Retail in Asia

Featured

The Creator Economy is Influencing How Consumers Make Decisions

In a booming creator economy, micro-influencers on TikTok are an untapped opportunity for APAC brands. According to Meltwater’s latest report entitled ‘The Rise of the Creator Economy: A New Opportunity for Brands in Asia-Pacific’, micro-influencers, particularly on TikTok, experience the strongest engagement rate, leading to high ROI for brands in APAC. Micro-influencers have also been proven to be APAC brands’ top choice for collaboration.

SEE ALSO: TikTok abandons e-commerce expansion plan in Europe and the U.S.

Amid financial and geopolitical uncertainties and a potential global recession on the horizon, marketing budgets which are still recovering from record lows in 2021 are likely to shrink even further. However, CMOs are still expected to deliver results within this challenging environment. Some brands in APAC have been successfully leveraging micro-influencers to connect with consumers and drive growth.

In 2021, micro-influencers represented 91 percent of all sponsored post engagements – including likes, shares and comments, within APAC. With pressure to show ROI for marketing budgets, this could be an effective approach. The cost to engage micro-influencers in APAC is considerably lower, at an average rate of 200 USD per Instagram post, as compared to engaging famous influencers. The report also found that these influencers see the strongest engagement rate on TikTok, where they experience 32x and 4x greater engagement than on Facebook and Instagram, respectively.

Insights from the social and media intelligence firm show that brands in APAC are in a strong position to tap into the growing creator economy. According to Meltwater’s Social Influencer Platform, outside of China and India’s established influencer economy, APAC countries have a sizable influencer population with Japan (600,00) topping the list, followed by Australia (400,00), Indonesia (400,000), Thailand (100,000) and Singapore (70,000).

SEE ALSO: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with entertainment platform phenomenon TikTok