India's Influencer Marketing Landscape: The sync between content & creator

Authored by By Bhaktee Modgil, Founder, Spottlightt Social, a digital solutions agency

You can count on advertising and more today when it comes to introducing a brand to the market. Take a moment and think for yourself – What has piqued your interest in a product over the last couple of years? Was it merely the ad campaign? Or were you more invested when you saw a bunch of people (read content creators) talking about a product that they personally used and shared their thoughts on it. Chances are you will pick the latter. 

Earlier people used to get interested in the lives of celebrities. Today, it’s the influencers who are in the spotlight. Influencers are people like you and me who are vocal about their thoughts on specific brands. They share their stories which makes people from different backgrounds and lifestyles relate to them. 

According to GroupM INCA’s India Influencer Marketing Report, India’s influencer marketing domain was valued at INR 900 crore in 2021 and is pegged to reach INR 2,200 crore in 2025. And while brands leverage this trend, ensuring that content fits the creator is essential. Why is this important?

The creator is an extension of the brand

KFC could have just shot an impressive, mouth-watering video advertisement to promote their “Double Down Burger”! Instead, what they did was exciting and stirred curiosity. Prior to the launch, they collaborated with a team of food bloggers and called it a secret burger which generated an initial buzz.

After the product launch, KFC welcomed the bloggers to taste the burger, record a review, and share it on their respective social media handles. The outcome was engaging interesting stories from people who are just the right mix for the target audience.

Brands can benefit from understanding that content creators (or influencers) are a mouthpiece of their service or product. Resonance is key! Influencer marketing campaigns are more likely to succeed if the content and creator are compatible with the brand.

Creating the sync

It is essential for brands to realize the message they want to put out and through whom. Picking up a popular face from Instagram won’t cut it. There needs to be an in-depth background study about the creator, their work and the creative capacity to put forward the right message. The creator needs to have a voice that’s candid, authentic, convincing, informative yet entertaining. In addition, brands must assess the influencer's relevance, content quality, engagement rate, and online reputation before signing them up for a campaign.

The job doesn’t end here. Once the influencer is on board, the brand team needs to take them through an educational exercise where they explain the brand ethos and expectations and work with them to create the content. Staying in sync will help to achieve the best results.

Influencer partnerships should be made to last 

When brands and influencers partner, the ideal approach is to leverage the campaign/ content for as long it’s possible. To state an example; if a fashion brand has partnered with an influencer, the content can be used for sponsored posts or other marketing activities. Otherwise, the brand would have to spend extra moneys to create a content piece which would involve hiring a photographer/ videographer, a model, stylist/ makeup artist, getting a venue and so on.

The goal is to establish long-term partnerships that benefit both parties.