Virtual Influencer Campaign by Tech-Fashion Brand NovaCore Drives 300% Engagement Spike, Fuels Industry Ethics Debate
NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2025 – NovaCore, a emerging tech-fashion hybrid brand, today announced record-breaking results from its latest brand campaign starring ZEPHYR, a hyper-realistic virtual influencer created entirely through generative AI. The campaign, which launched across Instagram, TikTok, and metaverse platforms in September, generated a 300% higher engagement rate compared to the company’s previous human-led campaigns, according to internal analytics data shared exclusively with the media.
The four-week campaign reached 12 million unique users and converted at 8.7%, significantly exceeding industry benchmarks. Virtual influencer familiarity among enterprise marketers has skyrocketed from 16.5% to 68.4% over the past two years, with actual brand hiring increasing fivefold during that period. This rapid adoption reflects a fundamental shift in how CMOs view digital personas—not as cost-cutting experiments, but as strategic assets for scalable, consistent brand storytelling. Brands now report that 77% of virtual influencer campaigns outperform traditional creator partnerships, though the strongest results emerge when digital and human influencers complement rather than replace each other.
The campaign’s success has reignited fierce debate across the marketing industry about authenticity, labor displacement, and disclosure transparency. While NovaCore credits ZEPHYR’s precise brand alignment and zero risk of off-message behavior for the campaign’s performance, critics argue the trend threatens the livelihoods of human content creators and erodes the authentic connections that drive influencer marketing’s effectiveness. Industry watchdogs have called for mandatory labeling standards for AI-generated personalities, noting that current FTC guidelines remain ambiguous regarding virtual spokesperson disclosure requirements.
Market data underscores the seismic shift underway. The global virtual influencer market, valued at $6.06 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $45.88 billion by 2030, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 40.8%, according to Market.us research. North America currently commands 42% market share, while Asia-Pacific regions demonstrate the fastest growth at 44% annually. Luxury fashion houses have pioneered the movement—Balmain deployed an entire “digital army” of virtual models, while Fenty Beauty partnered with Noonoouri to champion diversity narratives—but technology brands are now accelerating adoption, with Samsung and MSI launching similar initiatives.
“The data is unambiguous: virtual influencers deliver measurable ROI and unprecedented creative control,” said Marcus Chen, NovaCore’s Chief Marketing Officer. “But we’d be naive to ignore the legitimate concerns about transparency and the creator economy’s future. Our position is that virtual influencers should augment, not replace, human creativity. We’re actively investing in a hybrid model where ZEPHYR handles high-frequency, data-optimized content while our human creator partners focus on storytelling that requires emotional depth and lived experience. The industry must establish ethical guardrails now, before this technology scales beyond our ability to regulate it responsibly.”
The debate extends beyond marketing circles. labor economists estimate that virtual influencers could displace 15-20% of commercial modeling and lower-tier content creation roles by 2027, though they simultaneously create new positions in 3D design, AI training, and digital asset management. The Creator Economy Association has petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to require clear “AI-Generated” disclosures on all virtual influencer content, while the Virtual Influencer Alliance—a trade group representing digital persona studios—advocates for self-regulation and voluntary transparency standards.
NovaCore’s campaign employed advanced visual listening technology to track brand mentions across 4.2 million images and videos, revealing that 68% of user-generated content featuring ZEPHYR omitted affiliate tags, potentially violating disclosure norms. The company has since implemented prominent “Digital Persona” badges on all campaign assets and pledged $500,000 toward industry-wide transparency research.
About NovaCore
NovaCore is a technology-driven fashion platform specializing in sustainable, algorithmically-designed apparel. Founded in 2021, the company integrates AI throughout its supply chain and marketing operations, serving over 500,000 customers across 18 markets. NovaCore is committed to ethical AI deployment and transparent digital marketing practices.
Media Contact:
Sarha Al-Mansoori
Director of Corporate Communications
G42
Email: media@g42.ai
Phone: +971 2555 0100
Website:www.g42.ai
