The Booming of Influencer Marketing in Asia

Recap: Macro vs. micro-influencers!

Using micro-influencers for your influencer marketing strategy can benefit your business if your objective is to increase your engagement rate!

Why?

✅ They are cost-effective

✅ They drive conversion

✅ They have a strong community

✅ Their work is based on authentic and genuine content

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Using macro influencers for your influencer marketing strategy can benefit your business if your objective is to increase visibility.

Why?

✅ They guaranteed extensive exposure

✅ They already have a reputation, which comes along with high visibility

Let’s start with demographics!

First of all, the region’s mobile market is booming, and the internet economy’s growth has been following the same trend creating an ideal environment for social media to breakthrough. Entrepreneurs, companies, and investors have noticed the evolution of this new sustainable and suitable digital sector. With a rising internet economy and growing mobile usage, the Asian context encourages locals to use social media. In the past few years, users have been multiplying and digital communication channels like social media are driving attention towards influencer marketing strategies for businesses to boost their brand awareness. Moreover, let’s not forget how Asian citizens primarily use mobile devices to access information. Thus all campaigns must be mobile-friendly, and social media platforms are the perfect fit for this particular demand. 

Social facts: local values!

To understand a country, region, or territory’s historical evolution, we must analyse its population’s ideologies and values! In Asia, two values stand out when listening to consumers’ wants and needs: authenticity and trust. Yet both keywords’ meanings diverge significantly from one geographical territory to another! In this case, authenticity and trust are based on shared cultural backgrounds, social codes, and languages! Followers expect influencers to be proactive by answering comments, engaging with their audience to share their opinion on the product/service, etc.

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Did you know? Influencers' image importance varies from one region to another! For example, in China, popular influencers who drive companies' sales with their image are called KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). The notion of KOLs was original to celebrities like actors and singers, yet with the growing influencer market, popular creators started working with brands. Since their followers trust them, they influence their community's consumer behaviour.

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Advice: to fit in or break through the Asian market, turn yourself to local influencers; they know the local codes of the culture. If the company signs with foreign influencers, the brand might appear as invasive and non-authentic!

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What about Influencers?

Regarding the influencer tier, most micro-influencers in Asia understand local codes and are portrayed as authentic, enabling them to have active communities. Furthermore, local influencers use worldwide known platforms like Instagram/TikTok/Facebook, etc., and regional platforms such as Line, Snow, Youku, Douyin etc. Thus regarding their collabs, their sponsorships are adapted to their audience as well as the platforms for their content to fit users’ expectations and demands.

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Fun fact: Micro-influencers are more trusted than celebrities since users feel like they can trust them as a reliable source of information. Followers don’t want to follow sponsorship or brand advertisement posts, instead they long for relatable content from people just like them. That is why local influencers who go viral, will be extremely popular for a short period of time after which they will go back to their usual account growth. This usual cycle allows multiple micro/nano influencers to be considered by companies. There is much more room for creators with a high demand for local and authentic content, which explains the booming of influencers in Asia!

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Local Challenges

📌 Due to the importance of authenticity in brand advertising, scaling influencer marketing can be challenging and time-consuming.

📌 The usage of numerous platforms splits the audience. Thus users are reached through different channels.