Gone are the days when generic advertisements splashed across print media/billboards or blared on radio/TV would drive sales or gain brands loyal customers for a lifetime. In a world ruled by consumers seeking meaningful engagements with their preferred brands, not even traditional digital marketing can significantly impact new-age customers.

Although shoppers now lean towards ‘social’ content and influencer marketing, many have moved away from well-known celebrities with big followings. The reason: consumers today feel that nano (1K-10K followers) and micro-influencers (10K-50K followers), mostly regular folks like themselves, are more reliable when it comes to product/service validation.

Unsurprisingly, they did about 91% of influencer marketing in 2021, during the Covid peaks. In fact, this is fast emerging as a global trend. According to the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2023, 39% of the brands surveyed chose nano-influencers as their most likely partners, followed by 30% opting for micro-influencers.   

Sagar Pushp, a marketing and sales professional with more than 14 years of experience, was well aware of the fast-evolving industry trends and well-versed in advertising automation tools, especially programmatic advertising. For context, programmatic advertising automates buying/selling of ad inventories in seconds through an auto-bidding system, making the process super-efficient compared to the offline ecosystem. Additionally, it eliminates biases and measures ad ROI through data insights. 

Pushp, an innovative thinker, quickly recognised an opportunity at the time – that of creating a symbiotic platform for brands and influencers just like ad buyers and sellers were brought together through programmatic advertising. In December 2019, he joined hands with Kunal Kishore Sinha, founder-director of the PR firm Value 360, and movie director Anshai Lal to launch ClanConnect. 

Initially, the platform adopted an assisted marketing model to help brands discover and connect with the most relevant influencers as per their campaign requirements. The startup’s proprietary AI tools searched, analysed and vetted all critical metrics such as actual audience/reach, engagement, performance and content so that businesses could save time on influencer management.

In July 2022, ClanConnect introduced a self-service to simplify the process further and remove the platform fee for brands and agencies (more on that later). The startup claims it is the only platform allowing brands to access its influencer network free of cost. Almost a year after the strategic pivot, it received Frost & Sullivan’s Competitive Strategy Leadership Award in the global creator economy market as a recognition of its business excellence.  

To date, ClanConnect has onboarded 3K+ brands, 632 ad agencies and 13.36K nano- and micro-influencers.

It has worked with both legacy players (Godrej Expert, Puma, Cinthol, Oriflame and the like) and new-age players such as menswear startup Snitch and beauty startup Sahdev.

According to Pushp, the startup aims to clock INR 16 Cr in revenue in FY24 — a 500% YoY revenue increase. Ten months after the launch, it raised INR 5 Cr in seed funding from Venture Catalysts and a clutch of angel investors. 

From Assisted Marketing To Self-Service: ClanConnect’s Growth Journey 

In the first 21 months of its operations, ClanConnect had an assisted marketing model in place, allowing major brands to delegate the management and execution of campaigns. The startup’s creative team of domain experts and former influencers handled the execution, including narrative building, creating execution guidelines and carrying out other critical tasks. All these, combined with influencer data analytics for performance forecasts, helped brands find the right campaigners and promote their projects effortlessly. 

But the founders were not happy. They believed that the tech stack used at ClanConnect could build new benchmarks and fulfil a broader objective. 

“The growth of a tech-driven platform depends on its ability to scale up efficiently with minimal human resources, addressing problems and being accessible to those in need without concerns about affordability,” said Pushp.

Last July, the platform pivoted to a self-assist mode to democratise the influencer marketing ecosystem. Leveraging this model, all brands/ad agencies can directly engage with influencers on the platform without paying registration fees. This augurs well for small and medium companies, as well as startups and D2C brands, frequently struggling with marketing spend.    

On the other hand, influencers can join the platform for a monthly subscription of INR 100 and create a comprehensive profile by linking the same with their social media accounts and filling in all professional and personal details. 

In addition, ClanConnect obtained Instagram and YouTube APIs for access to influencer profiles, which are featured on the platform. It helps brands make informed decisions when identifying the most suitable persons for their campaigns.

Incidentally, these white-label APIs are plug-and-play tools which seamlessly connect businesses with developers/service providers to give access to key features (influencer profiles, in this case).

Obtaining the APIs from the tech giants was initially a huge challenge that could have derailed the startup’s plan to facilitate free access to the influencer community, said Pushp. But after several discussions and rigorous rounds of approvals, the APIs were eventually integrated with the platform.

Talking about how ClanConnect ensures user data protection with the white label API, Pushp said, “We have a rigorous vetting process in place. Google and Meta take access to our own platform to see how we are using user data.”

He added that when a user registers on ClanConnect, the platform takes their consent and categorically explains what all data it will access. However, if the user decides to delete the profile, all data is expunged from the platform. 

Brands on ClanConnect can add their campaign requirements and use up to 10 filters across YouTube and Instagram to search for influencers. Based on these prerequisites, the platform offers data-driven analytics extending beyond follower and subscriber counts. For instance, businesses can identify the top five influencers in a specific city, and the startup will also provide insights into their social media post engagement like the comments they have received and the number of times their posts have been shared. 

