HYPERLOCAL OR NATIONAL INFLUENCER: WHAT WORKS BETTER FOR BRANDS?

At the Digiplus Fest 2023, Mauli Teli of Iba Cosmetics, Bharat Sethi of Rage Coffee, Deepak H, Ipsos and Ankita Jain, Earnly take centerstage to understand the potential benefits and challenges in the hyperlocal and national influencer ecosystem.

Brands across India are now embracing the power of influencers to reach out to their consumers. Moreover, brands are now relying on hyper-local macro and nano influencers to communicate their brand message in a regional message. This helps them target consumers of a specific niche and create more personalised relationships with their consumers.

From the influencer’s perspective, it helps them leverage their reach and monetise it in collaboration with established brands. This ecosystem has fuelled the influencer economy and gained immense traction in the recent past.

According to the India influencer report by Zefmo Media, the organised influencer marketing sector is expected to breach INR 3000 crores (USD 375 million) in FY 2023-24.

To understand this sector better and how it works for brands, Chehneet Kaur, ETBrandequity got in conversation with Mauli Teli, co-founder and chief executive officer, Iba Cosmetics, Bharat Sethi, founder and CEO, Rage Coffee, Deepak H, partner and country head, Ipsos Strategy and Ankita Jain, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Earnly at the Digiplus Fest 2023.

For Iba cosmetics the regional and hyperlocal influencer works better because the content created by these creators is a lot more relevant and relatable to the target audience of the brand.

Sethi of Rage Coffee personally prefers a mix of both. He shared, “Both, hyper local and national influencers, have their own significance. No brand can ignore either. If the brand wants to focus on a mass appeal then a national influencer matters. But, if they want more clicks and conversions, then hyper local influencers may work better.”

The Ipsos executive believes it all depends on which stage the brand is. If the brand is new in the market and wants to create a hype around their product, a national influencer could help them achieve that. Later in the stages when they need results, then someone with a more filtered and relevant audience would work. And finally when both the targets are achieved, a mix of both works best.

Jain said, “Sometimes when you are trying to talk to everybody, you end up talking to nobody. Hence, micro and nano influencers play a better role in terms of reach and relatability.”

Further, according to the INCA influencer report, food, fashion and lifestyle are the three genres where influencer marketing is seen the most today.

Deepak shared, “I think this is so because these are the most basic essentials today and we see them around us growing up. Most of the influencers have comfort in making content around these topics I believe.”

But the challenge for brands today is to differentiate between organic and fake followers of influencers. So, in a time where purchasing likes and followers is as easy as uploading a post, how do they really measure revenue?

Teli shared, “Even if we get recommended by an agency about an influencer, we take the painstaking effort to check their profiles. This helps us to see if they align with our brand philosophy and whether their engagement numbers look real or not.”

“Once you come across so many influencers, it's easier to understand if they have built their presence organically or have weird Russian names in their followers list,” she added.

The Rage Coffee executive shared, “Keeping all things aside, word of mouth and goodwill via influencers is something a brand can’t track in numbers. Also on the other hand, tracking everything on Instagram is not the best way to measure Instagram’s ability.”

Today, another challenge faced by brands is that influencers tend to not endorse any one brand, they are more brand agnostic. In this scenario, how do brands ensure their messaging comes across as unique?

A lot of influencers promote a lot of brands. However, if you are able to put across what is unique about your product or campaign in an interesting way, you do generate engagement, according to Teli.

The Ipsos executive recalled that there have been times when people remember what the ad was about but it takes them time to recall which celebrity featured in that ad. This is when the brand messaging is so strong that the influencer or celebrity is just a medium of conveying the message.

“Hence, it's the brands responsibility to put focus on their signature elements and not the influencer’s signature elements.”

-       Brandequity ET