The influencer economy: Macro, micro, and nano world of influencers

The concluding part of the two-part influencer economy series delves into How marketers can use influencers for a brand and what the challenges are

Kriti Sanon (Bareilly Ki Barfi, Mimi) became the first Indian to be global brand ambassador for Pepe Jeans in September this year. Sanon, however, is not the only face of the brand.

 

Shakti Mohan, a dancer and TV personality, who has been a judge on Zee TV’s Dance India Dance pirouettes to display how flexible the jeans are.

 

“You cannot make Sanon pirouette or do headstands and things like that. She is about carpet bombing while Mohan has high affinity in niches that matter,” says Harikrishnan Pillai, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), TheSmallBigIdea, the agency behind the influencer campaign. He adds, “I cannot get Shakti (who has 17.6 million Instagram followers and would be expensive) to post too many times, so I get micro and nano influencers for frequency. They also masquerade as an audience.” (See box)

 

Pepe illustrates the first point in understanding how the influencer economy works — the difference between a brand ambassador and an influencer.

 

“A lot of marketers are confused between the two. Amitabh (Bachchan) may be an ambassador but he will never use Cycle Agarbatti. There is an inverse correlation between the size of the influence and credibility of influence,” says Kalyan Kumar, co-founder and CEO of KlugKlug, an influencer marketing platform.

 

“A celebrity is usually built outside the internet and presents his/her influence inside, whereas an influencer/creator is created inside the internet and then has an impact outside,” says Pillai.

 

That brings this to the second point.

 

Not all influencers need to be semi-celebs. Much depends on the product category, market and stage of the brand’s life among a multitude of factors. Take the Rs 70,000 crore (revenues FY24) UltraTech Cement. Its television advertising features Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador. However, “We use digital media not for advertising but for information and guidance,” says Ajay Dang, president, head marketing.

 

UltraTech gets nearly two-thirds of its revenues directly from young consumers building their homes for the first time.

 

They need help to make decisions such as how to choose bricks and land. UltraTech’s team of engineers on ground and its social media and content presence across 13 languages plugs the information gap. It has brought in over 500 million views in the last four years, says Dang. An active relationship with nearly 2.5 million mason contractors is also geared towards supporting home builders. These are influencers you will not read about – but influencers they are.

 

A mason contractor talking about homebuilding has authority. But what about an Ayurvedic doctor talking about allopathic treatments or an untrained person giving financial tips? Then, there are influencers who are paid by political parties to push their agenda. And this connection, unlike with brands, is never made clear.

 

How do you tackle a virtual influencer who people believe is a real one. Ganji Chudail is a funny character that brands such as Netflix and Swiggy use but there are dozens of such computer generated characters that make money by plugging anything from soft drinks to beauty products.

 

Many brands also use influencers as “a sales channel. They get a percentage of the sales,” says Oindrila Roy, managing director, Publicis India.

 

This is the last point about the influencer ecosystem — the challenge of credibility, trust and, therefore, regulation.

 

The Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body, came up with guidelines for influencer advertising on digital media in the summer of 2021. Since implementing them, ASCI processed 2,767 complaints against brands and influencers for not declaring material connections.

 

Over half of these came from influencers on Instagram and a fifth from those on YouTube. “The ASCI norms have made influencers more responsible. Earlier, betting apps would pay tonnes of money to the apps,” says Shrenik Gandhi, co-founder and CEO, White Rivers.

 

Financial influencers or finfluencers such as Rachna Ranade and Ankur Warikoo, among many others, have helped improve financial literacy and retail investment in the stock markets.

 

But there are thousands of unscrupulous ones giving terrible advice or cheating people of their money.

 

Earlier in 2024, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) took down more than 15,000 ‘content sites’ by unregulated financial influencers to protect investors.

 

But in a country with almost 5 million influencers, regulating the space across product categories will take some doing. Maybe an influencer can start creating videos on how this could be done.   

ALSO READ PART I: The influencer economy: Brands tap social media's vast reach for marketing