MAM
Growth of influencer marketing in the events industry
The Indian events industry is currently among the fastest growing sectors in the country. In fact, it is predicted to cross the 10,000 Cr mark by 2020-21. The tremendous growth seen in this lucrative industry can be attributed to several factors, such as digital activation, sports leagues, rural expansion, and Government initiatives followed by IPs, personal events, product launches, expansion of mini-metros, and below the line spend.
The underlying outcome of digital activation has been the growing trend of using influencer marketing as a primary form of promotion, carried out by the event organisers.
For event organisers, influencers can be broadly categorised into 3 types –
· Mega-Influencers: These are celebrities and popular personalities, who have a huge number of followers. They charge high fees to be associated with the events, and are not necessarily industry experts.
· Macro-Influencers: These influencers have a high following as well, and are industry experts, who collaborate with various event organisers, on a regular base.
· Micro-Influencers: These consist of the average person who has a high level of engagement, and hence, are prime influencers who are tapped during events.
Influencer marketing, in a nutshell, can be described as a partnership formed by event organisers and influential industry experts, to increase the event exposure, both online and offline. This new phenomena is a type of marketing which enables organisers to reach out to the targeted niche community, through a research and insight-driven strategy for creating authentic content using the voice of an influencer.
Influencer marketing helps event organisers and the brand in numerous ways, such as:
· Create Brand Awareness: Influencer marketing is the best tactic to be used, in order to create a buzz around the event, and therefore, reach out to new consumers. Event organisers apply various strategies to create awareness, while the influencers carry out multiple shout-outs about the event which is to take place. They also host giveaway tickets for the events, creating an engagement with the consumer, which is better explained below.
· Brand Engagement: This goes hand-in-hand with creating brand awareness. The most effective way of understanding whether the influencer marketing has a positive impact involves analysing social media likes, comments, and the use of hashtags. Influencers build a community and engage with old and new consumers, by doing a takeover on pre-event and event days. This helps them become a brand ambassador of the event on the particular day, and offer consumers behind-the-scene glimpses of the event.
· Consumer Retention: A well-constructed influencer marketing campaign helps an event tap into new consumers. It is extremely important to integrate them into the brand’s consumer-base. Since a large number of events take place every year, consumer retention is of top priority for a brand. Thus, with the help of influencers, it can successfully maintain that link with the consumer base.
The above is a clear indication that influencer marketing is here to stay, and will only move from strength to strength, in the coming years. With event companies pumping in more and more money into marketing, influencer marketing, one of the most sought after marketing tools today, will play a key role for events and brands alike, in the years to come.
(The author is managing director, Dome Entertainment. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)
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.
