Ramya Ramachandran is a young entrepreneur who founded Whoppl, a new age influencer content & commerce agency in 2019. She brings with her demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry with a niche in Influencer & content marketing.
Contemporary lives are lived as much online as they are lived in the real world. Nobody can deny the crucial and sometimes intrusive role played by social media platforms in the way consumers make purchase decisions today. A recent study concluded that a whopping 49 percent of consumers relied on social media influencers to make important purchase decisions.
Clearly there is a massive opportunity for brands and influencers alike. It’s no surprise that the
Influencer Marketing Report found that the Indian influencer industry will expand at a CAGR of 25 percent to be worth INR 2,200 crore BY 2025.
Yet, another recent report by Kaalari Capital pointed out towards the nascent stage that India’s creator economy is currently in. The report found out that India currently has approximately eight crore creators, but only about 1.5 lakh can monetizetheir services effectively. That is less than 0.2 percent!
The opportunity is knocking on our doors, all that India needs to do is learn how to capitalize on the growing trend. In order to understand the market deeper we spoke to influencer marketing expert Ramya Ramachandran. The young entrepreneur and founder of Whoppl tells us about her company, its unique features and much more.
Is the pandemic changing audience content consumption patterns, and how has it impacted influencer marketing?
The pandemic has definitely changed consumption patterns, there has been a significant increase in screen time. As per research, India currently has over 448Mn active social media users who on an average spend 2 hours & 25 minutes everyday, a majority of them being Gen Z- Influencer marketing has surely become all the more relatable and topical today as it comments on real life experiences with brand integration becoming more seamless and personal which works better to plug in brand mandates as well as gives the brand a chance to build a personal connection with their audience.
Tell us about Whoppl, its specialization and the services that your company offers.
Whoppl is a new age digital first influencer content marketing agency, where we come up with creative campaigns for brands across digital platforms.
We've 3 main verticals-
1. Creating content at scale - our creator led in-house content hub where we work hand in hand with influencers to create relatable content, giving them an opportunity to work with some of the most loved brands in India that appeal to a vast majority of the target audience around the world, waiting for the influence to kick in!
2. Influencer marketing campaigns/strategy - Here we pick and choose influencers best suited to the brand tone and creative brief and build on a campaign that is customized, insightful and filled with key notes from our influencer network!
3. Live commerce - In a ‘like minds coming together’ we have partnered with Swirl a live commerce platform making the consumer’s shopping experience one of a kind, immersed with quirky content right from browse to purchase.
With what mission and objectives was the company set up? Tell us about the company’s growth journey since its inception?
The boom of digital media grappled all of us and we were quick to realize the gap of creative influencer led marketing agencies in the market. While there have been influencer agencies and talent management agencies but a content driven influencer marketing agency which works as an intermediary between the brand and the influencers, understanding the brief as well as the influencers’ persona, we primarily focus on shaping the brands narrative to audiences in a way they can relate & resonate.
As for the journey, we started off by catering to just one category initially with a handful of influencers and today not only have we worked with brands across categories but have also diversified into creating content at scale and live commerce and shoppable videos. Making 800+ hours of content, 100+ campaigns & 5000+ influencers from the ecosystem.
Tell us about some of the major challenges the company has faced so far.
In terms of challenges I believe we have the first mover’s advantage and have been able to carve out a niche for ourselves with content being at the core of what we do. But, with the recent creator economy boom, there is a lot of competition in the digital space and having an edge over the competition and staying true to our niche by creating clutter breaking content is what keeps us going.
How do you plan to revolutionize the Indian influencer marketing sector and what are your plans to tap the market?
We have diversified with time, not only adding brands to our portfolio but also offering more services. Right from creating content at scale to live commerce, we are now slowly diversifying and tapping right into the creator economy wherein we give creators a chance to monetise by brand collaborations through their own labels and creations which further opens up more opportunities. Constant diversification, exploration and expansion is most definitely a part of the plan.
What are your future plans, and what are your top priorities for 2023?
The influencer marketing landscape is growing and constantly diversifying with the creator economy boom. So while we are still focused on our niche of creating content driven influencer marketing campaigns, we are also diving into live commerce, an attempt to provide end to end solutions. Further we are also looking at creating more influencer led performance campaigns, heading towards a more data driven approach.
