Instagram Launching Creator Marketplace in India and 7 More Countries

Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is expanding the creator marketplace to eight new markets including India. Over the next few weeks, the social media giant plans to invite creators and brands based in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, India and Brazil to join Instagram’s creator marketplace.

Besides the above seven markets, Meta said that Chinese export brands will also be invited to connect with onboarded creators but in countries outside of China.

Instagram is touted as one of the best places for brands and creators to collaborate. Introduced in 2022, Meta began testing the creator marketplace in the US, a tool for brands and creators to connect and collaborate around partnership opportunities. This was followed by introducing new features and onboarding thousands of creators and brands in the US to creator marketplace.

Brands join Instagram’s creator marketplace in Meta Business Suite. Creators join from their professional dashboard in the Instagram app. Creators can indicate brands and interests relevant to them. Creators can also create a portfolio to highlight what makes them unique.

Machine Learning for the Right Match Recommendation

A screen capture of machine learning-powered creator recommendations.

Meta said that it is testing new custom, machine learning-powered creator recommendations for each brand to help match the right creators and brands for campaigns. Brands can also search for creators, filtering for creator and audience attributes. They can also see a list of creators who have expressed interest and check out creator portfolios.

The new machine learning-based recommendations use Instagram data to help brands more easily discover creators who are the best fit for their campaigns. Eligible brands can access these recommendations over the coming months on Instagram’s creator marketplace in Meta Business Suite.

Instagram’s creator marketplace helps brands find the right creators and helps creators get discovered by brands.

A phone screen showing a designated Partnership messages folder

Creators receive brand messages in a dedicated Partnership Messages folder at the top of the Primary tab. Brands can reach out to creators directly or create and send a project to multiple creators outlining the branded content or partnership ad opportunity. Creators can review the details and requirements of the opportunity, as well as the rate, all within the Instagram app.

Once brands and creators come to an agreement, they are ready to create. Advertisers can boost organic Instagram content as partnership ads, including branded content with the paid partnership label, or they can create new partnership ads in Ads Manager.

A screenshot of a phone showing branded content with the paid partnership label

IIT and IIM Alumnus, Kalyan Kumar along with Vaibhav Gupta Launches KlugKlug, a Global Decision Making B2B Tech Platform for Influencer Marketing

The platform has more than 252+ million influencers’ profile insights globally and a data platform using the power of modeling on the back of AI and Machine Learning

KlugKlug, a Global Decision-Making B2B Tech SaaS Platform for Influencer Marketing launches in India and global markets by Kalyan Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta. Kalyan is an IIT graduate and has an extensive background in marketing having previously served in leadership roles, while Vaibhav, a digital-first native, has done various marketing campaigns for several MNCs, he is a graduate of IMS Ghaziabad. The platform provides the most exhaustive and dependable global influencer intelligence, exploration, and information for social media such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, with in excess of 252+ million influencers' Profile Insights, and a data platform utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies guaranteeing 85% precision. KlugKlug can address the Influencer Marketing needs for 230+ countries.

The CMO’s everyday challenge with Influencer Marketing is that it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of campaigns. Additionally, not all influencers may be transparent about their audiences or true engagement, leading to massive credibility issues. It can also be difficult to find the right influencers for a brand, as their audiences must align with the brand’s target market, where the real marketing actually begins.

When discussing the maintenance of data, marketers have so only been able to focus on overall visible numbers like Followers and Engagement Rate; however, the importance of accuracy and a deep understanding of the Audience data is now critical. KlugKlug provides the opportunity for 'true' and immediate searchability for influencers with relevant audiences, potentially increasing efficiency in influencer marketing by up to 80%. The platform, which covers over 252+ million influencers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, provides the most expansive and reliable influencer intelligence, discovery, and insights with data that is powered by AI-ML technology and is accessible around the world.

Commenting on the launch Kalyan Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of KlugKlug said: "At KlugKlug, we believe in the power of influencer marketing to drive business growth. We are dedicated to helping brands and agencies maximize their ROI through our AI-based technology and data-driven insights. It's not data but intelligence that can be culled from the vast sea of data for precision. Additionally, There is a lot to be gained by Influencers and Content creators too- that of bringing forth the truly hardworking and authentic influencers from the long tail who get outshined by the big usual suspects, many of them with very low quality or fake followers. By leveraging our comprehensive analytics and intelligence platform, we enable marketers to identify key influencers, measure their impact, and optimize their campaigns for maximum return."

KlugKlug's roadmap is to develop AI-based tools to refine the influencer marketing experience, as well as give brands and marketers data-driven insights. Additionally, the platform seeks to connect influencers and brands by providing a comprehensive platform to manage campaigns, monitor performance, and evaluate data. Ultimately, KlugKlug plans to expand its services to new markets and Social Media Platforms to respond to the growing interest in influencer marketing.

