Myntra associates with influencers basis the quality of engagement than reach, says Achint Setia

Generally, big brands tend to spend most of their influencer marketing budget in partnering with macro-influencers, while only a small portion of it is allotted to nano and micro-influencers. 

The fashion e-commerce platform Myntra, which launched its social and Live commerce vertical last year, gives more weightage to the quality and engagement an influencer has with her/his audience, over reach and scale. 

Achint Setia, Head of Marketing and Social Commerce, Myntra, said, “We have worked with thousands of influencers over the past few years, we get a lot of insight into the quality as well as the potential of the influencer, so we don't need somebody who is huge on Instagram or other platforms. We look at their expertise on certain topics in the fashion fraternity and how they engage their audiences with their content.”

Setia said while several brands have started working with micro and nano influencers, one will see many regional influencers gaining footage in brands’ marketing plans in the coming times. He said, “In the future, we will also see a lot of regional influencers, who will be able to become brand ambassadors or will be able to associate with a lot of brands with more and more brands deploying Live commerce. There is a lot of good talent out there but previously they were not getting discovered. Due to the advent of technology and vast social networks, they are getting discovered. This will shape the content format as well as the creator economy.”

With a heavy focus on engagement and expertise, Myntra has announced the launch of ‘Style Squad’, to empower the talented and aspiring creator ecosystem in India. Through this initiative, Myntra will offer influencers an array of benefits, ranging from unlocking monetisation opportunities, a steady stream of income, the opportunity to connect with over 7000 brands at scale and customised 1:1 mentorship and training avenues.

Talking about the ‘Style Squad’, Setia said, "As pioneers in the space of fashion content, we believe in nurturing upcoming talented creators from the grassroots and giving them adequate exposure, mentorship and training to become superstars on the platform. For Style Squad, we have identified high-performing, creative, edgy and impactful creators from our Social Commerce platforms to craft unparalleled brand and expert-led engagement for Myntra and our brand partners. The Style Squad enables Myntra and our brand partners to leverage the creator economy to deliver substantial value for our customers by building a platform that allows real-time style advisory and enhanced product discovery. Influencer-led engagement is key to Myntra’s marketing strategy and we shall continue to make the right spending to enable this vision.”

Myntra has handpicked creators from the top 10% of the thousands of creators it has worked with in the recent past via Myntra Studio and M Live. While 90% of the Style Squad members were budding creators before they joined Myntra, now most of them have a larger follower base on Myntra Studio than on their Social Media handles. Some of the popular creators on the Style Squad include Abhinav Mathur, Ishita Khanna, Asmita Kaushik, Samidha Singh, Pradaini Surva, and the winner of Myntra Fashion Superstar’s Season 3, Queen Andro, among others.

The ‘Style Squad’ will have the liberty to curate their own collection from the 7000 brands associated with Myntra while the company will be assisting the creators to monetise their content and have a smooth association with these brands. The platform also plans on educating the creators to use their potential to the fullest.

Myntra envisions to drive stickiness and repeats with fashion-forward customers across tiers and genders, with creators playing a critical role in influencing decision making and building awareness among young customer cohorts. The current engagement rates of the enterprise’s key creators are upwards of 1.5x of the platform average and this is expected to grow by 4-5x times in the next 2 years.