Digital
Nearly 60% of Indian CMOs have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing, study finds
NEW DELHI: The growing affinity of consumers towards digital platforms to connect with brands has elevated the popularity of influencer activities in India. Moreover, the Covid2019 outbreak has made brands focus more on affirming their online presence, and it has made influencers a part of the mainstream marketing plans. And now, a new study conducted by AI-driven influencer marketing platform ClanConnect.ai has found that more than half (58.7 per cent) of Indian CMOs have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing in 2021.
According to the report, 78 per cent of marketing leaders leveraged influencer marketing in 2020, while a little over 13 per cent dabbled in the segment for the first time last year. Interestingly, 52 per cent of brands engaged more than 10 influencers in 2020, which coincides with the accelerated growth of the sector in the last year.
The study found that budgets allocated to influencer marketing grew significantly in 2020 as compared to 2019. In fact, 39.13 per cent of the CMOs mentioned an increase in spends on influencer marketing. The other 60.87 per cent saw no change in spends between 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, more than 50 per cent of the respondents increased their marketing spends in 2020, a clear indication of the growing trust that industry-leading brands are placing in influencers for bolstering their brand message among the target audience.
58.7 per cent of CMOs are allocating separate budgets for influencer activities in their 2021 marketing plans. Simultaneously, 52.17 per cent have decided to increase spends in 2021 as compared to 2020. It is not surprising, then, that almost 90 per cent of CMOs are considering aligning up to a quarter of their entire marketing budget towards influencer-led activities in the current year. Moreover, over half of the respondents are interested in increasing budgets by up to 25 per cent in 2021.
While 50 per cent of the respondents find Instagram to be the most effective platform for these campaigns, 23.91 per cent prefer LinkedIn, and 15.22 per cent identify YouTube as their go-to platform.
In another interesting finding, the survey revealed that almost 87 per cent marketing heads prefer to conduct up to 25 per cent of their influencer campaigns with micro-influencers. This proves that brands prefer to engage with influencers who have a dedicated, loyal following even if the number of followers does not go into the millions.
Over 41 per cent of brands have taken the onus of managing influencer marketing mandates. On the flipside, 15 per cent of them are employing dedicated influencer marketing platforms and marketplaces to create and manage highly targeted and impactful campaigns. However, 89.13 per cent of CMOs are concerned about influencer fraud in the form of fake followers and engagement.
"Influencer marketing is at the cusp of exponential growth. It is the veritable future of marketing, a fact that is evident from this first-of-its-kind survey report," said ClanConnect.ai co-founder and COO Kunal Kishore Sinha.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
