#25 For 2025: Will love affair between brands and internet virality keep A-list celebs on the sidelines?
influencers to sell products.
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They range from mega influencers like Bhuvan Bam, Prajakta Koli, CarryMinati (Ajey Nagar) and Tech Burner (Shlok Srivastava) to linguistic mentor Dhiraj Takri, antijunk food advocate Revant Himatsingka, agri coach Santosh Jadhav and social issue proponent Neha Thombre. They’re stealing the thunder from highly paid celebs–on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
“A big-name celeb may have millions of followers but often it doesn’t convert into sales. On the other hand, even micro and nano influencers do a much better job at driving conversions, especially on digital,” says Arush Chopra, cofounder and CEO of Marico-backed natural beauty brand Just Herbs.
Coca-Cola is banking just on influencers to spread the word on the revived Coke Studio India music series. Amazon relied heavily on them for its Great India Festival sale, engaging with over 50,000 influencers. Reliance Retail’s beauty platform Tira ensures a few hundred influencers at every event despite having A-listers Kiara Advani, Kareena Kapoor and Suhana Khan as brand ambassadors. Samsung and its ad agency Cheil India have partnered with influencer creator The Viral Fever (TVF) for the Galaxy A16 5G.
“Content creators give a viewer relatability and if this is done in an authentic manner, it’s bound to create impact,” says Anusha Shetty, chairperson of ad agency
