Influencers are no more a homogenous group of individuals with a humongous number of followers. They have been successful in expanding their domain beyond just content creation and have gradually become a brand themselves.
After two tumultuous years of global pandemic the world entered into an uncertain 2022. However, amidst the numerous changes one fact that we are certain about is that our daily lives will steadily and predominantly remain digital.
The digital advertising industry in India is increasing massively and will be 10x in the next 10 years. But what will dominate the digital media landscape and ad spends is ‘Influencer Marketing’. The advertising industry might be moving towards the metaverse, but the power that real influencers have in our lives is incomparable.
The content that influencers create regarding our daily mundane lives is the panacea of their standout success, and that is what marketers are after. The reach and impact that influencers hold is commendable, as they heavily influence the purchasing decisions of consumers.
As per Facebook, the influencer marketing reached approx $13 Bn in ad spends in 2021. (Source: Forbes)
What is an Influencer Marketing Campaign?
According to the India’s Influencer Marketing Industry Report by Exchange4media and GroupM, over 400 Mn Indians had access to social media before the pandemic.
And undoubtedly, this number has already skyrocketed and there has also been a significant shift in the consumer behaviour.
Here are the top 4 categories that have contributed the most to influencer marketing campaign; F&B (20 percent), Personal Care (25 percent), Fashion & Jewellery (15 percent), and Mobile and electronics (10 percent), and all of these have contributed to approx 70% ad volume of influencer marketing.
You might not be surprised to know that celebrities contribute just 27% while influencers contribute 73% to the ad space and over two-third of the Indian population follows an influencer.
We are sure you don’t need more reasons to tap into the influencer marketing campaign space, however if you are still indecisive here’s a detailed discussion on Influencer Marketing in India.
What are the Types of Influencer Marketing?
Whoever you see on your Instagram feed or YouTube recommendation are all influencers, but as an advertiser you must know the different types of Influencer Marketing.
Here are a few ways to categorize the influencers, that is based on the number of followers, type of influence, type of content, based on the product categories etc. But one of the most common categorizations of influencers is based on the number of followers.
Although there is no clear range of number of followers that define each of the types of influencer marketing, following are the tiers as defined by Influencer Marketing Hub.
- Mega-Influencers: Mega influencers are people with a huge fan following, usually more than a million on any one of the social media platforms. Most mega influencers are celebrities like actors, politicians, sports personalities, artists etc while there are mega influencers who have gained followers through their engaging content. For influencer marketing, mega influencers can be very effective though the charges for the same would be very high.
- Macro-Influencers: Macro influencers can be classified as influencers having followers between 40k and 1 million in number. Most influencers engaged by brands for influencer marketing fall in this category. This category would cover less popular celebrities as well as most top content creators.
- Micro-Influencers: Micro influencers are classified as influencers having followers between 1k and 40k. These are mostly ordinary people having expertise in particular fields and have a strong hold on their audience owing to their engaging content.
- Nano-Influencers: Nano influencers are classified as influencers of highly specialized fields or niche fields who might have less than 1k followers but are highly sought after for expert content.
Why is Influencer Marketing Effective?
There is no doubt that influencers have become synonymous with brands and that reason is enough for advertisers to connect with them. It is through influencers that brands can start a conversation with consumers directly.
A new research found out that micro influencers who have less than 25k active followers, are able to drive in far more engagement than influencers with big-ticket accounts. The follower base of these influencers have much more trust in them and find them authentic.
According to Redseer, a management consulting firm, there are approx 210 Mn internet users in India, who consume content in vernacular languages.
Therefore, even brands and advertisers are focusing on engaging with regional influencers who communicate and engage with the target group much more effectively.
To go by the traditional definition of an influencer, they are a person who gains reputation within a particular community whom they influence through creating content around their daily normal lives.
The number of influencers in India are increasing steadily, anyone who has a significant social media presence, be it YouTube, Instagram, MX Taka Tak, Josh, etc. These influencers have a dedicated follower base and have a good grasp over the content they create.
