Microsoft (MSFT) has tapped into social media influencers to help market its Copilot chatbot to a wider array of consumers, according to Bloomberg.
Although Microsoft has had success marketing Copilot to its longtime enterprise customers, it is well behind the monthly and weekly active user totals seen by Google’s (GOOG)(GOOGL) Gemini and OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT, the report said. For example, Copilot assistants receive 150M active monthly users. In comparison, Gemini reports 650M active monthly users, and ChatGPT has recorded 800M active users per week.
According to data from Sensor Tower, Copilot has been downloaded 99M times since its launch compared to 1.4B downloads of ChatGPT, 392M of Gemini, 158M of DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) and 124M of Perplexity.
Influencer Alix Earle, who has nearly 8M followers on TikTok (BDNCE), has been marketing Copilot in some of her videos for months. In one post, she asks Microsoft Copilot how to make herself look younger. In a post on Meta Platforms’ (META) Instagram, where she has nearly 5M followers, she said Copilot is a lifesaver when it comes to making group plans.
“We’re a challenger brand in this area, and we’re kind of up and coming,” said Microsoft Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi in an interview with Bloomberg. “Even if the perceived credibility of the influencer is not very high but the familiarity with the influencer is high, there are some people who would be willing to bite on that apple.”
The use of social media influencers in marketing campaigns is far from new, as it has been utilized by countless brands for at least a decade. Once upon a time, ad campaigns were confined to glossy magazine pages and commercials during scheduled television. That all changed with the rise of social media, as campaigns can now be unleashed via TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and others by individuals who have already amassed a wide audience. Universities now offer programs and courses on influencer marketing.
Some of these campaigns create overnight sensations and lead to a series of viral interactions, such as Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls and Starbucks’ (SBUX) recent Bearista cup phenomenon.