It's well known the impact the pandemic had on social media usage. Magalu’s e-commerce had a historic growth of 22% above the Brazilian market that grew 17,9%, according to Neotrust. And as the relevance of the e-commerce grew, so did the relevance of social media. Brazil is the 3rd largest user of social media in the world. 71% of Brazilians follow an influencer online. The result of this behavior is also true to retail, in the sense that 70.7% have bought a product influenced by a content creator. In January 2021, Lu from Magalu was already well know: 96% of consumers associated her with Magalu, but she needed to springboard her influence potential to consolidate herself as a creator and become profitable to the business as well.

In the last years Lu created a strong bond with her community of followers through a more humanized approach, including taking part in conversations, supporting social causes and “hanging out” with celebrities. As a result, she reached millions of Brazilians. But to turn Lu into a real influencer Magalu needed to transform her into an online diva, a pop culture celebrity and create her own “statements”. The strategy was to turn Lu into a trendsetter and manage her career, making her virtual face famous online and offline. Part of this challenge was to evolve the 3D renderings to increase her ability to interact with her followers and promote new experiences with consumers. To increase her digital presence Magalu developed a calendar of activations on all major social channels. On top of that, Lu co-created with big fashion figures and was the first virtual influencer to appear on live TV.

Virtual assistant, tech guru, activist, model, meme and whatever you can imagine. Lu was always where Magalu needed to connect and engage with its consumers, to sell or build its brand. But the challenge now was to accelerate Lu’s career to make her a social media diva. 2021 was the year to show Lu as she had never been seen before. To achieve that Magalu created custom projects for the biggest social media and TV channels, partnered with global brands and famous artists. Ready? Lu starred in music videos with no one less than Spotify’s #1, Anitta and the global famous DJ Alok, and all the clothes featured in the videos were sold out on Magalu’s supper app. She also made live performances in reality shows and in the Brazilian version of “Dancing with the Stars” at Globo TV, the biggest in Latin America. She commentated on a live soccer streaming on TikTok. She was featured on Magazine covers and became a fashion icon. Lu promoted women’s, LGBTQIA+ and racial causes. She was hired by and co-created with global brands like Apple and McDonald’s and was the first virtual character to become a Red Bull official illustration.

From January/21 to April/22, more than 10,000 content pieces were published on Lu's networks. The strategy of making her a celebrity brought visibility to the brand, fans and dollars (yes, many). Lu has become the world's largest virtual influencer, reaching more than 31 million followers on its social networks. Tik Tok alone had a 400% growth in followers. In total there were more than 1bi of reach, 1bi of impressions and 60MM of interactions. In addition to the +2bi views (Magalu Data - Sprinklr Dashboard Indicators) The results made Lu bigger than Barbie, Minie and Mickey Mouse, Lil Miquela and so many other iconic characters (Virtual Humans). Who sees Lu, sees Magalu: if before it was known, Brand Linked reached 99%. That is, almost an unanimity of those who see the persona remember the brand (Brand Tracking Provokers). Adding to the exorbitant numbers, the expectation is that it generates by the end of the year more than US$17MM (Onbuy).