AI-generated avatars and influencer marketing—what brands and creators need to know

TikTok’s reveal of new AI-generated avatars rolling out to both creators and advertisers was one of buzziest creator-related announcements at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week. Influencers at the ad festival are divided on the idea of creating an AI-generated twin—and experts say the use of AI avatars by advertisers could be a slippery legal slope. TikTok’s “Symphony digital avatars,” part of the platform’s larger suite of generative AI tools called “Symphony,” come in two forms—“stock avatars” and “custom avatars.” Stock avatars are effectively AI-generated paid actors, created using videos of real actors that commercially licensed their likenesses. Custom avatars transform a specific content creator or a brand spokesperson into a digital avatar. The objective of TikTok’s launch of AI avatars is to help brands “create the highest volume of content and the widest variety of content,” as scaling up video production is a common pain point for advertisers on the platform, said Adrienne Lahens, global head of operations of TikTok creator marketing solutions. Creators, too, can leverage the feature by building an avatar of themselves to help them produce more videos, more quickly—including in other languages, using TikTok’s new AI dubbing tool. “We believe this technology has the potential to fuel the creator economy and offer new avenues for creators and marketers to scale their content globally,” Lahens’ AI-generated avatar said in a video announcing the new feature (which has since been deleted from the TikTok for Business TikTok account). More from Cannes: How AI is reshaping ad tech Though TikTok is only testing its AI avatar tool with a small group of creators for now, 37 million TikTok creators have already shared posts that include some form of generative AI, said Sofia Hernandez, TikTok’s global head of business marketing, at a Cannes Lions event. “[AI] is used quite widely by creators today,” she said. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns O’Neil Thomas, one of the creators piloting TikTok’s digital avatar feature, told Ad Age he understands why creators might be apprehensive about building an AI-generated twin, but said he believes seeing creators such as himself using the tool to make content will lead more creators to “feel more comfortable to use it themselves.” Thomas said he isn’t afraid that TikTok’s digital avatars will rob him of his career in content creation, either, which is a growing worry among creators. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of over 2,200 creators surveyed by creator education platform Creator Now in September said they were concerned AI “might decrease their value as a creator,” while 50% said they were afraid social media platforms will “replace human content creators with AI-generated content.” Despite those reservations, 97% of the surveyed creators reported using some form of AI in their content production—largely ChatGPT. “I’m the boss of my avatar,” Thomas said. “We’re besties, but when I tell him he has to go home, he’ll go home.” Lucas Dampeyrou, a French TikTok creator who makes educational marketing videos, also has early access to the new AI avatars. He was initially skeptical of AI, he told Ad Age, but soon saw TikTok’s digital avatars as “a massive growth opportunity for me.” Dampeyrou said he also considers introducing AI to his creative process to be a kind of “adapt or die” scenario. “If I’m not going on it, I will lose something,” he said. Meanwhile, creators including Christina Najjar, aka Tinx, have flatly rejected AI and refuse to incorporate it in their content creation. “I’m terrified of AI,” she said at Ad Age’s Cannes panel with VaynerX on Monday. “If I could snap my fingers, I’d shut it all down right now.” “I hate AI.” Influencer Tinx didn’t hold back during our panel on the @vayner_x yacht earlier today. #CannesLions2024 #AdAgeCannes pic.twitter.com/tUpXziRvtx— Ad Age (@adage) June 17, 2024 AI avatars and advertisers Following TikTok’s announcement, Robert Freund, an advertising and e-commerce lawyer, called the platform’s new AI-generated avatars “a trap for unwary advertisers” in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The main concern for brands stems from the FTC’s recently updated endorsement guidelines, which now apply the same regulations to virtual influencers as human ones, he told Ad Age. The FTC’s guidelines require that “any endorsement has to reflect the honest opinion and experience of the person making the endorsement”—something that’s inherently impossible for virtual influencers, as they’re unable to actually use a product themselves, he said. Ethical issues aside for the moment, this is a trap for unwary advertisers.The FTC is clear that all endorsements must reflect the honest beliefs of the endorser, and that explicitly includes virtual/AI influencers.If you use a deepfake/AI creator and script them to say how… https://t.co/3mAklo7ch6— Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw) June 18, 2024 “All the same requirements that apply in traditional influencer marketing and UGC will apply if you’re using a virtual influencer, as well,” Freund said. “If you’re having a virtual influencer talk about their experience with the product, it’s necessarily not true, because they can’t reflect their honest opinion or belief. That’s something that advertisers who want to take advantage of these AI tools and these virtual influencers should think carefully about—the script inputs that they’re feeding those influencers.” That doesn’t mean advertisers can’t capitalize on AI-generated avatars at all, though. Brands can leverage TikTok’s stock avatars (those that function like paid actors), but will need to ensure that their scripts don’t have the avatars explicitly endorse the brand or a product, Freund said. Instead, they should limit the scripting to “qualities of the products, or what’s new about them,” such as an energy drink brand adding more caffeine to its products, he said. Creators, too, should tread carefully when offering brands access to their digital likeness, Freund added. “As with any kind of influencer agreement or endorsement deal, just be really sure that you understand what all the language in that agreement means,” he said. “If you don’t have that understanding, you could find yourself in a situation where your persona is being used to advertise things you could not have imagined and in connection with businesses you’ve never heard of and maybe don’t want to be associated with. And you might not be able to do anything about it, depending on what that agreement says.”

AI-generated avatars and influencer marketing—what brands and creators need to know

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