The growth scale of influencer marketing can be defined into three basic phases. The first phase involves the leveraging of social media which is used to showcase their talent in the area they are interested in.
The content creation may range from artistic skills to create a domain regarding knowledge about a specific topic. The authenticity and personal touch to their content makes them trustworthy to the audience and hence they are heavily dominated by these influencers.
The second phase is when brands start tracking how the influencers can actually ‘influence’ the intention and opinion of the audience in general or their follower-fan base in particular.
This then leads to the monetisation of the brands and the influencers, which results in exhibiting their products and services or paid partnerships.
How Does Influencer Marketing Work?
Influencer marketing might seem quite interesting and beneficial for your business but it is important to know how does influencer marketing work. But worry not, we’ve got your back, here are some pointers to your influencer marketing campaign;
- Company Overview: A brief introduction of your company, vision, mission, brands, products/services, and anything else that would help the influencer to know you better.
- Past Campaigns/Examples: Examples of your past campaigns/ competitor campaigns that would help the influencers understand your expectations.
- Campaign Brief: A detailed brief about your campaign in terms of the goal, the approach etc.
- Target Audience
- Campaign Goal
- Campaign Message
- Objective
- Channels
- Deliverables
- Timelines
- Campaign Reporting
- Content Review Process
- Payment Terms
- Campaign Deliverables: This would include a detailed breakdown of the deliverables along with the deadlines, any other requirement like post caption, description, inspiration, mood board etc
- FAQs or Do’s /Don’ts: A list of frequently asked questions or some ground rules that needs to be followed. For example, the mention of paid partnership in every post.
Influencer Marketing Strategy
1. Knowing Your Audience: Before you go forward with your influencer campaign and choose an influencer of your choice, it is important to understand your audience.
You must be clear regarding the age, demographics and interest areas of your target audience, and based on these factors you must go forward with working with any influencer.
Apart from that, as an advertiser you should also know in detail about the product or service you offer because the influencer promoting your product or service must resonate with it.
2. Connecting with the Right Influencer: The influencer promoting or endorsing your product or service must connect with it. Always keep in mind that when you go for influencer advertising, your brand is also piggybacking on the follower and fan base of the influencer.
Hence, your brand must connect with the influencer’s content, and your ad must not look forced.
For example, BYJU’s must always work with content creators like Dhruv Rathee, Akash Banerjee, or Hiral Sejpal. Cosmetics or personal care products would benefit the most from influencers like Ankush Bhahugana, Kriti Khurrana, or Komal Pandey.
3. Shape Your Conversation: Just choosing the right influencer who suits your brand is never enough, you must creatively craft your message.
Well, keep in mind that the influencer promoting your product or featured in the ad must not seem boring or forced. The message of the ad must look seamless, unique and creative making the ad stand out and result in a high recall rate.
4. Own Your Niche: When it comes to influencer marketing you may think that most of the job will be done by the influencer, but you must own the arena of your brand category.
Hence, your brand must be endorsed by influencers who own their niche and create content for a particular community.
There are influencers like Seema Anand, Leeza Mangaldas and Tanaya Narendra who have created their own niche by producing content related to women’s health and debunking social taboos.
Social Media Influencer Advertising
One can be called an influencer on the basis of the following:
- Someone who has the ability to influence other people’s opinions and decisions due to their popularity, position and relationship with the people.
- Someone who is an established expert in a particular field and has authority on the subject matter.
What is a Social Media Influencer?
Social Media has evolved into a virtual representation of the real world. While everyone has a voice in the real world, social media is a platform that awards everyone a power to express.
There are many people who are willing to use social media platforms to express themselves but might lack the expertise.
In these scenarios, they often follow and borrow content from some other social media users who are experts in their fields or are very popular among the audience.
These social media users with a high number of followers are known as social media influencers.
There was a time when social media influencers were looking for a source of income, however now brands are looking out to engage with influencers. They have realized that their popularity if used creatively can be capitalised by peddling their creativity.
