The archive · Marketing & Growth · Strategic decision · 2003–2023
Magazine Luiza's virtual clerk Lu becomes the world's most-followed virtual influencer
A 2003 website assistant becomes a celebrity: Lu fronts Magalu's sales, then out-earns every human influencer she replaced.
Magazine Luiza
What it had to solve
In 2003, e-commerce was still young in Brazil and first-time buyers were anxious about paying online. Magazine Luiza, a five-decade-old furniture and electronics chain, was pushing its website into a market that did not trust it.
How it works
In 2003 Brazil's e-commerce was in its distrust phase: dial-up shoppers were afraid to pay online, and Magazine Luiza — a furniture and electronics chain founded in 1957 — was pushing its website into that anxiety. The retailer's answer was not better technology but a person: 'Tia Lu' (Aunt Lu), a scripted 2D assistant who lived on the site, explained product specs, walked shoppers through checkout and made the machine feel human.
Lu spent her first seventeen years as a utility, not a celebrity — she built trust by being helpful. In 2020 Magalu partnered with Ogilvy on an explicit bet: brands that did not become creators would lose to creators that became brands. The team rebuilt Lu in 3D, gave her a life, causes, friends and celebrity appearances, and let her front the company's own sales — livestreams, WhatsApp shopping, product launches — so commerce and content were the same thing.
The numbers followed: 31 million followers by 2022, making Lu the world's most-followed virtual influencer — ahead of Barbie, Minnie Mouse and Lil Miquela — with 1.3 billion impressions, 2.3 billion views and 5 million hours watched. By 2024 she was estimated to earn $2.5M a year from 74 sponsored posts, about 40 times the average human influencer and 34 times her nearest virtual rival. The work took the Grand Clio in Media (Use of Talent & Influencers) at the 2023 Clio Awards and became a Harvard Business School case study.
Why it lands
- Utility first: Lu earned trust as a website assistant for seventeen years before asking for fame — attention followed usefulness, not the reverse.
- A named, consistent person outlasts campaigns: the character is owned media that compounds every year since 2003.
- Commerce is part of the content, not an interruption: product recommendations, livestreams and WhatsApp sales are exactly what Lu's audience expects from her.
- The human-run 'humanization principle' — Lu has a life, causes and friends — made a virtual face believable at celebrity scale.
- One owned virtual star replaces an unstable roster of paid humans: no salary disputes, no scandal risk, no departure.
What it did
By 2022 Lu had 31 million followers — the world's most-followed virtual influencer, ahead of Barbie and Lil Miquela — with 2.3 billion views; by 2024 she earned an estimated $2.5M a year from sponsored posts, roughly 40 times the average human influencer.
What you can take
Before asking an audience to love a character, make it useful first: Lu spent seventeen years as a website guide, so Brazilians already trusted her recommendations.
Since then
By 2024 Lu's earnings were estimated at $2.5M a year — 40 times the average human influencer's income and 34 times rival Lil Miquela's — with Magalu keeping her at the centre of its commerce: livestreams, WhatsApp storefront and new-product pushes. The 2023 Clio Grand (Media, Use of Talent & Influencers), Cannes recognition, a Harvard Business School case study and coverage in Axios and other business media cemented her as the reference example of a retail-owned virtual influencer, and Magalu kept evolving her into AI-powered assistant roles.
Sources
- Lu from Magalu | Clio Awards 2023 Grand, Media – Use of Talent & Influencers
- Lu do Magalu: The World's Most Followed Virtual Influencer — A Comprehensive Case Study
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card