In 2022, over 70% of the entire marketing expenditure was accounted for by influencer marketing. “The coming years will see a consistent trend of most brands working with micro and nano influencers. However, influencer marketing space will shift to performance building from brand building,” Yulia Aslamova, head of Asia, DRIM, an online influencer marketing agency told Brandwagon Online.
As per a recent study by market research firm Statista as of 2022, the influencer marketing industry in India was valued at over Rs 12 billion. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25% over the next five years to reach Rs 28 billion by 2026. The company’s maximum performance has come from tier-1 cities and metros such as Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad. “Pune from tier-2 cities does really well in addition to cities such as Jaipur where a lot of influencer activities are undertaken. Kerala and Kolkata are very interesting but difficult markets for us as they require language-specific hyperlocal influencers,” Aslamova observed.
In India, the company claims to work with global brands and companies, namely, Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Zepto, Swiggy, Amazon
However, a recession can severely affect the advertising and marketing sectors as companies have begun to pinch their budgets and focus their spending on direct return on investment (ROI). “An economic recession will hit even growing economies such as India and celebrity influencers or influencers with a large audience will become very expensive for brands. Influencers need to adjust and work on the performance model as brands want guaranteed results,” Aslamova added.
From the over two crore influencers that the company works with in India, Aslamova asserted that there has been a 20 to 25% drop in payout on cost-per-publication for brand awareness campaigns.
On the other hand, Aslamova considers India to be the biggest market for influencer marketing in Asia. “Globally, the US is the biggest market for influencer marketing today, although, the highest engagement comes from South Korea. It is highly dependent on the US market which is already going towards a strong recession. Although we are slowly expanding to South Korea, the market size is around one-tenth the capacity of the Indian market.” she elaborated.