More than 30 percent of brands in India have doubled their influencer marketing budget in the past couple of years. India’s obsession with social media is leading the content creator industry to grow by 25%, around 290 million USD by 2025, estimated in a report by advisory firm Kroll.
Covid-19 was the primary reason this industry boosted because covid-19 enforced mass digitalization since physical activities were halted. In addition, influencer marketing positively impacted the brand’s growth, providing a potential targeted audience with less investment and the highest ROI.
The report suggests “marketers are spending over 10% of their annual digital marketing budgets on influencer marketing to tap into the regional reach provided by influencers.”
On the other hand, reputed influencer marketing company, InfluencerHai suggest companies are entering regional campaigns targeting their local customers, which wasn’t possible in traditional marketing.
InfluencerHai is an Influencer marketing agency based in Delhi NCR that has run multiple national and regional campaigns, having experience running over 1000s of influencer marketing advertisement campaigns.
Today, India has around 80 million content creators, including Nano, Micro, Macro, and Mega Influencers, Streamers, and bloggers.
iCubesWire, a digital marketing agency survey, revealed that 35 percent of customers come from influencers’ posts and videos uploaded on social media platforms such as YouTube, FB, IG, and Twitter. This survey was printed in the Deccan Herald January newspaper.
The importance and rise of nano and micro-influencers in India
Kroll’s report suggests branding moving forward to partnering with Nano and Mirco Influencer over celebrities, citing the higher returns. InfluencerHai suggests, “Nano and Micro influencers lead to raise brand awareness since big influencers like Bhuvan Bam, Harsh Beniwal, etc. already moved forward to mainstream entertainments like Bollywood and OTTs platforms, but Nano and Micro-influencers are in.”
For instance, there’s a content creator Rupal Singh Chauhan. She has barely 23k followers, but her engagement rate is 178% on Instagram, resulting in collaboration with big brands like B Burger, Vogzy, KIA, and more.
Furthermore, another micro influencer Yash Chokshi, He’s a travel and lifestyle blogger who creates content and collaborates with big brands like Apple, Sony, and FujifilmX India. He has an engagement rate of 145%.
The difference between Nano and Micro influencers is that influencers with less than 10k followers are considered Nano, while influencers with over 10k followers and below 50k are labeled as Micro-Influencers. Nano and Micro-influencers may have fewer followers than Mega, but their engagement rates are so high.
India’s Influencers and Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing needs rules and regulations to contain and stop the misrepresentation of facts. In January 2023 consumer affairs ministry of India announced that any misleading advertisement would lead to a fine of up to 20 lacs or the suspension of accounts for two years. Additionally, influencers must self-regulate to ensure and deliver the correct information to the audiences.
Announcement PDF: Consumer affairs ministry of India announcement