To know more www.klugklug.com

Kuku FM partners with WhizCo for Influencer Activities and Campaigns

WhizCo, India’s leading Influencer Marketing and creator management agency, has announced that it has partnered with Kuku FM, India’s leading podcast platform for an influencer marketing campaign. The collaboration aimed at helping Kuku FM promote its wide range of audiobooks, Podcasts, Talk shows, Stories, and more diverse audio content.

As part of the collaboration, WhizCo worked for complete influencer campaign management- from shortlisting, evaluating, and onboarding influencers to conceptualising the campaign, gathering feedback, and tracking the performance of the campaign.

Bringing together YouTube influencers from various categories, WhizCo conceptualized a Video Integration campaign for Kuku FM that uses influencers’ videos as a marketing platform by integrating the product ad into the natural flow of the video. By shortlisting the best influencers and providing creative direction to the campaign, WhizCo was able to strategize the campaign in the best way possible to help promote Kuku FM. WhizCo reached out to creators and influencers with a good outreach YouTube presence that could help boost Kuku FM’s brand awareness in the most effective way possible.

"We are so thrilled to be collaborating with Kuku FM and devising influencer marketing campaigns for them. Everything about the campaign, from conceptualizing to executing this campaign, was really fun and exciting, and I’m glad we were able to meet the expectations and goals of the brand. We look forward to creating and designing more such campaigns for Kuku Fm," said Prerna Goel, Co-Founder, and Chief Marketing Officer, WhizCo.

“Working with Whizco has been amazing. Their team who understands the brand requirements and needs is truly amazing! Deepanshu from Whizco went beyond his work hours to get things done for us. They provide you with insights and suggestions, which you otherwise don’t think of. My experience has been amazing” said Rahul Chiplunkar, Influencer Marketing Manager at Kuku FM.

WhizCo is one of India’s leading influencer marketing and creator management agencies. The agency, which manages over 10,000 content creators on almost every short-video app and social media platform in the country, has also plunged into Live Commerce and started working with India’s leading e-commerce platforms for Live Commerce campaigns

WhizCo has successfully completed various influencer marketing campaigns with leading brands in the past and is currently in the process of launching its very own influencer and creator discovery portal that will take things to the next level for both brands and influencers alike and allow users to search from a database of 50,000 creators across 25+ categories. The portal, which is expected to launch soon, will provide data-driven full campaign management, help bridge the gap between brands and influencers, and help brands craft the perfect influencer marketing campaign for their business.

AI-powered Social Prediction Engine Hypothesis is Here to Organise the $100 Billion+ Creator Economy and Streamline Influencer Marketing

The tech platform has been funded by OML; bringing together creators, brands, and agencies under one umbrella to make planning, executing, and analysing influencer marketing campaigns seamless.

India’s creator ecosystem is thriving and the team behind Hypothesis, one of the first movers in building tech solutions for the creator economy, has had a front-row seat mapping the evolution, challenges, and opportunities in this space. Building on their decades of insights from bringing creators and brands together, Hypothesis is a data-driven platform that connects brands with their customers through the right influencer and manages the entire campaign pipeline. At the same time, it empowers creators to engage with their audience and build meaningful relationships with brands. This cutting-edge social prediction engine not just enables brands, agencies, and influencers to make proactive decisions, but also serves as a central platform of information, insights and tools for a robust influencer marketing stack.

Today, a growing number of brands consider working with creators an essential part of their brand and marketing strategy. But it remains a largely unorganised space - with discovery of the right talent to work with and measuring success depending on how each individual brand structures their efforts. That’s where ‘Hypothesis’ steps in - allowing agencies and brands to discover the right creator with detailed filters, conduct outreach, set up the campaign, and track performance on one platform. On the supply side of the ecosystem, ‘Hypothesis’ empowers creators and influencers to reach their full potential using social media intelligence to understand their content performance, audience affinity, and form connections with brands and agencies.

‘Hypothesis’ for brands and agencies

• It streamlines influencer marketing processes by bringing influencer discovery, outreach and analytics under one umbrella. This enables brands and agencies to take proactive and smarter decisions using data-rich social prediction engines that provide actionable insights into their campaign performance, audience and creator persona.
• The campaign performance forecast eliminates guesswork, allowing accurate estimation of metrics, recommending a budget range to plan campaigns with a clear understanding of expected results and optimisation based on campaign objectives.
• Hypothesis’ intelligent campaign designer utilises pattern recognition, giving them automated creator and content recommendations.
• Its interactive analysis module allows granular tracking of each content type and tagged format, allowing them to optimise their campaign ROI most efficiently.

