HOW HAS INFLUENCER MARKETING TURNED THE TABLES ON THE INDIAN SALES AND ADVERTISING?

HOW HAS INFLUENCER MARKETING TURNED THE TABLES ON THE INDIAN SALES AND ADVERTISING?

A recent EY study on influencer marketing in India shows that about 12,000 out of 930,000 content creators in the country earn between ₹1 lakh and ₹10 lakh. BigBang.Social, a part of the talent management firm Collective Artists Network, asked for this study. While 77% of creators saw some income growth in the last two years, 86% expect their income to go up by about 10% in the next two years.

The report predicts that influencer marketing will grow by 25% in 2024 reaching ₹2,344 crore, and then hit ₹3,375 crore by 2026. Amiya Swarup partner, marketing advisory, EY India, said, "The findings came from an EY survey of 2,053 people, including 86 brands, 556 creators, and 1,411 other industry experts." 

By 2026, experts predict 40% to 57% of companies in FMCG e-commerce, and automotive sectors will increase their spending on influencer marketing by 10%. Brands focus more on boosting awareness and engagement through influencer campaigns than on getting leads and sales. The survey shows that 29% of marketers are looking into models that link pay to performance to make influencers more accountable.

But Devarajan Iyer executive director & CEO of Lifestyle International, says, "As uncertain times push marketers to spend on channels that deliver better returns, brands will stop focusing on metrics like cost per impression and engagement. Instead, they'll connect their influencer marketing efforts to actual sales." The report points out that 47% of brands chose to run influencer campaigns with nano and micro influencers - creators who have 100 to 100,000 followers - because they cost less to reach people.

Iyer spotted that large companies often team up with huge influencers boasting over a million followers. About 7,000 content makers fall into this group. "Smaller brands pushing new labels tend to use many nano and micro influencers to grow their brand," he said.

The report shows that 73% of content makers work less than 10 hours a week, while some work up to 39 hours in other countries. This hints that most creators see content making as a part-time job.

The survey reveals that marketers still pick influencers by their follower count, but influencers must also think about their engagement rate and the quality of their target audience. Brands increasingly value real connections over reach or social status, says Collective Artists Network group CEO Vijay Subramaniam. By the next two years, almost 39% of content creators think that lifestyle will be the top growth area for influencer marketing. This potential is followed by fashion at 26% and by beauty influencers at 10%.

The list of the top growth drivers for influencer marketers doesn't include popular industries, like banking and tech, but leave those out,” says Subramaniam. He explains that “the lifestyle, fashion and beauty influencers tend to have a more direct appeal to a mass audience and are much more adept at tapping aspirational lifestyles, hence they form a greater part of 2 hacking strategies.

Entertainment is Instagram's largest category, and it is also a stress reliever. A popular Instagram content creator and content coach, Anshu Patni, was surprised to find that comedy and entertainment did not feature on the list of what would convincingly drive growth. The survey identified YouTube and Instagram as the two primary media platforms at which people usually listen to influencers. Continuing to build and increase this can be a source of stress for content creators. What is going on is that when it comes to figuring out the return on their influencer activities, companies are having a great deal of difficulty.

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