What it had to solve
Helen, one of Finland's biggest energy companies, published the children's book Ellen's Energy Adventure — a girl helps lost energy characters Posi and Neg back to the electricity network — and tasked Kurio with bringing the story to social.
The idea
Turn a picture-book heroine into a 3D generative-AI virtual influencer who keeps teaching energy literacy on social media.
How it works
Kurio worked with award-winning 'post-photographer' Antti Karppinen, feeding generative AI with illustrator Eveliina Saarentaus's pictures to build a life-like model of Ellen as a real 7-year-old, shaped in close collaboration with the illustrator, and launched her as @EnergiaEllen.
What it did
The @EnergiaEllen Instagram profile launched as the character's social home; LBB reported no follower or engagement figures.
Background
In April 2023 Helen, one of Finland's biggest energy companies, published the children's book Ellen's Energy Adventure, written by Leandro Righini and Mick Scheinin with illustrations by Aalto University student Eveliina Saarentaus. In it, a little girl helps the lost energy characters Posi and Neg find their way back to the electricity network, learning about energy sources, the climate crisis and saving energy at home along the way.
Kurio was tasked with bringing the story to social media. It turned the 2D illustrated character into a 3D avatar and virtual influencer, @EnergiaEllen — tapping one of the big social media trends highlighted in Kurio's own annual Social Media Marketing Trends report. Award-winning 'post-photographer' Antti Karppinen fed generative AI with the book's illustrations to create a model, a code of Ellen as a real-life 7-year-old girl, working closely with the character's illustrator to get the look right.
Karppinen said the project was both challenging and thrilling: he had to employ all his skills and tools to make Ellen look as life-like as possible, and the results were beyond even his expectations, showcasing what emerging technologies offer storytelling and visual production.
Why it lands
Parents are the household's energy decision-makers; helping them explain energy earns attention an ad cannot buy.
Virtual influencers were a top social trend, letting the character keep posting long after the book launch.
Generative AI turned a 2D picture-book heroine into a believable 7-year-old without casting a child actor.
What you can take
A storybook character can live a second life as a virtual influencer — keep the original illustrator in the loop so the AI model stays on-model.
Since then
LBB reported no follower counts or engagement results; the @EnergiaEllen Instagram profile remains the character's public face beyond the book.
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