‘Hypothesis’ for creators

• It streamlines the creator journey by auto-consolidating their content performance under one dashboard, eliminating the stress of monitoring across multiple social media platforms. This helps them focus on gaining valuable insights and creating impactful content for their audience.
• Hypothesis’ AI-powered insights on the market trends and branded collaborations help creators tap into the minds of their audiences to understand their interests, sentiments, brand and creator affinities.
• It helps save research time and efforts by auto-tracking the performance of their fellow creators and learning which platforms and creatives work best in the industry.
• The social media intelligence that auto-matches brands with creators based on their performances and previous brand collaborations enables creators to reach their full potential.
• The access management tool facilitates easy, hassle-free sharing of social media metrics without loss of data privacy.

Talking about ‘Hypothesis,’ Gunjan Arya, CEO & Board Member – OML Entertainment, said, “The ‘Hypothesis’ team comes from a unique cross-section of brands, agencies, and influencers, allowing them to gain first-hand experience and deep knowledge of this ecosystem. Leveraging this expertise, we funded the social prediction engine and have been using it for the last few years across diverse markets and platforms. In fact, it has been one of the critical reasons that our brand solutions vertical has been experiencing rapid growth. And now, by bringing the platform to the ecosystem at large, we aim to add value to their influencer marketing efforts and pave the way for global standards in this space.”

Himani Agrawal, Senior Vice President - Product & Analytics – Hypothesis, added, “Audiences are moving online and brands recognize that, hence influencer marketing has gained prominence in recent times as it allows brands to get closer to their audience at the moment they are the most engaged; while watching their favourite content. We have also noticed a seismic shift in consumer behaviour and buying patterns, with people becoming more picky about their choices, a conventional 30-second ad is not sufficient anymore to give them all the information they need to make purchase decisions. Influencer marketing fills this gap, by scaling your efforts, maintaining a benchmark for performance while creating quality content that talks to the brand’s philosophy. However, this space lacked a leading-edge tool that cuts through the unorganised nature of this industry to support brands, agencies, and creators to simplify their influencer marketing processes. Hypothesis’ raison d’etre is to fill this void and provide win-win solutions to all in the long run.”

The game-changing platform is a first - in a sense - to provide end-to-end solutions for various pain points in the influencer marketing realm and bring about a paradigm shift in branded content creation and the overall creator landscape.

About Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a one-stop AI-powered engine that enables influencers to be the best versions of themselves while serving as a central platform of information, insights, and tools for all stakeholders in influencer marketing campaigns.

It covers all aspects of branded content creation, from influencer discovery, influencer outreach, planning and executing a campaign, gathering landscape intelligence, and optimising your brand ROI to tracking a campaign in real-time, and sharing results seamlessly. The platform also aims to streamline the creator journey by using social media intelligence and enable brands to clearly attribute awareness, consideration and conversion to their influencer marketing efforts. Its proprietary content measurement system has already served 500+ creators in 20+ countries and is now rolled to everyone as a tech platform. - https://www.hyp.io/

About OML Entertainment

OML or Only Much Louder is a clutter-breaking, market leading media and entertainment organisation working across various media and experiential formats to impact pop culture. The organisation has been a pioneer in creating on-ground and online experiences that have resulted in lasting memories that shape how fans know their favourite artists and brands. Apart from continuing to be an artist management company in music and comedy, over the years OML has evolved to include a production house creating television and digital content along with a branded content division that has worked with over 500 brands across 20 countries.

https://oml.in/

Influencer Marketing Agency Mad Influence to Double Its Team by the End of 2021

With the focus on driving growth, Mad Influence is looking to strengthen its core operations with motivated, self-driven young professionals who do not shy away from taking on leadership roles when the going gets tough.

New Delhi, 26th August, 2021: Pandemic or not, the influencer marketing game is going strong. In this light, Mad Influence, India’s fastest growing influencer marketing platform, is all set to expand its business portfolio over the next couple of months and double its workforce - inviting driven, motivated young professionals who are looking to make their mark in the industry.

Started with a team of 6, Mad Influencer now employs 20+ professionals who are tirelessly working with the Country’s top-most influencers, celebrities, thought leaders, and YouTube creators in delivering quality content, executing creative campaigns, and handling social media channels for top-tier brands like Hotstar.com, MamaEarth, Sony Music, Dharma Productions, Vivo, among others.

Over the last 3 months, Mad Influence has hired candidates to fill several positions in market research, brand management, creative strategy, and other departments. The company tends to induct more people in different verticals like Platforms/Entertainment & Brands to help consolidate and strengthen its position in the Influencer Marketing World.

