A new report by EY and Collective Artists Network's Big Bang Social highlights trends in influencer marketing in India and shows that the industry is poised for significant growth. According to the 'State of Influencer Marketing in India' report, influencer marketing in India is expected to surge by 25% to reach Rs 2,344 crore in 2024 and further expand to Rs 3,375 crore by 2026. has been done.
The report highlights the key insight that with 50% of mobile usage dedicated to social media platforms, it is essential for marketers to integrate influencer marketing into their communications strategies. Furthermore, by 2030, India is expected to have 740 million active smartphones. As a result, we expect three of our brand strategies to include influencer marketing.
In an exclusive interview with EY partner Amiya Swarup, Storyboard18 learns how marketers are leveraging large/macro influencers and micro/nano influencers equally, and how brand ambassadors and influencers are making purchasing decisions. We are conducting a deeper analysis to see if it has a significant impact on
What are the key findings of the report?
With over 50% of the time spent on mobile phones and social media, influencers serve as a crucial element to your marketing strategy. About five years ago, digital marketing was his 2% of media investment or media share. Digital marketing now accounts for more than 20 percent for established brands and as high as 80-90 percent for digital-first brands. Around 40 percent of the brands we interviewed spend less than 2 percent of their media spend on influencer marketing, and a similar number range between 2 and 10 percent. A lot of brands that haven't invested in influencer marketing are moving into influencer marketing, and a lot of brands that are investing at least 2% are moving to a higher bucket and really evolving and understanding the influencer marketing landscape. brands that are currently in the market will migrate. Further up.
Which areas will see the biggest increase in influencer marketing spending?
Our research shows that lifestyle is one of the areas where investment is extremely high. But what we are really excited about is automotive, FMCG, e-commerce and BFSI. These are all areas for brands that require a lot of Level 2 and Level 3 conversations and need to generate engagement with consumers. Significant growth is expected in these areas in the future.
How important is the role of an agency in implementing an influencer marketing strategy?
Media agencies play a very important role. They are the brand's media and strategic advisors and are at the forefront of new solutions and new products. They understand how influencer marketing is evolving in each field and ultimately choose the best practices and best results because you need to measure the success of your marketing. Media agencies play a very important role in promoting influencer marketing agencies. Agencies are in the best position to demonstrate integrated marketing to expand your reach. The agency understands the impact of television, digital and print on influencer marketing.
Can you share some insights on this trend of brands approaching nano-influencers to drive their campaigns?
Historically, we have always seen brands wanting to expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. Regional media has been making a big splash, and brands are now using it to reach landscapes outside of cities, which is where I think influencers, especially micro-influencers and nano-influencers, have a very important role to play. We believe that we are fulfilling our mission. Many media outlets realize that they have many influencers.
Let's take radio as an example. Radio jockeys (RJs) are influencers there. RJ has huge influence as these his RJs are very local speaking and have very strong loyalty towards RJ. Macro influencers have a very high reach because they create campaigns with a lot of buzz and very high decibels. However, micro and nano influencers play a very important role in creating engagement in non-urban areas. Our research actually shows that micro-influencers and nano-influencers have significantly higher levels of engagement rates compared to macro-influencers.
What factors do you think are driving the growth of influencer marketing?
Media investments must consider measurement and results. It makes sense for brands to invest in all kinds of media as long as they get big results, so the ecosystem needs to evolve beyond just posts. Secondly, the masses spend more than 50% of their time on social media. Brands are really looking for ways to reach people like you and me in the digital marketing space. You can actually slice and create multiple cohorts with very specific marketing communications. This will probably make you want to know more about the product, and influencer marketing is something that works very well in that area.
Third, there are currently around 3.5 to 4 million influencer creators in India. We surveyed influencers with just over 100 followers. Because we believe that such influencers are the ones who can monetize their content. On the other side of this fence, there are a huge number of influencers waiting to monetize their content. They are already working on monetization and want to increase their following and gain more brand partnerships to strengthen their power. It's driving their businesses forward and with the huge support that the government is giving, there's a lot of support for brands as well. All these factors contribute significantly to the growth of influencer marketing economy in India.
What are the key challenges that influencer marketing currently needs to address?
The most important aspect is increasing the credibility of your influencer marketing content. When you see a sponsored ad, you suddenly develop a certain level of distrust. But that's not the case when you look at the brand's TV commercials featuring celebrities.
Over time, the influencer marketing landscape will evolve in terms of influencers gaining the trust of their audiences.
We surveyed over 100 brands and 500 influencers, as well as 1500 individuals like you and me. Of those, 92% said they actually follow what influencers say. 77% of respondents said influencers actually help them decide whether to purchase a product. These are very reliable and strong indicators that influencers are driving a lot of things purely on the commerce side as well.
It’s important that influencers remain authentic and promote transparency. ACSI plays a very important role in building regulations. They are clear that if product awareness or engagement is generated, it should be tagged as an ad or sponsored paid partnership so that viewers know the influencer is being compensated. There are guidelines set out in the.
In recent years, we have seen cases of celebrities buying followers. So, in this case, the brand always takes a backseat. They don't really trust the numbers that influencers claim. So true engagement is key.