Some influencers like Akash Banerjee (who makes videos related to political issues) have even introduced their own merchandise. These influencers have even been successful to incubate their brands other than endorsement gigs in order to get a steady source of income.
The Emergence of ‘Influencer Owned’
These newly formed ‘influencer owned’ companies range from clothing, accessories and even to selling online courses and workshops in their area of expertise. These entrepreneurial influencers have built their own brand value and encashed it through their line of products or services.
This brand model helps them to engage with their community more uniquely and effectively, especially when audiences are subconsciously driven towards products that give them a feeling of uniqueness.
These products become a point of differentiation for their followers thus increasing their reach through word of mouth for both their content and their products.
These social media influencers are now introducing themselves as brands and are also launching their own brands known as ‘influencer owned’. The companies range from accessories, clothing and even online workshops and courses in their area of expertise.
Influencer Lilly Singh aka Superwoman recently shared her success story on Skill Share and her book How To Be A Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life became the bestseller on New York Times and even won Goodreads Choice Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2017.
The influencer landscape has boosted so much so that even the ‘Cosmopolitan Influencer Awards’ has turned out to be a big thing amongst audiences.
This growing infrastructure of the influencer industry is helping the individuals as well as the brands to connect closely with the consumers.
Especially the emergence of several nano and micro influencers has helped SMEs to tap into influencer marketing, who were unable go for celebrity endorsements.
Influencer Marketing Campaign for SMEs
It’s not a long time ago that brands would exclusively just work with film stars, cricketers and celebrities who enjoyed massive followings and fan base on social media platforms.
But in the past few years influencers have become synonymous with celebrities, from Prajakta Koli, Bhuvan Bam, to fashion and lifestyle influencers like Komal Pandey, Kritika Khurrana (Boho Girl) have a follower base in millions.
However, industry experts are of the opinion that macro and nano influencers are resulting in better engagement than macro influencers. “Nano influencers are probably the largest pool of influencers contributing as much as 20% to the influencer universe,” says Kunal Sawant, Business Head, INCA India, GroupM, WPP, Content and Influencer Marketing. (Source: E4M)
Hence, it’s a win-win scenario for SMEs as nano influencers are cost-effective and can give much better results in terms of sales as well as brand awareness.
Therefore, it won’t be wrong to say that influencer marketing campaigns are not just confined to big brands but are ideal for SMEs too.
“A lot of brands out there are keeping aside 30-40% of their influencer marketing campaign budgets for nano-influencers only,” shares Ishan Jindal, Founder & CEO of Wobb. (Source: E4M)
What has really worked for the influencer and content space is the fact that it has been democratized. Today, for someone to become an influencer all they need is a smartphone, high speed internet and a creative perspective.
Influencer Marketing Examples
Here’s a fun fact, Siddhant More the founder of Mad Over Marketing believes that it was Baba Ramdev who started the influencer trend in India and is one of the prime influencer marketing examples who used his own brand value to make Patanjali the fastest growing FMCG brand in India.
The success of influencer advertising might be transitory and even the life cycle can be fickle. However, one cannot deny the fact that the power of an influencer lies in their trust factor and constant creation of quality content.
They keep our mundane days going, while we scroll down Instagram reels, churning fun content relentlessly as they stay on-point and relevant, until someone more influential comes up.
Here are some influencer marketing examples;
Influencer Marketing in India Statistics 2022
As per the Influencer Marketing Report, the Influencer industry in India is expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of 25% by 2025, and the industry will be worth Rs 2,200 Cr.
This growth can be attributed to the increasing popularity of short video format platforms, the largest contributor being Instagram. Even YouTube, Facebook have introduced short videos and platforms like MX Taka Tak, Josh, Moj are growing massively in Tier 2 & 3 cities.
