While many believe that influencer marketing is throwing up opportunities for content creators in tier two cities, a report from Influencer.in states that most influencers come from top metro cities.
The largest percentage of influencers come from Delhi and Mumbai, with 24.9 per cent and 21.2 per cent respectively. Bengaluru and Kolkata contribute a further 7.9 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.
In terms of age, the report revealed that most respondents fall in the 18-30 age bracket, with 50 per cent of them being between 18-24 years old.
The survey was conducted in May and June 2020 and 810 content creators from across the country and across social media platforms were surveyed online.
Vikas Chawla, co-founder, Influencer.in, Social Beat, said, “Lifestyle and fashion continue to be the most powerful categories when it comes to influencer marketing. Beauty and travel follow a close second. Other popular categories include food, parenting and entertainment. The study reports that consumer goods brands leverage influencer marketing the most extensively, with the category contributing to a whopping 70 per cent of all industry categories.”
Influencers are used most by the e-commerce sector (50 per cent), followed by mobile apps (42 per cent) and retail (38 per cent).
Influencer marketing during COVID-19
Influencer marketing has also been affected by the outbreak of the pandemic.
While influencers in the fitness, cooking, mental health and gaming space have seen growth, the lockdown has caused the number of collaborations to have reduced in other categories. Travel and fashion influencers have faced the most challenges. Payment delay is also a concern during this period.
Suneil Chawla, co-founder, Influencer.in, "The COVID-19 pandemic has affected most forms of marketing and influencer marketing is no exception. However, the pandemic has reiterated the necessity for a brand to build trust among its audience and what better way to do that than with influencer marketing? Through the survey, we also wanted to uncover how brands have changed
their approach to influencer marketing during the pandemic and what challenges influencers themselves are facing during this period."
TikTok influencers moving to Instagram, YouTube and Roposo
Post the ban of TikTok in India, 55 per cent users of the platform stated that they will be more active on Instagram followed by 20 per cent stating Youtube as their preference. Roposo has 18 per cent of the users followed by Sharechat (five per cent) and Chingari (one per cent).
Arushi Gupta, head, Influencer.in, said, “The continued rise of Instagram/FB is not surprising and it's great to see that content creators from TikTok are also moving to Instagram, in spite of many Indian alternatives in the scene. 40% of content creators also leverage YouTube and in our view that’s a channel that is likely to grow even further in 2020.”