'Masaba Masaba has been a big boost for our digital marketing interest': Masaba Gupta

Instagram globally celebrated its tenth birthday this week. In India, it has rolled out a campaign titled 'Love Runs Deep' which calls on brands to share a marketing brief. Five winners will be given access to 25 creators to work with along with USD 25,000 worth of media spends on Instagram. The brands participating could be from all over India and could be big or small businesses. 

 

The jury making for this contest includes Prabha Narasimhan, executive director - home care, Hindustan Unilever and vice president - home care, Unilever South Asia; Asim Warsi, SVP and head e-commerce, Samsung India; Harish Narayanan, CMO, Myntra; Prasanth Kumar, CEO - GroupM, South Asia; Rajdeepak Das, CCO and MD, Leo Burnett, South Asia; and Neha Markanda, head of business marketing, Facebook India. The selection would be done on the basis of originality, creativity, suitability for mobile and expected business outcome. 

 

Post the announcement of the campaign, Instagram held a panel discussion which discussed how brands are using influencers. It featured Sandeep Bhushan, director and head - global marketing solutions, Facebook India, Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia, Neena Gupta, actor and director, and Masaba Gupta, fashion designer and founder, House of Masaba.

Masaba Gupta was first up and she discussed how she and her brand House of Masaba have taken to Instagram along with a trick for brands. She said, “I take a lot of pride in the fact that we are a brand (House of Masaba) – that has been completely created and marketed on Instagram. For young brands like me, it's giving a peak into your world and one that you've created yourself. The trick with Instagram is to be honest. It's an open door to the world and it's important to be honest because the audience is smart and sharp.”

Neena Gupta added, “It’s been only two or three years since I’ve been on Instagram. I didn’t know the power of the medium prior to joining it. My Instagram followers are a big family for me. We talk to each other and sometimes I get tears in my eyes when I read some of the comments. If people have questions for me like where I buy a saree from or buy my earrings from - I tell them. So, it's a personal space for me. It's also made me responsible as to what I speak and put on Instagram. The basic thing is honesty. Earlier during my time, ads were on television or hoardings and no one could question. Now, people can question and ask you many things. Earlier, we had influencers who are actors but because there's been a change in these platforms, there's a change in the influencers too. We used to have a set number of actors and actresses endorsing products. Now, we're getting content for small towns also and we have all kinds of influencers.”

GroupM’s Kumar spoke about trends he’s seeing in the influencer marketing space.

“Frankly, marketers have always leveraged influencers. But today there are platforms supporting them in a better and bigger form. We knew that there are celebs who specialise in different subjects and brands who are looking to also talk about those subjects to come together for them is a natural fit. While food and fashion was being promoted using Instagram, now (post the pandemic) we’re seeing influencers also within genres like music and humour. Another trend is emerging about building social awareness. We're in tough times and brands are looking to engage socially with consumers. The more sincerely and honestly one does this it is better for the brands,” he explained.

Bhushan spoke about the power of Instagram as a medium. “The point of any media platform is to drive brand results. Instagram is one part of the marketing journey for a brand. This year digital influence has increased majorly. Time spent has gone up and the way people have used the medium has also become better. So consumers are willing to be influenced in the right way.”

The Guptas featured in a show, Masaba Masaba, which was released on Netflix recently. Masaba stated that post the show’s release they’ve got an influx of advertising interest.  

“The show has been a big boom for us in terms of getting brands. We didn't expect the show to have such a high viewership too. Brands are now looking to pair us together and individually. We’re getting interest from brands in haircare, skin care, sport and more. It's been really interesting to see that brands that are both young and old that are coming to us. The show has been a big, big boost for our digital marketing interest.”