Recent times have not been easy. As the cases of COVID-19 increased, so did the feelings of doubt and anxiety among workers. With mandated quarantine and remote working policies in place, Mad Influence ensured that their employees feel acknowledged and appreciated for their work. The company celebrated accomplishments and milestones, offered flexible working hours, put a communication system in place, improved employee health initiatives, and offered work performance-based financial incentives to boost morale while promoting positive work culture amongst all their employees.

Speaking on the hiring process, Mr. Gautam Madhavan, Chief Executive Officer, Mad Influence, said, “From being a new face in the market to securing some of the most challenging projects, from building a successful employer brand to achieving zero employee attrition, we, at Mad Influence, have come a long way. Into the bargain, the advent of the pandemic added another challenge that encouraged us to create a secure and growth-oriented environment for all our employees. Hence, now, rather than preparing for a specific next role, we groom our employees’ critical competencies. We are inviting candidates who can take on unprecedented challenges and show their mettle in overcoming them to achieve business goals."

Mad Influence believes in quality hiring, promoting job security and growth, building a strong employer brand, and creating an environment that helps the development of critical skills and roles amongst the workforce.

About Mad Influence:

Mad Influence is India’s fastest growing influencer marketing platform working with over 10,000 influencers across India, and it has served over 500 influencer marketing campaigns. The platform brings talents, content creators, influencers, and brands together to execute successful, collaborative campaigns. Since its inception in 2018, the platform has had a successful association with Dharma Productions, Eros Now, Alt Balaji, Vivo, Pen, Hotstar, Dettol, Parle, Emami, etc.

Website: https://www.madinfluence.com/

Mad Influence Launches Mad Studio, A Unique Content Creation Hub for the Influencers and Celebrities

A studio created by the influencers, for the influencers and of the influencers

The 15000 sq ft space will be utilized by influencers and celebrities associated with Mad Influence for networking which is first of its kind in the arena of content industry

New Delhi, 8th June 2021: India’s leading Influencer marketing platform, Mad Influence has launched Mad Studio in Mumbai and Delhi, respectively for the content creators. The platform aims to change the concept of influencer marketing with the launch of Mad Studio benefitting its influencers and the brands they promote.

The unique concept of Mad Studio will pave the way for the influencers partnered with Mad Influence to create good quality professionally generated content (PGC). The newly launched studio offers dance studio, VFX studio, photoshoots and various other top-class facilities required to create the best content that will garner the attention of the influencers from the target audience of the representing brand.

Spread over 15000 square feet space located at Andheri West in Mumbai (8200 sq ft) and Sector-1, Noida in Delhi NCR (7500 sq ft). Located in the primest area of Mumbai, Mad Studio is fully built as per the convenience of its influencers and celebrities. Starting from professional lighting to soundproof rooms, space for broadcast, voice recording, dance and space for workshops every nook and corner of the studio is created as per the needs and requirements for the creators and influencers/celebrities. The studio has professional instructors and videographers who take care of content thus moderating the content quality. It not only provides professional sound, lights and VFX but also well-trained ground staff to create outstanding content. Industry top influencers Chinky Minky, Aadlil khan and Tejas have designed three spaces respectively at MAD Studio according to their desideratum and they are the cover face of the studio.

 
Mad Studio, the one stop solution provided to content creators already saw prominent celebrities like Honey Singh, Nushrat Bharucha, Nora Fatehi, Dhvani Bhanushali and many others coming for the shoot. This platform not only provides them with the right atmosphere, equipment and right guidance to work on their campaigns but it also helped them to get more and more followers in their social media. Honey Singh gained 1.5 million followers on his Instagram after song promotion of Saiyaan Ji at MAD Studio.

On the launch of Mad Studio, a very elated Gautam Madhavan, Founder & CEO, said --

This is a milestone achieved by all of us at Mad Influence. From the beginning of our journey, we have seen that influencers are going anywhere and shooting content without any proper equipment and we realized that the US is doing similar content but their video quality is far better than our Indian influencers’ video quality. This forced us to think about Mad Studio where our influencers will have a better content creation with the right equipment, right atmosphere and have the right guidance to create content.

Also, we have a strong relationship with the entertainment industry and we are working with T-series,Tips,Sony, and Saregama that have made a possibility of association with celebrities and influencers at the same platform without any prejudice and discrimination. With Mad studio we want to negotiate the thin line between the celebrities and influencers.”

Mad Influence is India’s fastest growing influencer marketing platform working with over 10000+ Influencers across India and it has served over 500+ influencer marketing campaigns. The platform brings talents, content creators, influencers, and brands together to do successful campaigns. Since its inception in 2018, the platform has had successful association with Dharma Production, Alt Balaji, Vivo, Pen, Hotstar, Dettol, Parle, Emami etc.

