Danish Malik’s entrepreneurial aim ignited as a child when he aced strategies games such as Monopoly, Ages of Empire, Rise of Nations and a lot more where he used to be intrigued to take upon newer strategies and implement them. However, knowing the number game was required and to get familiar with the Industrial number game, he took up a profession in the banking field, where he furnished my skills under the scope of work at Barclays and CITI Bank upon learning wealth management. Later, while continuing to work, he decided to take up freelancing projects which involved Digital Ideation and Creative Strategy for brands such as Mtv, Box Cricket League, Margaret Dabbs London, Swapnil Shinde (Saisha Shinde currently), Renu Oberior, ET Times Now and also got a chance to work with Vasundara Raje’s “Teen Saal Suraj ke” with DIPR Rajasthan Govt, AK vs AK movie to name a few.
In 2022, As the country continue to combat COVID 19 and emerging omicron virus, As people continue to be cautious about venturing out, the digital and social media initiatives in advertising and influencer led marketing will become more prevalent.
The persistent pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation in many sectors, mainly in e- Commerce and social commerce space. Brands and retailers are partnering with influencer and micro/ nano content creators and experimenting with new social commerce platforms to expand their sales channels.
Overview
In today’s digital drive world, consumers are seeking one another to verify the product/service they want to buy is the appropriate one for them, and they’re doing it across many platforms including social media, product review websites, and online forums.
Since there is boom in consumer led influencer marketing post the first phase of covid outbreak, brands were actively engaging with content creators and key influencers in the industry and were quickly becoming the key element in their marketing strategy.
Before the advent of the recent variant of omicron variant, influencer marketing within the pandemic was heading steadily to primarily three things:
- The regional or niche Influencers
- Micro deployments mainly in quantity and most importantly
- Creating unique content aided by accurate location selection
The influencer community combined with growing internet and smartphone penetration, enables brand to enhance the consumer experience, in fact, engaging with influencers via social media is still considered to be a top marketing trend for marketers. This marketing strategy, on the contrary, allows influencers/content providers to monetize their influence.
Influencer marketing, when done right, may result in quick revenue growth, increased brand recognition, and high brand equity.
The challenge & brand’s expenditure
Even before the onset of the grim pandemic, the influencer market was seeing a significant growth. Influencer’s post covid are becoming an increasingly important element of a well-established brand’s marketing strategy.
As pandemic situation was becoming more stable, people were comfortable venturing out, campaign managers were prepping up and formulating to invest and reactivate their respective brands through other marketing channels, but due to the emergence of omicron, Brands are back to square one with the budgets on hold resulting in an overall low percentage of campaign conversion and brands/organizations owe it all to the highly infectious outbreak of the mutated variant of the pandemic.
Since the outbreak, the Indian marketing ecosystem started preparing for the new normal. Brands opted to pause, reflect, and adapt their strategy, while also prioritising customer interest. Brands are more focused on improving the consumer experience through their marketing channels. A few brands opted to reach out to consumers through influencer activity, ignoring severe rivalry and instead began applauding their competitors in social media postings.
According to an industry report, it was estimated that 50% of marketers were planning to increase influencer marketing spend, to around 600 crore in 2021 during the festive season. The key reason for the surge in influencer marketing is the increased screen time of consumers across all platforms, and influencers assist with content personalisation, as well as the disruption in cost and speed. Influencers are genuine and relatable to consumers, and they can provide significant value to brands by offering innovative methods to share a brand’s message.
Growth and way ahead
As indicated by Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2021, which surveyed around 5000 marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals, considering all of the uncertainty brought forth by COVID in 2020, influencer marketing remains a popular and effective form of marketing. Consequently, brands today are considering influencer marketing to be a key component in their marketing mix now.
Influencer Marketing is expected to Grow to $13.8 Billion globally in the forthcoming years, despite initial fears that influencer marketing would suffer as a result of COVID19, it has actually experienced growth. This clearly reflects brands today are more focused on improving consumer experience along creating awareness and generate sales.
Omicron will indeed empower brands and businesses of all sizes in reimagining their communication strategies and evolving in response to the quickly changing times.