ShinhanLife uses virtual influencer to appeal to Gen Z

Finance

Published: 07 Jul. 2021, 18:44 Updated: 07 Jul. 2021, 18:46

ShinhanLife uses virtual influencer to appeal to Gen Z

Virtual influencer Rozy featured in an advertisement for ShinhanLife [SHINHANLIFE]

Newly launched life insurance company ShinhanLife has employed a virtual influencer for its video advertisement to better appeal to younger customers, the company said Wednesday.

ShinhanLife is a newly launched life insurer under Shinhan Financial Group. After the group acquired Orange Life, formerly known as ING Life, in 2018, it combined its own life insurer Shinhan Life with Orange Life, to launch ShinhanLife.

The insurer brought 22-year-old virtual influencer Rozy, created by Sidus Studio X, as its main model for the ad. Rozy started being active on social network from 2020 and now has some 26,000 followers on Instagram.

Rozy is not a real person, she's a 100-percent computer generated avatar designed to look and behave like a social media influencer.

Rozy dances in the ad using moves choreographed by the company based on the hottest dances on social networking platforms like TikTok, it said in a statement.

"Unlike existing insurance ads, we selected our main model to approach the millennials and Gen Z in a more familiar way," said Lee Sung-tae, executive vice president at ShinhanLife.

The use of the virtual model in the ad has got attention, with some comments on YouTube reading "I wouldn't have known it was a virtual avatar if they didn't say it."

Rozy even posted on her Instagram page, saying she's excited about her television debut in the ad.

Rozy's Instagram post about her debut on television [SCREEN CAPTURE]

It's not the first time virtual humans have been featured on company advertisements.

Last year, Ikea featured a virtual influencer named Imma in an advertisement in Japan. Imma currently has over 339,000 followers on Instagram.