About Mad Influence:

Mad Influence is India's Fastest Growing Influencer Marketing Platform working with over 10000+ Influencers across India. We bring talents, content creators, influencers and brands together to do awesome things together. Website: https://www.madinfluence.com/

Humanz & Boss Entertainment Partner To Revolutionize Indian Influencer Marketing

MUMBAI, India, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Humanz, an AI-powered platform for influencer campaigns of all levels, partners with Boss Entertainment, a creative marketing firm that is popularly known as India's largest youth activation company, to bring the Humanz platform to India and bridge the gap between local marketers and influencers. Through the partnership, the Humanz platform will optimize collaborations between local marketers and influencers across India, thereby ensuring the sustainable growth of the country's influencer marketing sector.

The Humanz platform serves as a tool for discovery and direct influencer engagement - thereby fixing the broken elements of influencer marketing, including the lack of transparency, lack of audience demographics, and fraud. The platform allows marketers to make data-driven decisions based on influencer specifications tailored to marketing needs, including gender, age, interests, demographics, previous content shared, and quality of followers. Influencers can access parts of their own data, meet other creators, and participate in paid campaigns - all by simply registering. The engagement and collaborations between marketers and influencers on the platform is done in a smart, safe, efficient, and measurable manner.

Boss Entertainment is known for creating intellectual properties to excite and inspire India's youth. The company focuses on independent technology-driven ventures with shared visions and values. Operating under the guidance of serial entrepreneur Shailendra Singh, who launched 23 successful startups in 23 years. Each of his companies set new benchmarks across the entertainment, media, and communications space. (https://shailendrasingh.me/#new-page-3)

"In India, local influencers inspire young adults to make decisions at rates far greater than celebrities," says Liav Chen, Co-Founder, and CEO of Humanz. "The influencer marketing arena is growing rapidly in the region, and it is crucial for collaborations between marketers and influencers to be as optimal and impactful as possible. Our values align with that of Boss Entertainment, and we're excited to see what unfolds."

"The tech venture with Humanz in India is a massive opportunity for us to unlock the positive power that our influencers possess to strengthen a brand's reputation, improve audience engagement, and increase conversions," says Shailendra Singh. "It is high time marketers and business owners in India recognize the importance of influencer marketing and use it to their advantage."

About Humanz:

Founded by five veterans of the elite Intelligence Corps Unit 8200 of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Humanz is an AI-powered platform that makes influencer marketing accessible, reliable and trustworthy for marketers and influencers. The solution addresses the major pain point of marketers being able to identify, in large scale, relevant and authenticated content creators; and to thereafter manage an entire campaign process from influencer selection, content approval, payment and ROI analytics on a single platform. Leading global multinational clients have chosen to use Humanz, including McDonalds, Kimberly-Clark, Zara, L'Oréal, Nestlé, Unilever, Group M, Omnicom, and Universal McCann. Humanz has expanded rapidly across territories to satisfy customer demand, with operations in Israel, South Africa, Turkey, Nigeria, Brazil, India, and the UK- with U.S operations set to launch in the near future.

About Boss Entertainment:

Founded in 2016 by Shailendra Singh with the aim of curating unique and entertaining experiences for the youth of India. In 2017, Boss Entertainment became India's largest youth Activation company with the Guestlist4Good festival organised with Hardwell, the worlds no. 1 Dj. Through Guestlist4Good, Boss India Entertainment has educated over 120,000 children through the magic bus foundation. Boss India Entertainment from there diversified into digital and sports marketing being partners for football clubs like Watford FC, Wolverhampton Wanderers and many more for starters. Boss India Entertainment takes pride in being India's largest youth activation company from concerts to digital marketing and sports business and now Humanz. Boss India truly believes that Technology can be used to bridge the gaps that will empower and entertain the youth and allow them to maximise their potential!

ClanConnect.ai bags influencer marketing mandate worth 3 crores

• Targeting to manage influencer marketing campaign worth INR 500 crore by March 2022
• The pre-launch acquisition of key clients is a testament to the AI-driven platform's first-of-its-kind offerings in the influencer marketing space 
• Other key clients on-boarded by the platform include a leading personal hygiene brand, a ledger management start-up, and a direct-to-consumer digital-first cosmetic start-up 
• ClanConnect.ai already has a vast pool of 1 lakh data points across leading influencers 

ClanConnect.ai Cofounders (L to R) Sagar Pushp, Kunal Kishore, Anshai Lal

ClanConnect.ai, India's first and only AI-driven influencer marketing platform, has announced the addition of numerous industry doyens to its client portfolio. The company has bagged influencer marketing campaigns from leading brands such as Toppr, Coinswitch, Oriflame, XClub by Infinix, Cartoon Network, Shopmatic, among others. The platform will be managing the ongoing influencer marketing for these top brands. At this juncture, it is noteworthy that these clients have joined hands with ClanConnect.ai well before its official launch to the public, indicating its high potential to disrupt the burgeoning and hitherto unorganized influencer management space in India. 

