Miquela Sousa: the computer-generated influencer

Miquela Sousa ticks all the boxes for a model of the moment: exotic, attractive, and huge on Instagram. She’s also fake.

Miquela Sousa in an Instagram post promoting the Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant in New York.

Miquela Sousa, who recently graced billboards from London to Japan as part of an Ugg advertising campaign, ticks all the boxes for a model of the moment: exotic, attractive, and huge on Instagram.

She is also entirely fake, a computer-generated character who — despite what she says on Instagram — can’t feel the pain of a hangover or appreciate how hard it is to walk in stilettos.

Miquela was created by a Los Angeles start-up called Brud, which is betting that it can turn her and an expanding group of CGI-based social-media personalities into a cast of characters that is one part Marvel Comics and one part Kardashian. Like comic-book characters or even Barbie, they can evolve with the times without ageing. And their drama can be managed.

“You can create the Kardash­ians without any of the inherent ­issues that come with being human,” said Cyan Banister, a partner at Founders Fund, which put in $US100,000 for Brud’s seed round in May last year.

Brud earlier this year raised an additional $US6 million in venture capital from firms including Sequoia Capital and BoxGroup, sources say.

Over the past decade, social media’s so-called influencers have become online celebrities thanks to daily postings about beauty how-tos, video games and pranks. They have also become highly sought-after brand ambassadors.

Miquela, sometimes called Lil Miquela, is a test of the power of social-media celebrity. She also flies in the face of the latest trend in digital marketing, in which advertisers and influencers say users are clamouring for content that is “authentic” rather than overly glossy and curated.

Miquela is anything but authentic. Brud launched Miquela on Instagram in 2016. With carefully composed images, she appeared lifelike and didn’t identify herself as artificial until April as part of a staged drama that played out over a series of posts. Over ensuing months, the Miquela character on Instagram professed to be angry at Brud for lying to her about her true origin story.

If Miquela were human, her 1.5 million followers on Instagram could command about $12,000-$25,000 per post to promote a product, according to experts in influencer marketing.

Like human influencers, Miquela posts photos showing herself at premium restaurants such as Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the New York City suburbs, which features a menu for January that costs more than $US400 with drinks. In addition to collaborating with high-end fashion brands — Ugg declined to say what it paid to use Miquela’s image — she has released singles on Spotify.

Miquela’s storylines are composed by a group of writers at Brud in Los Angeles, according to people close to the company. Brud co-founder Trevor McFedries, who calls himself the company’s chief of compassion, is a former DJ and songwriter for musicians including Katy Perry and Kesha.

Ms Banister and other investors say they believe social media can mature into another medium for the creation of characters with all sorts of powers and personal histories, as comic books have done.

From there, the characters could be deployed for product deals, movies or headlining their own Netflix shows, said Kara Nortman, a partner at Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures.

Brud wants to create a suite of characters, some of whom exist on different social-media platforms, with multiple interweaving storylines in the same vein as the Marvel universe, according to Ms Banister. Earlier this year, a new blonde-haired, blue-eyed character named Bermuda made her debut as a villain. She was the antithesis to Miquela, who supported Black Lives Matter and was confused about her non-human background. Bermuda was a Trump supporter and proud to be fake.

Some wonder whether Miquela’s shelf life can survive beyond her novelty as a CGI influencer, especially now that the mystery around her backstory has been ­revealed.

Brud’s backers acknowledge they are making a gamble about where pop culture is headed.

“A lot could go wrong. This is highly speculative,” Ms Banister said. “Having a few million followers on Instagram is exciting, but becoming a worldwide recognisable brand like the Kardashians is the goal.”

To do that, the characters and their stories have to be compelling. There has already been some editing. Bermuda, who has about 120,000 Instagram followers, has been remade into a gentler character after her villainous streak did not resonate as strongly with users. Her previously loud right-wing political thoughts have also been played down.