As demand for influencer marketing goes up, creators and experts share where the industry will go from here

• Varun Duggirala, Content Chief & Co-founder, The Glitch, Apaksh Gupta, Founder & CEO, One Impression; Sejal Kumar, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be YouNick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment share the new trends that have emerged during the lockdown in influencer marketing and how they continue to stay motivated and creative.
• They further shared with us how this lockdown will impact influencer marketing landscape in the long-run and things that brands need to take cognizance of -- while coming up with campaigns during a crisis.

With the Covid-19 lockdown in its 14th day already, we thought it would be a good time to shine the spotlight on the influencer marketing landscape. Considering people have been stuck at their homes, and will be, for a few more days to come at least, people have been increasingly consuming content online, which has given influencer marketing a boost.

In a riveting conversation around how the influencer marketing ecosystem is shaping up moderated by Varun Duggirala, Content Chief & Co-founder, The Glitch with Apaksh Gupta, Founder & CEO, One Impression; Sejal Kumar, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be YouNick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment spoke about their individual experiences and their views on what lies in the future, for the creators as well as the industry in general.


Speaking about how the industry is shaping up right now, what are the kinds of brands that are investing on influencers, Sheth said, “Currently, a lot of people feel that marketing spends will move to Digital and influencers because there’s not going to be any outdoor productions. Nobody is outdoors so there’s no point spending on billboards and hoardings. The other thing is, even with Digital, when brands create content, they have a big team around it, where they get a production agency and a talent team. But right now, even that’s not going to happen. The only thing is to engage with a lot of content creators and influencers through their own native content pieces. I have been seeing a lot of opportunities but in general since the market is down, its players in e-sports, e-learning or these apps that don’t have any manufacturing liabilities that are spending right now.”

Seconding Sheth, Gupta said, “The net impact is negative as many brands from the FMCG sector who are not spending because of logistics issues and e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon are a huge part of their spend. However, a lot of companies from the gaming sector, education and finance have increased their budgets tremendously because they have no barriers. Secondly, it is an opportunity for them to become an integral part of user behaviour. So we have seen certain categories go really crazy on their spends right now.”

The lockdown comes with its limitations. As a content creator, it can be challenging to stay motivated and be creative. However, for Sejal Kumar, who started her journey as a content creator with a tiny tripod and her parents as her camera crew, house arrest hasn’t really impacted her content. It has, in fact, pushed her to come up with newer ideas, make do with limited resources and reflect on her long-term strategy.

Kumar said, “It is nice to go back to the way I started. It has been annoying for my parents to keep helping me but I like it because it is relaxing and less stressful. This is helping me think a little bit differently. However, it is overbearing when people tell me to make more content because people are at home and consuming it more than ever, I’m not taking too much stress about that. I do what I want to, I take more time out for myself.”

Nick went live on Instagram a year ago and now, that is his primary medium to connect with his followers. He has put YouTube on hold.

He said, “I work with a team and our creation process isn’t exactly raw. We work with good equipment and a proper setup. So currently, I am making all the content that I can create from home. It is all really short and crisp content that you can post on your Instagram rather than on YouTube.”

Brands have turned to digital influencers as consumption and engagement on social media platforms continue to see a significant rise. Pinterest has added 40 million users in the last month. Giants like WHO and Dettol have also recognised the potential in TikTok's reach. With TV production on hold,

Gupta said the influencer marketing industry is only going to grow from here and lead the way.

He said, "People and brands who were not thinking of influencer marketing as a channel, who were spending between 1% to 4%, are looking at it in a major way. While the net impact might be negative at the moment, when things go back to normal, influencer marketing is going to blow up. It is going to be four to five years ahead in the industry."

On what lies ahead for him in the next few weeks, Nick said that he had been waiting to work on a bigger piece of content that he has finally found the time to work on. “While I have not yet decided what platform to put it out on, I am very happy to be finally able to work on a bigger piece of content.”

Kumar thinks that once we resume normalcy, there is going to be a big change in the working environment. Organisations will continue using digital mediums. She said, “They will try to remove activities that do not require people to be in the same room. The process will become obsolete; it is going to be the same with creators as well. For collabs, we may not need to meet people physically.”

On what lies ahead for Monk Entertainment, Sheth explained, “As an organization, our next plan is to figure out how to re-initiate lot of the new wings we had created because after this ends, brands will go all out in terms of spending. Over the last 2-3 months, brands, especially FMCG players, haven’t had enough exposure to the audiences. So the goal is to be able to capitalize on that opportunity.”