Genies co-founder and CEO Akash Nigam has a favorite anecdote he likes to tell about the relevance of digital avatars and the importance of his newest app. Atlanta rapper Offset once went missing on the day he was supposed to be available for a content creation session, part of a multi-million-dollar brand sponsorship opportunity. Not to be deterred, Offset’s mom contacted the team at Genies, to ask them to quickly create a digital likeness of her son in their distinctive cartoonish style. Her hope was that she could post the Offset avatar on Instagram in lieu of the real deal. This is just one instance of the importance of digital avatars in modern times.
Genies Avatars
Based in Venice, part of Los Angeles County’s Silicon Beach area, Genies is known for its customizable animated avatars. Interestingly for an app of this type, Genies has established brand partnerships with multiple companies such as Bird and Gucci. Users can create a Genie and accessorize it with Gucci branded products. Avatars can be used in a variety of situations in the digital world, from messaging apps to games. Co-founder Evan Rosenbaum is helping build the Genies SDK, to make it easy for other app developers to ‘plug and play’ with Genies assets and incorporate them into their own apps (for a fee, of course).
Genies’ Strategy for Success
Recently, Genies launched an agency to create avatars for high-profile clients besides Offset. Carmelo Anthony, Jared Goff, Rihanna, Blink 182, and many more personalities are members of the Genies Avatar Agency. Genies helps them match with brands seeking sponsorship opportunities. Genies is capable of creating content to deliver on these branding partnerships for its clients, posting on Instagram after running it past the clients’ social media team. Nigam believes that these visually appealing avatars can outperform the personalities themselves in terms of social media engagement: that’s why he wants Genies to be the most intelligent and dynamic avatars on the market.
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