The impressive feat for ClanConnect.ai comes on the back of its revolutionary AI-led system which matches brands to the right influencers enabling them to increase impact and maximize ROI with each campaign within a budget-friendly price bracket. The platform's technology is hinged upon publicly available data points for individual influencers, which allow it to make instantaneous, data-driven decisions for creating the most influential campaigns. Prior to its public launch, ClanConnect.ai already has a database of 1 lakh influencer data points and is set to empower brands to make data and result-oriented decisions while solidifying its stance as a game-changer in the industry.

Speaking on the development, Kunal Kishore, Co-Founder & COO – ClanConnect.ai, said, "We are delighted to collaborate with front-running brands that are disrupting their respective sectors with top-notch products and services. It is heartening to see such immense traction from across industries even before our public launch. We are looking forward to helping these brands unlock the vast potential of influencer marketing by leveraging our unique technology. We will continue to fine-tune and build on our value-proposition to continue providing the best-in-class services to our existing and future clients."

The Indian influencer marketing space is growing at a breakneck pace. The high-potential sector is valued at $10 billion and is poised to grow by 250% to reach $25 billion in less than 5 years. However, until now, this growth has not been streamlined, leading the industry to become a chaotic and unorganized one. The vision and mission of ClanConnect.ai, then, is to set-up domain-defining processes that are efficient and lucrative for all its stakeholders including brands, marketers, and influencers.

The platform brings discovery, management, and performance analytics all in one system, and carries out targeted searches and customizable analytics, to help identify and partner with more relevant influencers. On the back of its proprietary technology, ClanConnect.ai has recently has raised INR 5 crore in a seed round led by Venture Catalysts with participation from marquee investors.

About ClanConnect.ai

India's first and only AI-driven influencer marketing platform, ClanConnect.ai was launched with a vision to transform the digital marketing landscape by placing power in the hands of the brands and the hands of the influencer. Founded by industry stalwarts Kunal Kishore Sinha, Sagar Pushp, and Anshai Lal, ClanConnect.ai ensures that vast amounts of data are crunched real-time, providing end-users with the best possible insights to make completely informed decisions and maximize ROI on their influencer marketing campaigns.

The platform allows brands to experience a world of content creators that impact a large global audience, connect with the most powerful online influencers for their brand, and reinforce a strong online presence. By bringing discovery, management, and performance analytics to one platform, ClanConnect.ai helps brands identify and partner with more relevant influencers. Simply put, it empowers brands and influencers to build their network, build their clan.

Buzzoka’s Ashutosh Harbola amongst 100 Most Influential Marketers in the World

Ashutosh Harbola, CEO & Co-founder, Buzzoka has made it to the list of World's 100 Most Influential Marketers in the Influencer Marketing Ecosystem in 2019 by Influence Weekly. Ashutosh is the only Indian to be listed in the report and has been named with prominent personalities like- Instagram’s Sensation, Kylie Jenner, YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcick, etc.

Ashutosh Harbola has strong business acumen. He is considered amongst the pioneers in the Influencer Marketing space in India and has been instrumental in directing the ecosystem. Prior to his entrepreneurial stint, he played a substantial role in setting up Blogmint, India's 1st Influencer Marketing company in 2013.

Commenting on the same, Ashutosh Harbola, CEO & Co-Founder, Buzzoka shared, “I am thrilled to be listed among the 100 Most Influential People in Influencer Marketing. It is an honor to be positioned along with personalities like Adam Moserri, Instagram’s Head and TikTok's owner Zhang Yiming. This recognition from Influencer Weekly is a testament to the strength and dedication of a decade long journey."

Buzzoka, which came into existence in July 2017, works with leading brands and conglomerates. Interestingly, Buzzoka has been a disruption in the Influencer Marketing space with the creative thought processes and unparalleled ROI metrics. The unique combination of Celebrities, Influencers and Commoners is a huge advantage that Buzzoka has over other agencies and platforms in the influencer gambit. Started as a Creative/Strategy 1st company in the influencer marketing ecosystem, Buzzoka has partnered with over 150 brands in its 2-year journey and have delivered over 379 campaigns. Interestingly, Buzzoka has been a pioneer in Tik Tok lead influencer campaigns and successfully worked with brands like SBI, HDFC Life, etc on the same. Buzzoka's campaign for SBI YONO is said to be the biggest influencer campaign in India with over 2000 influencers used in a span of 15 days. 

