Rae, Singapore’s top virtual influencer, first said hello in the digital realm in October 2020. Digitally created by CGI technology and powered by AI, Rae has now grown to become one of Asia’s most popular virtual influencers, with more than 1 million followers across Weibo and Instagram. She is expressive, audacious, and always game to try new things and push boundaries, and with her hyper-realistic personality and love for all things fashion, art, adventure and street culture, she became an instant hit among many.
Team Rae, the innovators behind Rae’s hyper-realistic persona has announced that CapitaLand Investment (CLI), a leading global real estate investment manager listed on the Singapore Exchange, to be her creators aka as her "parents". The persona was one of the many initiatives to test out the commercial viability of new digital and virtual technology, to support retailers in their customer outreach during a time when in-person engagement was highly discouraged, during the recent pandemic.
Tan Bee Leng, Managing Director of Digital Ventures, CLI, said, “ We set out to design Rae as a practical solution to enhance customer engagement by brands via the virtual realm, through a deepened understanding of brand- influencer relationships. With the pandemic accelerating digital adoption globally, Rae struck a chord with the younger audiences and resonated with the new generation of digital-native consumers. Many high-profile international brands, including Audi, ASUS and Origins, have chosen Rae to front their campaigns because of her unique virtual appeal.”
Marking a new phase for the virtual influencer, CapitaLand will be awarding the usage rights of Rae to global marketing and advertising agency network, Dentsu, in a strategic partnership to advance the innovation of virtual identity technology.
The journey of exploration and experimentation with Rae, has led to the setting up of the Digital Ventures team in CapitaLand, the Group’s corporate venture building arm. Anchored on one of CapitaLand’s core values of Enterprising – to keep the Group ahead of market competition and trends to future-proof its competitive edge, Digital Ventures is supported by CapitaLand Innovation Fund, which funds the test-bedding of high-tech innovation in the built environment space. CapitaLand intensifies exploration into the virtual realm with digital venture
"Like I always say, I don’t dream. I do. Byte me" is Rae's fave pitch Rae’s Reality Bytes As a virtual being, Rae has also paved the way for computer-generated virtual influencers in Southeast Asia, celebrating diversity and pushing the boundaries of technology and fashion. As an active advocate for STEM, Rae believes that girls and women should have the opportunity to pursue an education and a career that they dream of.
She has partnered with both local and international retailers to create a seamless blend of the physical and virtual shopping experience and further engage with online shoppers through augmented reality technology. In December 2021, Rae collaborated with CapitaLand’s Funan mall, where she made an appearance to celebrate the festive season and the 15th Anniversary of Molly, one of the most popular figurines from Chinese toy retail giant Pop Mart.
Rae made her first live appearance at the official opening of coliving property, lyf one-north Singapore. Combined with voice modulation solutions, Rae was able to speak, react and engage with the live audience. This marked the first-ever live appearance by a virtual personality in Southeast Asia – a significant step forward in creating an engaging and interactive session seamlessly blending both the real and virtual worlds.
A music video with Singapore-based musician Benjamin Kheng was created based on Rae’s text-to-speech voice generation technology using AI and machine learning to generate audio content almost instantly.
Her social feed represents an inspirational lookbook for those who share her passion for bold designs and street culture. Her lineup of high fashion collaborations includes Italian fashion houses Moschino and Gucci, as well as HKSE-listed Chinese menswear retailer label GXG. Rae has previously appeared in various mixed-reality campaigns, including health tech brand OSIM, and even an 8-piece limited edition e-sticker pack with Singaporean contemporary street artist, Sam Lo.
In April 2022, Rae launched her second non-fungible token (NFT) collection titled ‘Adventures of Tako’ featuring exciting adventures of her virtual pet Tako. In July 2021, Rae debuted and sold out her first collectible animated NFT series, “TAKE A BYTE” featuring Rae’s most exciting and well-loved Instagram posts.
Rae also emerged as the first few female virtual influencers to launch NFTs and make a breakthrough in what was once a male-dominated NFT creator industry. Since then, Rae has been named one of the top global NFT influencers to follow in 2022.
For more information, please visit https://www.hereisrae.com. Follow Rae’s urban adventures on her Instagram account.