Over a 100 mn Indians have tried products pushed by influencers and its growing

• India has over 3.5-4 million influencers who are divided into buckets like elite, mega, macro and micro, depending on their followers.
  
• As many as 118 million Indians have tried products or services promoted by influencer ads, says a report by Redseer.
  
• Redseer estimates that influencer marketing would be worth $2.8-3.5 billion by 2028.
  

India’s most famed YouTuber Ashish Chanchalani endorses The Souled Store by making a short of him refusing to take money from the ‘brand’ — while pocketing it softly. That’s the kind of wild humour his 14 million followers love. And why not? These shorts shot at home, in the building and the vicinity of the influencers – are taking the eyeballs away from ads and other marketing videos.

“Influencers are becoming the centrepiece of digital advertisement as user generated content (UGC) generates 2X more engagement than professionally generated content (PGC). These new age celebrities have a direct connection to their followers, and the relationship is a crucial tool for advertisers,” says a recent report by Redseer.

Ad experts like Soumya Mohanty, managing director and chief client officer at Kantar claim that digital advertising, which is growing fast, is a different ballgame. To be able to reach the audience better — ads have to be customised to different social media platforms, Mohanty told Business Insider India.

Digitally native influencers, however, have had a leg up when it comes to this market, as opposed to ad makers — with content created for TikTok, Instagram and more — with a wider reach.

“Paid digital ads have limitations in terms of factors such as flexibility in the budget, targeted reach, authentic content, and contextual ad placement. Celebrity endorsement can be very expensive,” says Redseer.

How big is the influencer game?

More than half of India’s internet users — that’s 420 million — use social media. Of these, 67% ie. 281 million follow at least one influencer. And, 28% or 118 million have tried products or services promoted by influencer ads.

“From the perspective of brands, influencers are agents of discovery driven and brand centric commerce, driving the purchase decision of customers,” the report says.

Redseer estimates that influencer marketing would be worth $2.8-3.5 billion by 2028 as more brands leverage them to promote their products.

As the internet has helped democratise fame, India has over 3.5 to 4 million influencers who are divided into buckets like elite, mega, macro and micro, depending on the number of followers they have.

They are also divided into hobbyists, aspiring creators with skill based niche, aspiring creators with opinion based niche and matured creator – depending on the stage of the career.

Source: Redseer

Where do we find them?

While influencers are a great help for small and local brands that need niche placement, the trouble comes with discovering the right influencer, catching them and bringing them on-board.

“One of the primary challenges in influencer marketing is the effective matching of influencers with the specific campaign requirements of brands, along with the ability to accurately assess influencer engagement metrics,” says Mukesh Kumar, associate partner at Redseer.

There are four models at play to tap them — marketing agencies, platforms, talent management agencies and influencer-brand marketplaces.

“With the prospect of better discovery and transparent payouts, hobbyists and aspiring creators are most likely to use the influencer marketplace. Matured creators with high following are comparatively fewer in number, and have lesser propensity to use the marketplace as they’re often represented by talent managers,” the report adds.

Yet discovery is not the only challenge that brands face while engaging. With more middlemen in between, even brands and influencers both face troubles.

“I have no idea about how much my agency charges because I have fixed payouts based on my number of followers,” an unnamed macro influencer said, in the report.

Kumar said that influencers often encounter difficulties in achieving price transparency and securing favourable deals — a pain point that creator marketplaces can solve. Moreover, marketplaces that run on AI and machine learning can help detect fraudulent activities like fake followers — which can add more credibility to growing space.

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