iWorld
How to create effective social influence?
MUMBAI: Today, a social media user’s newsfeed comprises brands, influencers & publishers, all battling to create what marketers hope are ‘like-worthy’ pieces of content. And, to stand out, several brands have recently taken the influencer-marketing route, but Dentsu Webchutney is of the opinion that even this is slowly hitting a saturation point.
Influencer marketing itself is riddled with disorganized logistics, confusing operations, lack of clarity about success metrics amongst other issues. Webchutney Influence aims to solve these problems for both brands and content creators.
“Over the last year or so, we’ve noticed a pattern of brands across categories working with an extremely limited circle of content-creators: mostly the top tier publishers and creators. Unless these circles expand, the nature of content created, will not either. Webchutney Influence has been making inroads into doing just that… by working with Instagram creators who are known more for the quality of their work, with a smaller but focused loyal fan base, and other smaller publishers on Facebook to co-create and distribute content effectively. And we aim to economize this model to scale”, says Dentsu Webchutney creative director PG Aditya.
“We realized that while brands had warmed up to collaborating with these ‘micro-influencers’ in spirit, it was usually way more convenient for them to partner with larger names, unfortunately at the content’s expense. Which is why the team at Webchutney Influence also works as a quasi-talent management hub. It is important for influencers to not feel that their content quality was being compromised, while you, the brand can reap the benefits of a user’s undivided attention,” says Dentsu Webchutney CEO Sidharth Rao.
But how does a brand ensure that the influencers and publishers recommended is the right fit for them? Dentsu Webchutney senior vice president Gautam Reghunath clarifies: “Webchutney Influence has spent quality time handpicking publishers & content creators who command a high resonance with their audiences, and mapping their audience demographics to that of our brands before we actually recommend a collaboration. Plus, we’re a creative agency at heart. Understanding a ‘brand fit’ is something built into the team’s DNA.”
Reghunath also touches upon the changing culture of the agency itself. “It is the new normal at Dentsu Webchutney to see a social influencer and our own creative & influence teams brainstorming on how the next series of brand creatives should be. To be honest, we’re just keeping up with the way social media is evolving – right from tweaking the way we brief our creative partners to re-imagining who these creative partners are. Webchutney Influence is as much about reach as it is about creativity,” he adds.
Webchutney Influence has already executed campaigns with brands such as Flipkart, Mach City, Quikr, Canon India, Rentomojo and Reliance AJIO across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
iWorld
WhatsApp emerges as key commerce channel in India: Meta report
Whitepaper shows 77 per cent of purchases influenced by social media and shoppers spend 2.5 times more across channels
MUMBAI: If shopping once meant a stroll down the high street, today it begins with a scroll on a smartphone. India’s retail journey is being rewritten in real time, as consumers glide between Instagram Reels, WhatsApp chats and physical stores with barely a pause for thought. A new whitepaper by Meta in collaboration with the Retailers Association of India argues that this shift is not cosmetic but structural, powered by artificial intelligence, short form video, creators and conversational commerce.
The numbers underline the scale of the change.
Social media now influences 77 per cent of retail purchase decisions in India, with Meta’s platforms accounting for 96 per cent of social driven discovery. Discovery itself is increasingly passive and visual rather than deliberate and search led. As much as 97 per cent of consumers watch short form video daily, and 60 per cent of time spent on Facebook and Instagram is devoted to video content.
In other words, the shop window has moved to the feed.
The report highlights the growing dominance of the omnichannel shopper, a consumer who researches and buys fluidly across online and offline environments. More than 50 per cent of retail consumers research products online before purchasing in store. Equally, over 50 per cent browse in store before completing their purchase online.
This blended behaviour is lucrative. Shoppers who buy across channels spend 2.5 times more than single channel shoppers. When customers engage across multiple touchpoints, spending rises by as much as 73 per cent. For retailers, unified commerce is no longer a strategy slide. It is a revenue imperative.
Meta India director of E commerce and retail Meghna Apparao, urged brands to focus on three pillars: Reels and creators for authentic storytelling, omnichannel performance marketing to connect platforms, and WhatsApp as a personalised commerce channel. Hitesh Bhatt of RAI noted that the challenge is no longer adopting digital tools but integrating them to deliver measurable outcomes.
Artificial intelligence sits at the heart of this integration. Indian retailers using Meta’s omnichannel optimisation have recorded more than fourfold improvements in omnichannel return on ad spend. Businesses that integrated in store sales data through Meta’s Conversions API have reported Roas uplift ranging from 2 times to 5 times or more, alongside incremental sales growth of up to 9 times depending on category and market.
Integrated data strategies have also delivered revenue growth of up to 15 per cent, suggesting that when digital signals are tied to offline outcomes, marketing efficiency sharpens considerably.
Retailers are already putting this into practice. Reliance Digital has leaned into a Reels first strategy, working with regional creators to drive engagement and measurable business impact. Croma says Meta’s AI powered tools have enabled it to integrate offline data and activate performance marketing across touchpoints, strengthening both footfall and revenue across online and physical stores.
Trust is increasingly creator led. The report finds that 71 per cent of consumers make a purchase within a couple of days of seeing creator content on Meta’s technologies. Campaigns that leverage reels and creators have delivered 71 per cent higher brand intent lift and 19 per cent lower acquisition costs.
Micro and nano creators, in particular, are accelerating purchase decisions by embedding products into relatable, local narratives. Influence is no longer confined to celebrity endorsements. It is distributed, conversational and continuous.
If Instagram and Facebook drive discovery, WhatsApp is emerging as the conversion engine. According to the report, 72 per cent of product discovery now happens on WhatsApp. Retailers using business messaging and click to WhatsApp campaigns are seeing a 61 per cent average improvement in return on ad spend, a 62 per cent increase in leads and 22 per cent higher order values.
The implication is clear. Commerce is shifting from clicks to conversations. Discovery, purchase and post purchase support increasingly unfold within a single chat thread.
The whitepaper argues that omnichannel maturity will define competitiveness in Indian retail. Consumers no longer toggle between online and offline modes. They operate across both simultaneously, often within the same buying journey.
For brands, the task is no longer about being present on digital platforms. It is about stitching together discovery, data, conversation and store experience into a unified loop that can be measured in footfall, revenue and repeat purchase.
As India’s shoppers continue to scroll before they stroll, the retailers who align AI, creators and messaging into one seamless experience may find that the path to growth is less about adding new channels and more about connecting the ones they already have.
