The shifts in influencer business that are coming in 2024

Given the sheer size and scale of the influencer ecosystem, the industry has several expectations from the sector in the coming year. For starters, it hopes the business moves towards more standardization and consistency in commercial terms and better regulation

There is a reason why Ramya Ramachandran, founder of digital content-to-commerce firm Whoppl, has launched an affordable co-shooting space for brands, influencers and individuals to produce content. She can ride the sustained boom in influencer marketing business and offer plug and play facility to millions of creators, making short videos for online platforms. Whoppl Studios that opened its doors in Bandra (Mumbai) in August is now moving to a bigger space in Khar on the back of demand from a sector which is showing no signs of slowing down. The company will open similar facilities in other metros before moving to tier 2 and tier 3 towns – “pockets which will spawn the next set of influencers,” Ramachandran said.

Danish Malik, co-founder of Boomlet Group that operates an influencer marketing vertical, too expects this industry to touch ₹3,000 crore by 2025. A Kalaari Capital report said there are 80 million online content creators and 200,000 full time professional creators in India. Ad network Dentsu’s June report said influencer marketing has a greater impact on GenZ and millennials than traditional brand marketing.

Given the sheer size and scale of the influencer ecosystem, the industry has several expectations from the sector in the coming year.

For starters, it hopes the business moves towards more standardization and consistency in commercial terms and better regulation.

Sahil Chopra, founder & CEO of iCubesWire, a digital marketing solutions company, said the industry needs to mature. “Proliferation of fly-by-night operators in the business often leads to brands and influencers being taken for a ride,” he said. Ramya Ramachandran sees a pressing need for standardisation in influencer fees depending on their followers and engagement. “There are tools to estimate some of these metrics but the eco system is so vast that it will be good to have remuneration benchmarks,” she said. Influencers are in millions and difficult to track unlike celebrity brand ambassadors who are well-known and have more or less fixed rates, she added.

Others are hoping for tighter regulation too. Chopra, for instance, is keen on content moderation so that consumers are not misled into bad buys by influencers. “Influencers have reach so this is a big challenge. Influencers and the platforms should take more responsibility for the content that is being put out,” he said.

For consumer protection, market regulator SEBI is working on stricter rules for influencers making financial recommendations on social media channels. However, Malik said that despite the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) issuing guidelines for digital influencers and mandating paid promotion disclosures, the industry is bypassing the rules. “Since organic content is more effective, brands want to avoid the paid promotion tags and pay a higher price for subtle integrations. The respectable brands do not resort to this, but it has led to creation of a grey market in this business,” Malik said. The industry needs cleaning up and better regulation, he added.

Another expected change is the move towards measuring Return on Investments (RoI) from influencer campaigns. So far, these have been used more for awareness building. “Brands will soon start measuring RoI in the true sense. People talk of impressions and clicks but now they need to see if their influencer campaign led to revenue generation,” said Chopra. “These trends will definitely come through in the next two years if not in 2024,” he added.

Lastly, the influencer business will see an increase in video commerce. “Live streaming online shopping is big in China and Vietnam. We expect it to pick up in India too,” said Ramachandran. She cited the example of Jasmeen Kaur, the boutique owner from Delhi who shot to fame for her Instagram Live sessions and her viral phrase “Just looking like a wow’. “When she’s live streaming she has an audience of at least 2,000 people compared to a known brand’s live stream shopping that may have 200. She’s a sensation for her original and authentic content,” Ramachandran said.

While repetitive and tired content may be red flags in the business, Ramachandran feels more personalized content will be big, going forward. “Influencers and brands need to be more agile and relatable. You need to speak the consumer’s language instead of the brand’s language for greater connect and higher sales,” she said.

Clearly, old ways will not work in the coming year. But with brands looking for fresh, viral content, influencer marketing business will continue to grow.