How brands can have an effective influencer tracking mechanism

The 6^th edition of DIGIXX Summit & Awards 2022, the flagship event of Adgully for the Digital industry, got off to a great start yesterday (April 6, 2022). This year, DIGIXX 2022 is spread over three days of panel discussions, fireside chats and keynote address. Day 1 of the event turned the spotlight on the Influencer ecosystem in India.

Starting off the first day’s proceedings was a panel discussion on ‘Role of data and performance metrics in optimising spends on Influencer Marketing’. Moderated by Shailendra Mehta, Head - Paid Media, Adlift India, the panelists included:

Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker

Arush Chopra, CEO and Co-founder, Just Herbs

Deepti Karthik, SVP - Marketing, Damensch

Shailendra Mehta started the session, elaborating on the topic and noted, “As per data for 2020, the Indian influencer marketing industry values close to Rs 900 crore, and it is expected to grow to Rs 2,200 crore by 2025. This is a compounded annual growth rate of 25%. I have seen a lot of data around influencer marketing and everything is talking about the growth in this industry.”

He went on to ask Karthik Nagarajan to share his thoughts on how brands can have an effective influencer tracking mechanism that lists out all the detailed performance insights.

Karthik Nagarajan replied, “The speed at which this particular industry has grown, especially in the last three years, is phenomenal. Those numbers you talk about are a significant part of what a brand spends overall. What gets measured gets managed better, it is absolutely essential to track it and a lot of work is also happening in that space, native in the last couple of years, as much ad spends on influencers are growing, so has a lot of entrepreneurial research and development on measurement.”

Deepika Karthik added here, “As a marketer, one is used to the Google dashboard and the Facebook dashboard and right about now my teams are developing the influencer dashboard. So, from everything – the reach, impression to engagement that we have with an influencer is a little bit like the testing ground and once we see an influencer is working for us based on data and intelligence and quality of content, we go ahead and have a long term association. I think, as brands continue to invest in influencer marketing, the dissection of how that investment is working or not working is only going to get even more pointed.”

Arush Chopra remarked, “As a brand owner, I think I have always joked with my team that bringing influencers is a little bit like buying art. I mean, you don’t know what something should cost. Costings are arbitrary and as brand owners, we will know when you are looking at the return on your marketing dollar. It becomes very difficult because the conversation is just about getting impressions. Then you are wondering whether you should put a hoarding on the road, which will give you more impression, or you should actually go in with an influencer. I think it becomes very critical to really have a tracking mechanism and there are no two ways about it.”

These are edited excerpts. For the complete discussion, please watch below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akDT82V9N-k