‘Brands must study & research thoroughly the influencer they are investing in’

TechManch 2023 saw industry leaders share insights on multiple issues concerning branding in the era of generative AI, digital and mobile marketing, brands marketing and advertising plan for the World Cup, retail automation and much more.

Following standalone sessions, a panel discussion by industry experts discussed how the creator economy empowers millions of people to express their creativity, share their expertise, build their audiences and the challenges that poses for marketers. 

On the panel was Shreya Sachdev, Head Marketing, PUMA India; Sujatha Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, VISA; Gagan Tahiliani, VP Digital, Cardekho Group; Rohan Mehta, CEO, Kinnect; Sunder Venkatraman, Head of content, Creator and Monetisation, Josh.

The following session was chaired by Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder, of White Rivers Media. 

“The creator economy has witnessed an exponential jump in the data in the last couple of years as pre-covid numbers have surpassed the double-digit growth numbers. There are in total 100 million influencers ruling the influencer ecosystem.” Gandhi shared in an opening remark. 

Describing the best creator campaigns and the platform driving maximum ROI to the brand, Tahiliani said, “At Cardekho, we are actively investing on Instagram as on average we are getting views in lakhs. The campaign which I admire the most is the one in which we have a person revealing his frustration while using the automatic car as he loves to drive manual cars and Lata Mangeshkar’s music playing in the background. The reel got an engagement of 30 million on Instagram. I believe that this quirky content is working for us and we are sticking to it.” 

Adding on, Mehta said, “The campaign called ‘Vigil Aunty’ was rolled out on Instagram last year and it is my favourite campaign. It encouraged people across the country to practice safe banking habits. We looped in celebrities to take the campaign to another level. It went on WhatsApp, Josh, Instagram and many other similar platforms. We have been doing this campaign over the years and it is one of the clutter breaking campaigns in the finance space.” 

Sharing more campaigns, Sachdev said, “Last year, On Women’s Day, we converted our stores into photo shoot setups and we featured those who modeled our products. More than 1200 women entered the store and they were displayed on our product’s page. The campaign drove a massive brand engagement with maximum sales.” 

Continuing the discussion, Kumar said, “During the pandemic, we approached people teaching and making them aware of financial frauds and phishing. Moreover, we also tried making people aware of the cashless economy.” 

Venkatraman mentioned that the Josh Alukkas campaign performed well across the Kerala market. It gained huge audience engagement and conversions when the campaign was active. 

Quoting Dream 11’s campaign ‘Dimag Lagana Hai Toh Dream 11 pr lagao’ and taking the discussion forward, Gandhi mentioned why authenticity travels much more than great content.

Commenting on the same, Tahiliani, said, “Auto is a very passionate field and everything we create is drawn out of passion. We invested in Technical Guru Ji, which was very impactful for our audience because Technical Guru Ji himself is an authentic face in influencer marketing.” 

Kumar said, “We look upon who we are targeting and we hire experts to understand and communicate with our audience to proliferate our reach and convey the right message to the targeted audience.” 

Mentioning the brand’s success matrix, Mehta shared that authenticity was the core of the campaigns which gain authenticity and traction these days. 

As for Sachdev, the brand campaign must target the audience based on the product and the targeted audience. She also believes that choosing the right influencer to market the product helps in meeting the brand objectives. Brands must study and research thoroughly the influencer they are investing in. This phenomenon can help brands in gaining substantial engagement, traffic and conversion. 

As closing remarks, panellists mentioned some key pointers describing the future of the creator economy, including how AI will play a significant role in shaping the creator economy, how creators leveraging AI will boost the profitability scales, content standardisation will help brands in investing in right influencer and how creator economy will become a full-fledged profession for many.