MAM
Affiliate marketing: Building community on influencer’s existing audience
Mumbai: Within the ever-changing field of marketing, companies and brands are increasingly turning to Affiliate Marketing as a key strategy to connect with their target audience. This innovative approach involves compensating external parties to promote products and services, creating a promotional link without a direct association between the promoter and the brand. By leveraging individuals as intermediaries, brands can effectively tap into their target market. This trend has significantly influenced the buying behaviour of Indian consumers, who now rely on recommendations from trusted sources on social media, personal blogs, videos and embedded advertisements within the content.
This emerging marketing approach empowers businesses to engage effectively with their target audience, fostering increased sales and transactions through affiliate marketing. It not only cultivates trust but also wields influence, compelling more buyers to choose the product. This boosts return on investment by cultivating good relationships between businesses and their clients.
India presently is the world’s second-largest internet market, with over 800 million users. Hence, businesses have adopted new marketing strategies such as display banners, paid search, SEO, and video ads. Notably, Social Media reigns supreme, commanding a significant 30 per cent of the expenditure share among digital media advertising formats. Within this diverse array of advertising formats, Influencer Marketing emerges as a prominent social media trend, reflecting the dynamic shifts in the realm of digital marketing.
Influencer marketing: An emerging trend
In the realm of social media, Indian businesses leverage popular and influential figures boasting a substantial follower base to effectively promote their brand, products and services. Influencer Marketing proves highly successful for companies seeking to expand their reach and cultivate brand trust. Whether partnering with micro-influencers or macro-influencers, businesses benefit from their specialized and committed fanbases. Engaging with influencers aligned with their brand values allows companies to foster confidence among their followers and establish meaningful connections.
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According to research, Instagram effectively connects with the 25 to 29 age group, while Facebook excels in reaching individuals aged 60 and above. In contrast, influencer marketing taps into a dedicated and specific fan base, showcasing its unique ability to benefit businesses :
Extensive Audience – Connecting with a broad audience becomes effortless through influencer marketing. The content an influencer generates resonates with their diverse fan base across Tier 1, 2, and 3 demographics. Regardless of specific demographics, followers engage with influencers, making it a seamless way for businesses to reach a vast target audience simultaneously.
Regional Connect – Incorporating influencer marketing enables businesses to connect with diverse regional audiences, particularly in a linguistically diverse country like India. Leveraging regional influencers helps overcome language barriers, fostering trust, and expanding business reach among diverse regional groups.
Authentic and Expert Recommendation – Advertisements inform people about a product, but influencer marketing goes a step further, building trust in the product, brand and service. For instance, for cookware and cooking ingredients, a food influencer plays a crucial role in establishing trust and driving purchases. When consumers connect with a product through an expert or authentic recommendation, it significantly influences their purchasing decisions.
Integrating influencer marketing has emerged as a successful tactic for businesses to connect effectively with their target audience. To succeed in this, businesses must do thorough market research to pinpoint and connect with their distinct target audience. The chosen influencer’s ability to relate to the business’s target audience is also crucial. Long term, this improves return on investment (ROI) and contributes to the efficacy of marketing plans.
Anticipated to grow at a 31 per cent compound rate, social media is projected to account for 29 per cent of expenditure by year-end. This surge presents a valuable opportunity for businesses, to leverage existing influencers’ audiences to establish a widespread customer base. The impact extends beyond online realms, aiding both online and offline enterprises in enhancing sales and cultivating a robust customer foundation.
The article is written by Sellergize CTO & director Kamil Khan,
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
