Social media influencers dependent on brand deals to earn money are looking beyond such tie-ups as they seek financial security.
Popular content creators are bagging roles in Bollywood films like Prajakta Koli did in Jugjugg Jeeyo or Viraj Ghelani does in the upcoming Govinda Naam Mera.
Marketers note that big film producers like Dharma Productions are picking influencers in movies where the creator gets to showcase his/her skills and the makers can benefit from the influencers' social media following.
In another trend, influencers are launching their own businesses to ensure their financially security.
Two creators who recently turned entrepreneur are Manav Chhabra aka MNV and Dhruv Shah along with Shyam Sharma, who are known by the name Funcho.
Chhabra has launched a health cafe and Funcho a pizza quick service restaurant chain (QSR).
Competition for brand deals heats up
Like Chhabra and Funcho many other content creators are focusing on entrepreneurship as the competition for brand deals heats up in the social media space, said Rohit Pande, co-founder, Habitat.club, a content monetisation platform for creators.
"Any category will have multiple creators competing for associations with the same brand. In this hypercompetitive sphere, many creators have decided to secure their future by shifting away from the endorsement model,” he said.
Influencers who’ve spent years building a dedicated fan following and establishing their domain expertise have begun to leverage their online clout to launch their own businesses, Pande added.
He cited the examples of Ranveer Allahbadia, who has built his YouTube channel BeerBiceps into a multimedia platform that includes his talent management agency; and Juhi Godambe, who went from modelling clothes to conceptualising and launching her own fashion label.
It was in August 2017 that Allahbadia launched an influencer marketing firm called Monk Entertainment.
"I invested funds from our personal savings to start the business. I saw demand for backend services for influencers which led me to launch the company. Currently, there are 90 creators like Niharika NM, Sanjyot Keer, among others, on our roster and we have worked with over 150 brands including Flipkart, Amazon Prime Video, Groww, Sony Music, Tinder," Allahbadia told Moneycontrol.
Ask Allahbadia if it is important for social media influencers to go beyond brand deals, and he says it’s always a wise choice to explore something beyond brand tie-ups and look for other sources of income.
"For me, it was co-founding two new startups, Level and BigBrainCo, and also investing in startups like Akudo, BimaPe, Nothing, Ready Jet Set, Sahicoin."
Another top creator and YouTuber, Madan Gowri, said that an online creator cannot depend only on what he or she earns as an influencer.
Gowri runs a news app called Kokru and also owns a dosa restaurant in Madurai.
"These businesses help me to be in touch with people all the time. With the restaurant business, I get to know the spending capacity of the people, the food people consume, the music they listen to in a restaurant. From the news app, I get to know what kind of news has maximum engagement with a particular age group, gender."
These insights help him create more online content.
Gowri said that it would be great if the new generation of online creators use the money they get online for starting entrepreneurial ventures.
Himadri Patel, a digital content creator and founder of ethnic apparel brand Dri by Himadri, also said that having a passive source of income is always good for financial security.
Patel said that as a fashion and a beauty content creator, she got to understand the preferences of her audience, which led her to launch the clothing company.
"I come from a middle-class family where having a business of my own is a big deal. This surely makes it more relatable to others and gives them a boost that they can do it too."
Business expansion
For Funcho, too, launching an offline brand was a dream come true.
"We will gradually expand the pizza brand's presence across the city," said Shyam Sharma.
"The QSR chain called Funcho Pizza will be a pure vegetarian pizza brand as we saw a big gap in the premium market of pure veg pizzas. The first outlet will be in Kandivali and they will further take it to Mira Road (in Mumbai). The plan is to create 7-8 outlets in 18 months across Mumbai," said Pawan Shari, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chrome Hospitality.
The company has partnered with creators Funcho and Chhabra to launch their offline food and beverage businesses.
Manav Chhabra, who is focused on health and is a coffee lover, wants his health cafe to be a hangout place for content creators and a place where people can enjoy music and food.
Starting with one outlet in Mumbai's Bandra, Chhabra said that he aims to take the brand across geographies.
"Starting an offline brand means cementing a permanent space for my online community, a place that reflects my personal lifestyle and ideologies. This helps me channelise my earnings in a way that I can connect better with my virtual family," he said.
Chhabra has invested close to Rs 80 lakh in the health café. The Sharma-Shah duo has spent Rs 35 lakh on their offline brand.
For Funcho Pizza, the breakeven point is 6-8 months while the timeline for Chhabra's cafe will be about a year, said Shari.
Limited content monetisation
While it looks like anyone with a smartphone can become a social media creator, not everybody is able to monetise their content and those who do also say the income is not steady.
Curently, India has around 80 million online creators, but only 150,000 of them are able to monetise their services effectively, said a Kalaari Capital report on influencers.
The report added that out of the 150,000 professional content creators, the majority earn anywhere around Rs 16,000-Rs 2 lakh per month.
This is why many influencers have transformed from content creators to entrepreneurs, said Habitat.club's Pande.
"These individuals have shifted from representing brands to becoming their own brands, taking their followers with them. The transition from influencer to entrepreneur and brand has already happened in more developed influencer economies," he said.