We are on a mission to onboard 1 million content creators to be an active part of the influencer economy: Sachin Bhatia of Good Creator Co.

Good Glamm Group’s influencer marketing platform Good Creator Co. is on a mission to onboard over one million creators to be an active part of the influencer economy across e-commerce, brand marketing, social media and entertainment in the near future, said Sachin Bhatia, CEO of Good Creator Co. (GCC), a part of Good Glamm Group. 

The Good Creator Co. has the vision to be a market leader in the influencer management and marketing industry and be the platform that helps influencers in India make the most amount of money, he said.

Good Glamm Group acquired Bhatia’s social commerce company Bulbul earlier in January this year. Come July 2022, the Good Glamm Group announced the reorganisation of its business by creating three divisions—Good Brands Co., Good Media Co., and Good Creator Co.—following a string of acquisitions across media, consumer goods and influencer engagement platforms. ​​Good Brands Co. is led by Sukhleen Aneja; Good Media Co. by Priyanka Gill and Good Creator Co. by Sachin Bhatia. 

Earlier in January, GCC announced that it raised Rs 200 crore seed capital from the Good Glamm Group and will be functioning on an independent mandate. The content creators’ division comprising Plixxo, Winkl, Vidooly, Bulbul and MissMalini is targeting a Rs 250 crore revenue run rate by December 2022.

Plixxo and Winkl are influencer marketing platforms having 2,50,000 influencers and reaching 70+ million users every month. Vidooly is an online video intelligence and analytics platform for content creators, brands, multi-channel networks, agencies and media companies. Winkl is GCC’s other influencer marketing platform that leverages technology by automating tasks such as shortlisting influencers, content briefs, reminders, payments, and performance tracking.

With more and more brands now making a shift to influencer marketing to attract new customers, the creator economy has quickly taken off in India. According to a report by GroupM, influencer marketing is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25% annually to become a Rs 2,200 crore industry by 2025.

The challenge here is for the influencer marketing platforms that connect brands with relevant influencers to stand out. Amid the race to be different the platforms always have to bring something unique to the table. 

For the Good Creator Co. the key differentiator is their app and the tech while the data is the backbone that supports both creators and brands, said Bhatia. 

He further said, “No other influencer marketing platform offers tech and product-enabled workflow for creators and brands to maximise their output. In addition, due to our access to internal brands like MyGlamm, The Moms Co, Sirona, Organic Harvest and St Botanica, we offer 'always-on' campaigns to creators from these brands.”

Meanwhile, the importance of micro and nano influencers is also growing over time as they are the real drivers of the influencer economy, as per Bhatia. They keep the wheels churning, help brands scale visibility across demographics and provide the funnel for tomorrow's big influencer stars to emerge. 

Bhatia added that without them, the creator ecosystem will decay. They are the most important users and everything the company does is to enhance their creator journey on and off the app. 

On the other hand, some experts think that with the growth of micro and nano influencers, the demand for macros influencers will reduce. But Bhatia thinks differently, he said “Each category of influencers has their place. Just like there are big and small actors, extras, playback and chorus singers, dancers and background dancers, each type of influencer is important to the ecosystem. Macros are the ones that drive brand engagement and keep motivating smaller influencers to keep doing better to become like them one day.”

Hence, creators will be an integral part of all future purchase decisions, be it from helping build a brand to driving actual product sales, live commerce and curated branded collections by bigger creators will become popular in the coming years, with creators pushing their lines. 

Besides, any influencer who is looking at this as a career must know how this space evolves. 

Explaining this Bhatia said, “Sone start as small Insta influencers, do some reels, get popular, then start doing longer form content, graduate to YouTube, start moving to sell E-com versus just brand endorsements. Just like Shilpa Shetty evolved into doing fitness videos, Preity Zinta into an entrepreneur and Madhuri Dixit coming on to OTT movies. Likewise, if one seeks a career as an influencer, one can be at it for decades but one needs to keep evolving with time and trends. For instance, Nisha Madhulika is 60 plus and still going strong as a YouTube creator, with 11 million plus subscribers.”

For influencers, YouTube and Instagram are two different formats to create content which might make the journey more challenging for them. Like, YouTube is more of a long-form oriented video platform while Instagram is more short-form and is about good visuals and good-looking content. On the other hand, YouTube is more real and earthy.

The Good Creator Co. offers content creators and influencers access to brand campaigns, and monetisation opportunities, as well as affiliate and creator commerce programmes, celebrity talent management services and more via an app.

Bhatia explained how GCC helps content creators earn, learn and grow their community through the platform, “Learning is provided via the Good Creator Academy and other resources to help nano creators up-skill themselves. Earning is provided via brand deals, our 'Earnfluencer' programs and affiliate stores. Community and collaboration on the app are enabled via leaderboards, RnR for creators, opportunities to work on big brand campaigns etc.”  

The Good Creator Co. provides products/services such as Campaign Planner, Creator Search, Creator Insights and Campaign Manager for influencer and campaign management which help creators to increase their reach, visibility and get them the right brand collaborations to grow their portfolio and earn money out of it.

The GCC Academy provides courses where creators get access to masterclasses and an opportunity to connect, collaborate and learn from fellow creators via chat groups and forums which in return help them in building a unique skill set. 

Amid all these, in a major development, the government is going to roll out guidelines for social media influencers. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), under the Department of Consumer Affairs, has completed consultation with all key stakeholders on the matter. 

Bhatia asserted that the CCPA guidelines are not a deterrent, but simply part of a process. They actively engage with creators to prepare them for this by way of information through their app and the contracts that they sign with them. 

The creator economy is big on its own, which warrants the government to pass the guidelines, he added.