These short video platforms have increasingly fuelled the social media consumption of people in India. Currently, India has over 448Mn active social media users who spend 2 hours & 25 minutes on an average consuming social media. (Source: Times Of India)
Influencer marketing which had started out as a trend has now turned into a vital component in an advertiser’s ad spend arsenal. Influencer marketing is being used by 93% of marketing campaigns and is becoming a vital part of a brand’s advertising strategy.
Top Influencer Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2022
1. Vocal for Local aka Regional Content: Reaching out to Tier 2 & 3 cities has always acted as a hindrance for brands and advertisers. Today, regional influencers have come to the rescue by creating personalized content in vernacular languages.
These content creators drive an astounding engagement rate and connect with their followers regularly. The industry is seeing a 10X growth in the requirement for regional influencers by big brands in order to make a mark in non-metro cities. (Source: Times Of India)
2. Long Video Formats: In recent times short video formats have gained traction and popularity amongst consumers, however long video formats are soon to make a comeback.
You may have noticed that Instagram has recently introduced the options of short as well as long video format. With this there might also be the revamp of long detailed product reviews by influencers.
3. Podcasts: It is only in the past few years that podcasts have gained popularity in India, mostly due to the pandemic. The rise of independent content creators and influencers led to an increased availability of new content.
As per KPMG’s Media and Entertainment Report 2020, the podcast consumption in India increased by 29.3% in the very first year of COVID with 57.6 Mn monthly listeners.
In fact, India is the 3rd largest consumer of podcasts (after the US and China), according to the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020 study by PwC, podcasts are expected to reach 17.61 million by 2023. So including podcasts in your ad strategy might have bigger perks for you in the future.
4. Authenticity over perfection: Note that influencers are popular because audiences can relate to their lifestyle and the content they create. While celebrities and film stars have a glitzy life that is near perfect, influencers are just like you and me.
They create content based on their daily lives which are better relatable, hence when it comes to influencer marketing authenticity must be prioritized more than perfection.
5. Strong Regulations on Influencer Content: With the growing popularity of the influencer market, ASCI (The Advertisers Standard Council Of India) has released new guidelines on influencer marketing.
These guidelines include, implementation of tax on influencers, identification of promotional content, etc. As an advertiser you must be aware of these guidelines and take them into consideration before getting an influencer onboard.
Influencer Marketing Campaign- Nykaa
Nykaa, the leading cosmetic and lifestyle brand are one of those brands who were quick enough to adapt to the influencer marketing trend. In one of its ad campaigns, Nykaa collaborated with Rohan Joshi, the popular comedian for its exclusive marketing campaign.
It might be surprising for the audience to see a comedian endorsing a cosmetic product, but Nykaa took the unconventional approach to market their brand through ‘Makeup Challenge with Rohan Joshi’.
Top Influencer Marketing Agencies in India
As part of the Top influencer marketing agencies in India, The Media Ant wants to ensure that your influencer advertising campaign gets the utmost scalability, speed and infrastructure that you need for the customers for experiencing better advertising services.
It makes sure that you get the best influencer marketing campaign that will help you execute the best radio ad.
The Media Ant is one of the top influencer marketing agencies in India and has extensive experience in advertising in a vast array of platforms, like print, digital, TV, radio, magazine, cinema and outdoor.
The Media Ant advertising agency can help you in planning and execution of your influencer ad campaigns in the preferred social media platform or ad option.
Most importantly, we can provide you with the best influencer advertising campaign and complete transparency regarding your advertising campaign.
You can visit The Media Ant website or Contact Us for more details regarding Influencer advertising cost, your preferred platform.
Influencer Marketing Services
The Media Ant provides one of the best influencer marketing services in India. You can visit the Influencer page in the TMA website and go through the influencers listed in our website. All you need to do is select the influencer you want to work with and add to the bad.
The Media Ant’s influencer page has the top social media influencers along with their number of followers, influencer type, engagement rate and category their content belong to.This information will help you to make a sound decision as to which influencer you must go with for your ad campaign.
Our agency aims to provide one of the best influencer marketing services with the best rates which will help in the simple and easy execution of your influencer ad campaign.
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