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Virtual influencers — also known as synthetic influencers or AI avatars — are rapidly becoming a powerful force in marketing, PR, and entertainment. They’re not entirely new, but thanks to major advances in AI, they’re now more lifelike, engaging, and influential.

Built using generative AI, motion design, and voice synthesis, these digital personalities range from hyper realistic humans to stylized computer-generated imagery (CGI) avatars. They’re reshaping brand storytelling, audience engagement, and influence — offering fresh possibilities for consistency, creativity, and control.

Are virtual influencers a passing trend — or a tool worth exploring? Let’s break down why brands are paying attention.

In the world of branding, it’s no longer enough to have a slick logo or a catchy tagline; it’s about the sum total of every touchpoint your customer experiences with your business, from your website, to your email tone, to the way your packaging feels. For small business owners, especially those just starting out, understanding the power of branding can help carve out a place in even the most crowded markets. If your brand feels authentic and consistent, it’s far more likely to build recognition and trust with consumers.

The Emotional Impact of Brand Identity

Think of branding as the personality of your business. It guides how you talk to customers, how you want them to feel when they interact with you, and even how they talk about you to others. It influences whether someone chooses you over a competitor selling an almost identical product. Branding reaches beyond logic and connects with emotion, and emotional resonance is what gets people to remember you.

Consumer Experience Is Built on Consistency

When your brand is dialed in, it enhances the consumer experience at every level. If you’re consistent and thoughtful, customers won’t just buy from you—they’ll engage with you, trust you, and recommend you. But if your messaging feels disjointed or your design is inconsistent, it can make even a good product feel second-rate.

Speak to the Right People the Right Way

One of the most important steps in branding is learning how to reach and speak to your target market. You need to know who your ideal customer is, where they spend their time, what they value, and how they speak. Then you meet them where they are, using language and design that makes them feel seen. The goal isn’t to appeal to everyone—it’s to resonate with the right people.

Explore the Tools in the Branding Toolbox

There are different types of branding, and each offers unique ways to reach your audience. Personal branding might suit a solo consultant or coach, while product branding is ideal if you sell physical items. Then there’s service branding, which hinges on customer experience, and corporate branding, encapsulating a whole company culture. As for channels, you’ve got social media, websites, packaging, signage, newsletters, and even your in-person interactions.

Know Your Competitors to Find Your Edge

Understanding your competition isn’t about copying what others do. It’s about studying what works, where the gaps are, and what makes you different. If all your competitors use a sterile, corporate voice and you bring in warmth and humor, that could become your winning edge. Use that research to carve out space for your brand to offer something fresh and unique while still fitting within your industry’s expectations.

Track the Success of Your Branding Efforts

To know whether your branding efforts are working, you need to set some clear goals and track their performance. You can start by looking at metrics like website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, or customer reviews. If your audience is growing and people are interacting with your content in meaningful ways, that’s a good sign your branding is connecting. But it’s also worth doing periodic brand audits to make sure your message is still landing the way you intend.

Good branding is an evolving process, not a one-time project. As you grow and learn more about your customers and your industry, you’ll likely tweak your visuals, language, or positioning. That’s not failure—that’s growth. The key is to always anchor those changes in the core values and identity you want your business to represent.

Discover how Zenergy Communications can elevate your brand with innovative MARCOM strategies that deliver results!

Marketing is moving fast—and 2025 is proving to be a year of major evolution, not repetition. One of the most impactful advancements? Programmatic marketing—a smarter, faster, and more data-driven way to deliver the right message to the right audience at precisely the right moment. It automates the buying and selling of digital ad space through software platforms, using data and predefined rules to serve ads in real time. Think of traditional advertising like renting a billboard—you pick a location and hope your audience sees it. With programmatic, you’re targeting the individual, not the placement.

Why Values-Driven Storytelling is Gaining Ground

In both B2C and B2B spaces — where quick wins and attribution models dominate — brand-led marketing is making a powerful return.

As data privacy rules tighten and digital noise grows louder, audiences (from everyday consumers to B2B decision-makers) gravitate toward brands that feel human — leading with purpose, not just product. Whether you’re selling sneakers or software, the demand for storytelling and substance is growing. In fact, 82% of consumers prefer brands that reflect their values (Hubspot) — a shift now mirrored in B2B, where trust and mission alignment shape partnerships.

Putting a unified strategy into action with earned media thinking and real-world tactics.

In our March blog post, The Convergence of Marketing and PR, we explored aligning owned, earned, and paid media strategies to maximize impact. Now, we’re zooming in on the next step: how to adopt a PR mindset in your day-to-day marketing.

Modern marketing and PR aren’t separate disciplines. They’re different instruments in the same orchestra — and the strongest strategies are built where they intersect.

While traditional tactics like email outreach and cold calling still play a role, today’s most forward-thinking B2B brands are finding success by embracing innovative lead generation strategies. LinkedIn’s more recent Thought Leader Ad format empowers brands to promote authentic, credible content from trusted individuals in a not-so-promotional way—helping to engage decision-makers more meaningfully. And it works: the most effective advertising is often so subtle that viewers don’t even realize they are seeing an ad.

With permission, companies can sponsor posts from users they’re connected to on LinkedIn—typically employees, executives, industry experts, third-party creators, or even customers. These ads maintain the look and personal touch of a regular post, with only a discreet ‘Promoted by’ label indicating the sponsoring company. By appearing organic in the viewer’s feed, this fresh, engaging ad format helps companies leverage their experts and influencers to build credibility, visibility, and authenticity when reaching B2B decision-makers.