Founded in July 2017, Buzzoka (www.buzzoka.com) is India’s 1st Integrated Influencer marketing platform. Having the largest database of Influencers, Celebrities and Commoners, it has successfully added around 100,000 influencers to its network.  Buzzoka is the 1st Influencer Marketing company in India which is betting the future on common people in the gambit of Influencer Marketing and is aggressively working to onboard commoners to its gambit.

India's 1st Marketing Accelerator for Hotels & Homestays Launches

It been over a year when we featured a promising Chandigarh-based startup, Stay On Skill, that allows people with skills to travel the world and get free homestay, in exchange of helping their host learn a skill they are gootd at.

In the last one year, the startup has helped numerous commercial properties across India in different aspects and during this period the founders realized that hotels and homestays in India are mushrooming like never before and this in turn has created a visibility problem for such properties where not every plausible customer knows about the existence of them.

In the city of Ooty itself there are more than 2000 hotels (and these are just the ones that are listed online). Across India, more than 1,75,000 properties are taking online bookings. Amid all of this, the problem is - how do you make people know that you exist. Listing on platforms like Airbnb or Booking doesn't ensure you visibility or bookings. If your property shows up on the second page of airbnb, you might as well forget that prospective customers will get to know about it. One good way to stand out from the crowd is to create a brand for yourself digitally - through social media, blogging, and video creation.

Unfortunately, not all homestays or hotels are aware of to how to go about it. Additionally, an analysis by Sat on Skill show that many of homestays in the past have been cheated by fake bloggers and instagram influencers, who either don't have authentic following or high traffic.

Stay On Skill, thus decided to launch India's first Marketing Accelerator for hotels and homestays to make these things transparent for properties and provide them some real value, by bringing to them real, verified, tested and authentic influencers.

[caption id="attachment_125761" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Team of Stay on Skill[/caption]

The idea behind the accelerator is to help the deserving properties get the visibility they require, and the complete 3 months program is designed around that. The second aspect of the accelerator is to help the properties learn how to make more revenue through digital marketing and how to perform well on booking portals like airbnb. For this we have special masterclasses designed by experts, and office hours, where in the properties tell us about the specific challenges that they are facing and our expertise can benefit them.

Stay On Skill is expecting over 100 properties to apply for its first batch. The applications are open only till 31st August.

Interested properties can apply here - http://stayonskill.com/accelerator.html

Benefits for Hotels & Homestays

Besides gaining visibility, which the company claims to be minimum of 1.2 Million in 3 months, through the accelerator program, hotels & homestays will get access to star influencers who have the ability to make their property viral.

The participants will also get access to Masterclasses on different aspects of Social Media, Digital Marketing, Web Booking, so that after the accelerator they can take forward the learnings and start executing it themselves.

The properties may also able to Build a brand value, as when some good influencers get associated with your property, it creates a great brand value for you, which most properties don't know how to capitalize on it, says Arjun Tuli, founder of Stay On Skill. "Increase in brand value and visibility lead to increase in revenue," Arjun added.

[caption id="attachment_125760" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Influencer Community of Stay On Skill and The Accelerator[/caption]

Selection Criteria

The accelerator program is looking for boutique hotels and homestays who are looking to stand out from the crowd. To select a property, the company will analyse it's uniqueness factor based on the following parameters -

1. Stay and lodging


2. Location


3. Culture


4. Food


5. Experience

This particular batch of the Stay On Skill accelerator is Not For Profit . All that we'll be receiving from the properties will go towards payment of the bloggers, influencers, graphic designers and social media experts - we won't be making a profit of a single penny from it. The idea behind it is to provide the accelerator as a medium to share our knowledge and expertise with the properties and help them benefit from it. If we are able to make it happen at a small scale for 10 properties, next time around we'll try to make an effort to reach a wider audience and help more properties benefit from it, told Arjun, founder at Stay On Skill.

[Top Featured Image  by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash]

6 Ways Digital Influencers Can Improve Sales

There comes a time in every savvy business owner’s life when they know they must step up their social media presence. It should already be a given that you are utilizing, at least one social media platform.

However, even those who are actively engaged in social media may begin to feel that their current promotional efforts just aren’t producing the results that they would like. If this is you, then it may be time for you to start working with a digital influencer.

Who is a Digital Influencer?

A digital influencer is anyone with authority in your brand’s niche. However, they can’t just be knowledgeable, they must also have the ability to reach a large audience. Practically anyone can be a digital influencer. Examples include celebrities, journalists, social media sensations, bloggers and micro-influencers.

Why you should invest in working with influencers?

