Has COVID-19 Breakout & Subsequent Restrictions Led To Brands Shifting Towards Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is relatively new in the field of marketing and is a product of the emergence of social media. In recent years, it has slowly made a place for itself in the marketing spends of most brands and is becoming a prominent approach with time. 

The sudden outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating effect on people’s lives, businesses and the global economy as a whole. With lives at stake and restrictions in place for protection, we are living in surreal times. The lockdown has impacted businesses of all sorts leading to revenue losses, employee layoffs and complete shutdowns in worst cases. Influencer marketing has also faced the impact of this crisis. However, it is not all bad. 

With social-distancing seemingly being the only solution at the moment, people are spending this period at home spending a good amount of time on digital platforms. Platforms like Instagram, Youtube, Netflix, Tik Tok etc have observed a hike in viewership and activity on their platforms. In this period of isolation and distress, social media allows people to connect virtually and get through these troubled times. Remote working tools are helping sustain businesses which are able to shift from office-bound working to a work from home model.  

With uncertainty and general unrest looming around everyone, people are inclining towards getting entertained be it through watching a movie on streaming platforms or catching up on the recent content piece of their favourite influencer. Content creators are coming up with innovative ways to engage and entertain their viewers leading to new trends being seen online. Influencers have started hosting live sessions, doing online streaming, participating in various challenges and creating content on a more regular basis. To sum it up, the digital footprint is constantly increasing during this period. 

Influencer marketing seems to be the way to go at this point. As the restrictions are slowly lifting and people are gradually getting back to their usual lives, brands would now be looking to get back at endorsing their products in the most cost-effective way possible, especially FMCG and healthcare brands which are doing relatively better in comparison. This is where influencer marketing will be a great solution. With high digital presence and people keeping social isolation, influencers allow brands to reach out to their potential consumers and connect with them on a personal level. With production banned in various regions, influencer marketing is an excellent alternative for TVCs, to reach out to the consumers in the comfort of their homes. This is why FMCG brands like Pepsi, Emami, Dettol, Lifebuoy, etc have invested good spends in influencer campaigns despite the general scenario of budget cuts and reductions. 

The ability to connect directly to the audience and influence their thought process on a personal level has always been a key advantage for influencers. This ability allows them to create brand trust among their audience. Constantly developing technology and analytics has made it easy for brands to choose the right influencers to target the correct TG. A variety of metrics and past data helps in reducing unnecessary expenditure and making a campaign cost-effective. However, it’s needless to say that getting an influencer at the right price is highly important and selecting the right influencers is even more important. 

This is why we can see an emergence of specialised influencer marketing agencies, Mad Influence being one.

In this digital day and age, social media influencers are a great asset to reach out to millions and billions of people across the world. It is evident now more than ever. While social media is growing bigger by the day, content creation and social media influencing is becoming a full-fledged profession. As the current crisis is seemingly staying for some time, most brands will be putting more emphasis on influencer marketing than they did before.