The Rise in Influence & Prominence of Influencer Marketing - Sudarshan Rajan of Concept India
By Rachit Juneja
March 15, 2021
“With the advent of democratization and scale effects of digital, Influencer Marketing has become huge.” SUDU, Business Consultant & Value Investor, Concept India
Sudarshan Rajan is known for his expertise in understanding the business of a cross-section. He has worked with 100 companies across 70 categories in India and has represented diverse conglomerates including IPO launches. His portfolio of brands includes VISA, SKODA, Google, Birla Sunlife, MCX, Edelweiss, Audi, Sony Entertainment, Tata Teleservices, and many others.
We got in touch with Mr. Sudarshan Rajan, to gain insights into the world of Content Marketing, and here’s what we found out:
How often is influencer/content a part of campaign planning?
“With the advent of democratization and scale effects of digital, Influencer Marketing has become huge. We have created content for shows and movies at their early stage, but it has become more prominent for all categories. For instance, ads with celebrities have been trending since time immemorial, however, they are more scaled up, micro, and democratized now. Content has become really big today, owing to 3g/4g and platforms like Youtube, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.”
What kind of marketing objectives does Influencer Marketing work for / doesn’t work for?
“It's a mixed bag. Categories like food, lifestyle, arts - music & movies - heavily rely on Celeb Marketing. They work at various levels of AIDA from awareness, seeding, product desirability, influencer purchase decision, community, advocacy, etc. For instance, the personal development market is a big push on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat.”
What is a recent trend in influencer marketing that you think is here to stay?
“More specialization for influencers, as well as more cause-related and employee-related campaigns that are performance-based are here to stay. Also, the need for being authentic for building brands is extremely important. Lastly, video to remain pivotal throughout.”
How do you see the importance of influencer marketing growing vis a vis overall content marketing?
“This will surely rise in influence and prominence. 2021 will be seen as a year of Influencer Marketing. We are living in an integrated world of digital wherein conversations are mainly tracked on digital media. AI has been developed not only for logical intelligence but for emotional intelligence as well as per Ray Kurzweil. Amazon Echo consumers spend 20% more than prime consumers as per research.”
What do you think is more important - campaign idea or choice of influencers? Why?
“You cannot put the cart before the wheel. First comes the campaign idea - which resonates with the brand brief and connects with the highest affinity influencer. It all together coagulates - and together - the campaign idea and chosen influencers deliver the desired result.”
We often see similar types of content being created by brands, which have specific influencers for their category such as food brands - recipe influencers, cosmetics - beauty influencers. How can these brands innovate & stand out?
“Brands need to start listening closely as we are now moving from broad markets to mass customization, hence need to understand the cycle better. With 3D Printing, manufacturing will be democratized and this will enable to shorten the supply cycle and deliver stuff with no lead time.”
How do you decide on how much budget to allocate for an influencer activity? Does the metric for measurement change for high-budget campaigns?
“It depends on the category and campaign - movies spend as high as 15% of their budget to get traction on digital channels. For a youth brand in technology, we were able to drive huge footfalls to the store.
Yes, the metrics change depending on the objectives of the campaign. In some cases, launches happen mainly through influencers. For television shows and movie launches, they generally receive high reach and traction for day 1 and create positive sentiment thereon.”
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