Your network determines your net worth. This is an old adage that many successful entrepreneurs swear by. When you align yourself with a digital influencer, you’re giving yourself major cool points. People love to associate with people or things that are popular. The reality is that no matter how many times you toot your own horn, it won’t have the same effect as someone else doing the bragging for you. According to Nielson’s Global Trust and Advertising Report, 92% of consumers trust the recommendation of products from friends and family over the actual brand itself. But if this isn’t convincing enough, here are some other reasons why you should consider working with an influencer. Build brand trust – People don’t trust products, they trust other people. Influencers should be a top choice for promoting your brand because people already trust them. Grow your following – It never hurts to get more followers. When a popular influencer gives your brand a shout out, your business is bound to get more followers as a result. Advertise for free or at a lower cost – Sure, you may not be able to afford a brand shout out from a celebrity, but you can cut a significant amount of cost by collaborating with smaller accounts.

How to find the right influencer for your brand?

A simple Google search or social media search will put you in contact with a plethora of influencers. For example, if you’re looking for fashion bloggers, you can enter the keyword “top fashion blogs”, or search for #fashionblogger on social media. Alternatively, you can use influencer marketing tools such as Allkonnect Traackr, Buzzsumo, Influencer.in, etc. Make sure you are selective about who you work with. You don’t want to use someone just because they have a huge following, especially if their following is not relevant to your brand, or their users aren’t engaged. Be smart and strategic. You should thoroughly research them beforehand.

You may ask the following questions before choosing an influencer:

What are things they like to talk about?

Are their followers engaged?

Do their core values align with your brand?

What conversations do they start?

Does their social media presence match your brand’s voice and style?

You need to take all of these things into consideration before choosing your influencer.

6 tips for working with influencers

You may already have a few people in mind that you’d like to collaborate with. If so, now is the fun part where you and the influencer can get creative with advertising. Here’s 6 ideas to get you started.

Ad Space

Purchasing an advertisement from your influencer is quick, easy and effective. You can find examples of this in the fitness world, when fitness influencers promote brands of fitness clothing and protein powders. These posts are usually accompanied with some sort of brand discount. To an influencer, it’s not just another protein powder. It’s organic and healthy for expectant mothers, She’s reaching multiple demographics. She can also give discounts, providing even more incentive for her followers to try product she is promoting

Blog Post

Blog posts are an excellent way to market your product. There are many advantages to utilizing blog posting as a marketing option, but perhaps the biggest one is that it increases your visibility as a brand. If you team up with a credible influencer who has a large audience, chances are your search rankings could go up and may show at the top search results using certain keywords. It’s an SEO dream. The influencer can cut right to the chase, and create a blog post review about your product. Or they can do a full on tutorial, demonstrating step-by-step instructions of how your product or service works. According to Inc.com, posts with visual content garner 650% more engagement than posts without.

Social Media Takeover

Social media takeovers are becoming increasingly more and more popular, especially with the addition of Facebook Live and Snapchat. It’s also a great way to promote engagement with both loyal customers and new followers. Have an influencer take over your account, posting pics and answering questions from your followers. A great takeover experience is fun and will leave a lasting impression on your followers.

Giveaways

Who doesn’t like to receive free stuff? Giveaways are always a fan favorite! If you want to maximize your exposure, team up with multiple influencers on the same day. Choose a product you’d like to generate some interest for, and have them mention that they’ll be giving away the product for free to one lucky person. To be considered, users must use your branded hashtag or post about your brand. This is a cool way to introduce a new product, while generating social media buzz. Twitter is a great place to do a giveaway for multiple reasons. Whenever people search for the hashtag #giveaway, they’ll see yours and instantly be directed to your page. Also, followers can like, respond and repost any tweet they see that interests them, providing even more of an opportunity for brand visibility.

Reviews

Everywhere you look, you see vloggers and bloggers giving their opinion on products and services in a variety of industries. Throw your name in the ring by teaming up with an influencer, who specializes in your industry. You pay them to review their product, and in return, they should give you a glowing review. Be sure to work with people who are genuine, and not just out looking to make a buck. You want influencers to speak naturally, and not sound like they’re reading from a script. They can only do this, however, if they are genuinely excited to use your product.

Gift The Product

If you’re looking for exposure, you could always gift a product to an influencer in your niche. It’s important to note that since you aren’t paying this influencer, then you should have zero expectations about them mentioning your brand. This is why it makes sense to target influencers who have actually used your product, or something similar, and posted about it before. If they really love your product, the likelihood that they’ll be raving about their free gift is ultra high.

Conclusion

There’s one last point that needs to be addressed. While it’s imperative that you educate influencers about the product, you should take the time to build a genuine relationship with them, and allow influencers the space to be creative. They bring a tremendous amount of value, and may have interesting ideas about how to advertise your product. Like any other relationship, they should be treated with respect. You want the experience to be mutually beneficial for all.

Company

Allkonnect is a cloud based martech platform that empower brands create and promote quality content faster by our easy to use collaborative platform. The mission of the company is to make marketing easier.