A Bazaar of their Own

In a 1996 essay titled ‘Content is King’, Bill Gates predicted online content would fetch us money. Well, he was bang on with his prediction, and we are living in a world where content is the king, queen, and everything in between. Today, we have a new set of stars—content creators—who are not only captivating the audience with their content but are also turning out to be the faces of brands. Due to this growth, Meta has formed a creator marketplace directly linking brands with creators.

In February 2024, Meta expanded its creator marketplace to eight countries, including India. Now, brands in these regions can directly connect with content creators on Instagram for various marketing initiatives. With tech giants entering this space, the influencer marketing sector is set to grow, which, as per EY, is projected to reach 3,375cr. by 2026 in India.

Talking about the move, Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media notes, “Meta’s creator marketplace launch in India could be a game changer for influencer marketing, finally offering a one-stop shop for brands to find their perfect partners. This dedicated platform streamlines the process, letting brands ditch the guesswork and staying laser-focused on creators who align with their campaigns. As other big players introduce similar marketplaces, competition will drive improvements in services and opportunities for creators, fostering growth in the influencer industry.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, Himanshu Arora, Co-Founder, Social Panga shares, “With more and more players entering this space, it highlights the scope in the future. Brands can easily browse the marketplace to find potential influencers, negotiate deals, and manage collaborations seamlessly. This will boost their visibility and sales. On the other hand, creators can monetise their content more effectively and offer their followers a convenient way to shop for their favourite products.”

While Meta Creator Marketplace’s entry might be new in India, they flagged off this initiative in the US in 2022. Similarly, other tech goliaths such as Google and TikTok have been experimenting in this area across the globe. Industry professionals find that as other big players introduce similar marketplaces, competition will drive improvements in services and opportunities for creators, fostering growth in the influencer industry.

Sharing his insights, Harish Bijoor, Business & Brand-Strategy Expert & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. puts forward, “With a staggering number of small advertisements—around 320 million—produced annually in India, along with millions more across various mediums, navigating this advertising anarchy can be challenging. That’s where the creator marketplace comes into play. By connecting brands with suitable creators, Meta’s machine learning-driven creator marketplace aims to bridge this gap.”

Talking about some other advantages of marketplaces, Manjul Wadhwa, Founder of Anagram, an integrated digital marketing agency that has its influencer marketing tools, notes, “The entry of big players like TikTok and Meta into the marketplace and database sector is set to bring significant changes. Meta’s initiatives, launched in 2022, are centralising fragmented data, transforming Instagram into a major marketplace hub. This will provide unparalleled insights into trends, aligning them with brand preferences and revolutionising media planning.”

Industry experts are propounding that the move will help with data centralisation. It is observed that Meta is relying on machine learning and artificial intelligence for its creator marketplace, aiming to create a suitable list of creators for brand campaigns by matching the Target Audiences of creators and brands.

Elucidating the role of AI, Hamza Kazi, Head of Music, Dharma Cornerstone Agency, a talent management agency by Dharma Productions and Cornerstone states, “This marketplace, which uses AI and machine learning, reduces the scope of statistical errors and human biases, thereby increasing the probability of running a successful campaign. Meta is supposedly increasing spends on AI services to $35-40 billion as opposed to $30-37 billion earlier. These positive statistics resonate brands’ faith in branded content released through Meta. With the marketplace, Meta is trying to empower brands and creators, while ensuring smoother and more transparent execution of campaigns.”

In addition to using AI, Meta has also launched several features for its marketplace, such as designated folders for brand messages, and a content-to-commerce funnel, which as per experts, will ease up the process further.

Throwing light on these features, Hari Krishnan, Managing Director and Head, Publicis Content voices, “Meta’s creator marketplace is reshaping the influencer marketing landscape. A key feature here is the content-to-commerce funnel, which will allow influencers to sell products directly to their audience, turning engagement into sales. Instagram’s partnership ads amplify branded content, scaling collaborations and driving commerce effectively. On top of it, features like the Partnership Messages folder and the ability to launch partnership ads directly within Instagram make collaboration seamless and effective.”

Experts like Hamza Kazi find that Meta’s marketplace will be able to streamline the micro and nano creators into mainstream marketing. Due to a data-driven system, micro-targeting will be encouraged, which will in turn benefit the smaller creators who have been sidelined from big brand campaigns, democratising the creator economy.
Amid loud cheers for the move, some concerns are making the rounds. There are questions on the impact of the move on the agencies, especially on talent agencies. But industry professionals have asserted that this marketplace will by no means affect their shop, and in fact, it will only create an upshift. Undoubtedly, Meta is a big player in Digital, but then again, there are plenty of players within Digital, and even outside Digital, there are multiple other mediums that are here to exist.

Speaking about this, Tusharr Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, OML, a talent management agency that manages the likes of Tanmay Bhat, says, “Small to medium creators will definitely benefit from this because sometimes it is difficult for them to connect with brands. But I don’t think that it will affect the talent management agencies. Creator management plays a much larger role than just getting brands for creators. And in fact, the move will end up benefiting us because if the creators make more revenue, it will directly flow to the agencies.”

Along similar lines, Mansi Gupta, Chief Business Officer, Opraah FX, a talent management agency, states, “It’s a great platform for micro and nano creators, with followers ranging between 2,000 to 1 lakh. But I don’t think this move affects us and the scale that we work at because we primarily work with macro and mega creators. Even from a brand perspective, involving big creators means more spends. When spends are so high, brands feel the need to be personally involved in the collaboration. Brands also want the initiations to be creatively done, and for that an agency is needed.”

Meta is bringing into the picture an array of content-creating tools, a marketplace that will aid visibility and discovery and hopefully a sustainable income for the creators. And this new avenue calls for new rules. Experts note that there should be a proper set of guidelines to ensure smooth functioning.

Breaking it down, Digital and New Media Advisor Sanjay Trehan remarks, “A creator marketplace across Meta platforms will give a fillip to the creator economy and help discover and unleash new talent. I welcome the blooming of a million flowers. Having said that, it would place an increased onus on the platform to set content guidelines and oversee moderation, and I would say obsessive moderation, besides self-regulation on the part of the creators. Let there be weeds in the jungle but let there also be some order to their growth, otherwise chaos will ensue.”

Meta’s expansion of its creator marketplace begins a transformative era for influencer marketing in India. By harnessing AI and machine learning, it will streamline brand-creator collaborations, democratise opportunities for smaller creators, and centralise data for enhanced targeting. But as the marketplace grows, industry professionals emphasise the importance of guidelines and moderation to ensure a balanced and thriving creator ecosystem.