eye and face tracking to facilitate eye contact with others in VR and the ability to transmit facial expressions, and full-color passthrough mixed reality (the passthrough feature on Quest, which lets you pause VR to peek at the real world without removing the headset, is in black and white).ā ā Quartz
Man Who Married Hatsune Miku Hologram Says the Relationship Has Gone Cold
š Key Quote: āKondo is best known for entering into an official marriage with an AI-powered hologram of the internationally popular character, which was produced by tech start-up Gateboxā¦ Unfortunately for the couple, in 2020 Gatebox discontinued its AI service for the hologram, which required an internet connection to a central processing server in order to run, similar to how more commonly used voice assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri, work.ā ā CBR
Best,
VirtualHumans.org
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Insights by Makena Rasmussen, and Christopher Travers.
The story about Kondo and Miku has it's roots in IoT. There are dozens of companies that have had to turn off their servers due to expenses. Either the revenue model was missed or the hardware simply has reached end-of-life status. We all wish that the cloud services for these devices could go on indefinitely, but the default world will always trump digital devices and software. The only real work around is to set up personal servers that host the software for the devices, but then that removes the subscription revenue model from the parent company. Catch 22.