Instagram Preferred Choice Of Brands For Influencer Marketing In 2019: Report For as much as 82 per cent brands Instagram is the primary choice for marketing, followed by YouTube at 41 per cent, shows a report by Buzzoka

The year 2019 saw brands taking full advantage of influencer marketing across social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, among others. In the third edition of Influencer Marketing Outlook presented by Buzzoka, an integrated influencer marketing platform, about 76 per cent brand custodians reported that influencer marketing has successfully ironed its position in the digital marketing space.

Buzzoka surveyed over 237 brand custodians in the month of December 2019 for the third edition of their annual report. The brand custodians included agency marketers and brand folks across Indian marketing ecosystem.

Almost half of the total respondents believe that influencer marketing helps in generating word of mouth, while another 31.2 per cent reported that they consider it a good way for subtle brand placement.

Ashutosh Harbola, Co-Founder, Buzzoka commenting on the evolving influencer marketing said, "The world of influencer marketing is evolving faster than we could ever imagine. Today's strategy is tomorrow's tactic in this new world."

Related Read: Why Influencer Marketing is the Game Changer for Businesses

While Instagram was the preferred choice of brands for influencer marketing for as much as 82 per cent respondents, YouTube scored second choice for 41 per cent respondents. TikTok is increasingly taking the center stage with more and more brands seeing it as an effective platform in the coming years.

To select an influencer for a campaign, brand custodians use a combination of metrics, such as reach or follower base, content quality, engagement, past brand associations, and cost of engagement.

Problems With Like Feature on Social Media Platforms

The report shows that brands believe that the like feature on social media platforms affects content creation negatively.

As Instagram is mulling over introducing a new feature of hiding likes, marketers are welcoming the suggestion already. About 54 per cent brands believe that this feature will uplift content as influencers will have to prove their worth on the basis of content quality rather than numbers.

Trends For 2020

For marketers, Instagram followed by TikTok and YouTube will be the top three platforms to focus on in 2020,the report states.

According to the report, 80 per cent brands are planning to spend more on influencer marketing in 2020. The report attributes this increase in spending in influencer marketing to the high business impact of their past campaigns. This year, about 18 per cent brand spent over $10,00,000 on influencer campaign.

For brands the top three major challenges in influencer marketing will be content control, influencer discovery, and finding new ways to work with influencers, as per the report.

Harbola talking about the future of influencer marketing said, "We believe that the key for future brand custodians will be not to follow any set template for their influencer marketing campaigns but keep discovering what more each partnership can offer."

Other Interesting Trends

Reliance Jio - The Changemaker

An interesting finding by the report revealed that Reliance Jio's growth story has helped influencer marketing to grow manifolds, both in terms of content creatiors and audience watching them.

Around 50 per cent of the respondents stated that Reliance Jio is the prime reason for the growth of influencer marketing, considering millions of influencers from tier 2 and tier 3 cities are coming in the front.

Celebrities Focusing On Their Social Media Presence

The report states that 93 per cent of the movie stars are taking social media seriously and are using their social media presence to promote brands along with becoming content creators. The report also claims that one of the reasons for this change is that "long term celebrity endorsements have been fading out."

BJP Has Most Effectively Used Social Media Influencers

Politcal parties are using social media influencers to communicate with the masses.

With 56 per cent votes, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has most effectively used the power of influencer marketing to spread their message widespread.

Congress with 30 per cent and Aam Admi Party with 12 per cent are on second and third position.

Vernacular To Come In Big Way

Currently, influencer marketing is majorly focused on Hindi and English content languages. But, as much as 94 per cent marketers voted that the focus should now shift on vernacular/regional celebrities.