Branded content will utilise creativity of influencers in future, says Yan Han of TopSocial

China’s influencer marketing platform ‘TopSocial’ recently entered the Indian market. With an objective to consolidate, evolve and organise India’s influencer marketing space and disrupt the brand-marketing industry, it aims to bring on board over 5,000 influencers from tier I, II and III cities.

TopSocial is a leading technology-driven influencer marketing platform in China for last nine years, having 50,000+ influencers on board and undertaking more than 3,000 projects every year. 

BuzzInContent.com talked to Yan Han, Chairperson, TopSocial India, to know the platform’s plans for India. Han said the platform has already signed 100 influencers and roped in celebrities such as Chef Ranveer Brar and Gul Panag. Betting on technology and its reach, Han shared what the platform has to offer for brands, influencers and audience.   

“We brought to India the most updated technology, best practices, case studies and success stories from China. Technology in our platform will play a key role by giving brands the liberty to increase their ROI not only by connecting directly with any influencer or celebrity but by also allowing them to run and scale up their campaigns in their own way,” said Han.

The platform will provide verified influencers, including celebrities, from across the country and connect them with brands to run multi-regional, multi-lingual and scalable campaigns. Enabling brands to create localised, creative and customised content, it aims to bring on board over 5,000 influencers and celebrities from diverse genres and geographies, especially those based in tier II, III and remote areas of India.

Han said the platform has advanced tools that will bring both new and refreshing content, and influencers. “We are going beyond the urban population of thought leaders. Connecting with influencers in remote geographies is a key plan to make a larger social impact,” she added.

Bringing celebrities on board, including Kumud Mishra, Surekha Sikri, Pooja Makhija, Parvin Dabas, Ayesha Raza Mishra and Satyajit Sharma, it has done an association with a Mumbai-based ‘Express Talent’ agency. In China, the platform had associated with brands such as Honor, Tencent, Citic Bank, Youku, etc.

Talking about its strategies, Han said, “We want to organise the cluttered information in the influencer marketing space in India. And then to consolidate this to enable access to influencer information for brands to take full advantage of influencer marketing.”

The platform is creating an organised and open marketplace where all brands can accelerate their ROI by connecting with the right influencer at the right time based at any place. To give a consolidated view of an influencer’s social worth, the platform provides at a single glance key metrics like engagement, reach, buyout rates, she said.

The platform functions on three primary categories, i.e. influencers, celebrities and bloggers, bifurcated in 20 subcategories under each primary category such as tech, food, beauty, lifestyle, parenting, environment, etc.

Discussing how the content marketing and branded content space in India is evolving, Han said brands have realised the power of authentic and engaging content that can have a much greater impact on a consumer.

She added, “Branded content in the future will utilise the creativity of the influencers and have native integration of the brand message in the influencer’s content. Technology will play a key role for analysing marketing opportunities, identifying deep insights and delivering cost-efficient marketing campaigns.”

It is imperative for brands to add the most relevant and appropriate personality to their content in order to catch the consumers’ eyeballs. Content will always rule the roost and the roost is where there is highest traffic and traction, she said.

When asked how important it has become for brands to associate with content discovery platform, Han said, “It is critical to showcase brand content on traffic-rich platforms and therefore the analytical knowledge of platforms is elementary.”