These real-time analytics are offered free of cost to pinpoint the most appropriate influencers for every campaign, said Pushp.

“We have also introduced a recommendation-based search engine called the Campaign Configurator. It enables brands to input basic details like budget, the kind of influencers they seek, the genre and more. Based on this, the platform comes up with recommendations, projecting estimated engagement post-collaboration,” said Pushp.

There is also a dashboard for smooth communications between brands and influencers. In addition, ClanConnect provides campaign analytics to measure outcomes, while a display tracks campaign ROIs from third-party providers for better transparency. 

Its revenue mainly stems from the subscription fees paid by influencers. But it also earns a 10% commission of the brand’s campaign budget for helping them with their marketing campaigns. The commission model is especially advantageous for big brands and large scale agencies, said Pushp. 

Besides, the startup has two more revenue streams — a retainer model, for brands engaging with the platform on a month on month or longer term basis. ClanConnect earns a monthly retainer with fixed deliverables from such brands for executing the campaigns on their behalf. The project model, on the other hand, is for one-off or seasonal campaign requirements. The ClanConnect team defines the project cost and the platform earns revenue through the project fee, without charging any commission.   

How ClanConnect Nurtures Small & Medium Brands, Micro & Nano-Influencers

According to Pushp, ClanConnect’s self-serve model has been a game changer, and the pivot has led to quantum growth. Its user base jumped nearly 500% after the platform fee was waived for brands and marketing agencies. Since its pivot in July 2022, the platform’s new user base grew from 19,351 to 1,15,000, marking a 600% increase in nine months.

The startup believes its commitment to empowering micro- and nano-influencers has further contributed to this growth.

“One of the major challenges in influencer marketing is that the focus is mostly on big brands and celebrity endorsements. This limits the opportunities for small players,” said Pushp.

The influencer marketing platform has broken this barrier, though. It works on two primary goals – helping small businesses expand their reach and enabling small-scale influencers (including regional players) to gain recognition and improve their earnings. 

As the AI-driven platform analyses the reach, demographic details and other crucial influencer data, local brands can easily connect with local influencers to drive engagement in a specific region. However, nano- and micro-influencers can also leverage the platform to connect with large brands with bigger budgets for campaigns. 

Here is a case in point. In the fourth quarter of 2022, menswear brand Snitch created a campaign with 70 nano and micro fashion influencers to celebrate its second anniversary.

In all, 140 content pieces, including reels and carousel posts (multiple pictures/videos in one post), were created across social media, reaching 1.12 Mn users with a 37.82% engagement rate. 

Pushp put the success to ‘regionalised’ and ‘granular’ reach. “These influencers work best for any brand that wants to focus on hyperlocal reach. In fact, they ensure better ROI compared to paid digital campaigns. Also, local players add a local flavour to the content, which can be the next frontier of brand marketing in India,” he said. 

The Road Ahead For ClanConnect

Influencer marketing is evolving fast along with the consumer mindset. Today, brands increasingly favour micro- and nano-influencers over celebrities and mega-influencers to connect with regional customers in local languages and personalise marketing campaigns to forge a stronger bonding.

Data also points towards the rise of regional influencer marketing. According to a report by the marketing agency Affable.ai, nano-influencers in India led social media engagement in 2022 with an engagement rate of 5.09%. Micro-influencers had the largest audience compared to all influencer categories, but their engagement rate was only 3.72%. 

The overall influencer market in India is growing as well. It was valued at INR 1,200 Cr in 2022, as per a Statista report, and is expected to reach INR 2,800 Cr by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 25%. Influencer marketing platforms like Kofluence, Adicube and Plixxo have emerged to cater to this demand, driving the industry’s growth.   

Interestingly, ClanConnect seems to hold a double edge in this space, leveraging cutting-edge tech to drive ‘small’ influencer growth and promote it right for brands of all sizes. It will also expand globally and improve its AI capabilities to provide better insights for brands and influencers. 

“We first want to establish a firm foothold in India and then expand to other geographies similar to the Indian market. We’re targeting Southeast Asia (SEA), Bangladesh and Africa in the long run,” said Pushp.   

The startup will also raise Series A funding in 2023 to scale up its operations. The funding will be primarily used for marketing, creating brand awareness, product development and improving customer journeys at all levels.

Platforms like ClanConnect and its ilk demonstrate the increasing effectiveness of nano- and micro-level influencer marketing in India. As the industry expands, they will be crucial in fostering collaborations between brands and influencers, thus driving consumer engagement and sales. 

The digital game can be tricky, and maintaining the growth momentum in a slowing economy can be phenomenally difficult. Industry experts are also predicting the rise of influencer marketing 3.0, where influencers-turned-brand creators will rule the roost. But until that happens at scale, platforms like ClanConnect will continue to make hay.