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Tag: Zefmo Media

  • Chronicles the growth of the influencer economy in 2022

    Zefmo Media unveils 5th edition of India Influence report

    By Our Staff

     

    Zefmo Media Private Limited (Zefmo), influencer marketing platform, has tabled the fifth edition of the India Influence report, that chronicles the growth of the influencer economy in 2022 and provides a peek into the global trends of 2023. The report lays out how the influencer marketing space is radically transforming itself to provide monetisation avenues for hyperlocal micro-influencers across India’s metros and hinterland.

     

    Shudeep Majumdar, co-founder and chief executive officer at Zefmo, said: “In our most exhaustive influencer market report yet, our team went both broad and deep to collect inputs from a wide variety of emerging content creators. These influencers are at the heart of the creators’ economy and will dictate the content creation trends in times to come. It is heartening to learn that hyperlocal micro-influencers are pushing the boundaries of content creation while effectively monetizing them. Also, this year’s report sheds light on some of the emerging trends for 2023 which marketers may find useful in planning their marketing mix.”

     

    Survey insights of India Influence Report 2022 –

    > Choice of social media platform: 38% – YouTube, 36% – Instagram,  11% – Twitter, 6% – Facebook, 9% – others

    > The ideal time period for videos: 23% – less than one minute, 27% – between one and three minutes, 22% – more than 5 minutes, 33% – can’t say

    > Sectoral split of brand campaigns: 53% – FMCG, 17% – D2C, 14% – Electronic devices, 9% – Finance, 7% – others

    > Preferred content language mix by the brands: 29% – Hindi and other regional languages, 38% – mix (bilingual) of English and regional languages, 33% – English

    > Campaign duration and payout: 44% – increase in campaign duration and hike in payout, 34% – reduction in both campaign duration and payout (vs 2021), 22% – no change in either campaign duration or payout

     

    Influencer marketing trends, 2023 and beyond –

    Trend 01: Metaverse exploration (NFTs) –  Influencers, including those who have recently embarked on their social media journey, are increasingly focussing on how they can create multiple channels to both better engage and monetize via their presence in the metaverse as well as the creation of NFTs. While they remain cognizant of the market fluctuations when it comes to cryptocurrencies, a majority of influencers are bullish regarding the long-term prospects of cryptos and their positive impact on NFT valuations.

    Trend 02: Fractional Brand Ambassadorship – Mega influencers, and even celebrities who have now embraced influencer marketing, are now open to the idea of fractional brand ambassadorship allowing smaller brands to afford them for brand promotion. Going forward, influencers and celebrities will be evaluating endorsing non-competing brands at a fraction of their brand ambassadorship fee due to this innovative model.

    Trend 03: Hyperlocal Micro Influencer Monetisation – Brands across India are now embracing the power of micro-influencers to reach out to their customers. Moreover, brands are now relying on hyperlocal micro-influencers to talk in regional language and approach better relationships with their customers. In doing so, brands are forging a more personal relationship with their customers via these influencers. In turn, such influencers are able to monetize their content across established platforms. This phenomenon is adding to the democratization of the influencer economy.

    Trend 04: Merchandising & Productization – Influencers are keen to monetize their personal brand by promoting their range of merchandise. In addition, influencers are also converting their content streams into ‘products’, such as training courses and knowledge repositories. Over time, content streams have the potential to become knowledge banks on topics ranging from travelogues to coding.

    Trend 05: Brand Agnostic Advocacy – Influencers are associating themselves with multiple brands without any particular affinity towards a certain sector. In fact, influencers are now embracing brands from various backgrounds that are more akin to their content genre rather than endorsing brands that are alike. On the brand side too, marketers are more open towards engaging with influencers whose content comes across as unique and has a high relatability factor with their audience.

     

  • India Influence Report 2020 also revealed that average monthly influencer earning crossed INR 5,000 in 2019

    India Influence Report 2020 casts positive outlook post Covid-19

    By A Correspondent

     

    The influencer marketing industry is confident of rebounding once the Covid-19 lockdown is lifted in a phased manner. According to the third edition of the India Influence Report conducted by Zefmo Media, 72 percent of the respondents expressed their confidence in the revival of influencer marketing by leading brands of the country.

     

    In addition, the survey also revealed that average monthly influencer earning in 2019 crossed INR 5,000 (India Rupees five thousand) in India to become a viable profession for millions of people in the country. However, the outlook for 2020 remains cautious as over 95 percent influencers foresee a dip in earnings due to the Covid-19 impact on the overall industry. The survey insights are especially relevant in the current context as the industry will be grappling with viable options to regain the market once the lockdown is lifted. It also substantiates influencer marketing as a potential vocational avenue for millions of digitally connected and socially active Indians to make an earning while creating meaningful content.

     

    As part of this annual survey, more than 1500 influencers participated in a nationwide survey to gauge the pulse of the influencer landscape in a world that is under the shadow of lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, 83 percent of the influencers have indicated that working from the confines of their homes will not be a constraint in creating new content and will not hinder their ability to improvise since they are not able to venture outdoors. At the same time, 92 percent of the respondents are either already innovating or plan to innovate their content creation strategy in wake of travel and public gathering restrictions across the globe. An overwhelming section of the influencers, about 77 percent have created organic Covid-19 related content in support of the nationwide fight and close to 80 percent of them plan to continue creating content to spread more awareness around the pandemic.

     

    Said Shudeep Majumdar, Co-founder and CEO of Zefmo Media: “In the third edition of the India Influence Report, we focussed on the influencer community, whereas the first two editions leaned towards the brands. The survey findings clearly tell us that well-thought-out, and co-created content by influencers can boost the quality of content for brands during uncertain times. With the lockdown in force and lack of other marketing channels,  influencers are confident that the brands will lean on them to deliver contextual content to keep audiences engaged amid the COVID-19 crisis. While the influencer earnings in 2020 will be impacted, more number of millennials will find their calling in influencer marketing than anywhere else in the world. This is truly democratization of independent content creation which can be commercially remunerative as well.”

     

    The influencers also indicated a number of challenges when it came to content creation. A majority of them, about 55 percent, find it tough to shoot and edit photos or videos in the absence of readily available professionals to do the same. Perhaps because of this, almost half of the respondents, about 49 percent are also reskilling themselves in audio and video editing among other skill-sets, thereby reducing their dependency on outsourced professionals. Erratic cellular data network and broadband speed is a major issue faced by 64 percent of the influencers; two out of three respondents citing internet connectivity as a major issue belongs to non-metro areas of the country.

     

    Above all, due to the lockdown, product reviews have completely stalled, but 47 percent of the influencers have indicated doing reviews of older products or doing more detailed feature reviews to sustain the connection with their followers. As brands will adjust their marketing spends to limit the outflow of cash, 73 percent of the influencers feel that brands will engage them on longer-term contracts rather than one-off paid posts, thus driving economies of scale in addition to the audience connect. In terms of technological adaptations, 58 percent of the influencers have either embarked or are currently evaluating live sessions and webinars on a periodic basis to engage with their audiences in real-time.

     

    The survey was able to gauge a shift in trend towards the emergence of newer genres of content creation by influencers – 64 percent of the influencers are open to trying out a new genre to keep themselves relevant in the ‘social universe’. The top-ten content genres that are likely to emerge in the current scenario include, (1) health & wellbeing, (2) food & nutrition, (3) comedy & satire, (4) do-it-yourself (DIY), (6) music & dance, (7) training & education, (8) fashion & makeup, (9) career & personal finance, and (10) motivation & mental health.