CASE VIEW WITH PRINCE KHANNA

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER MARKETING

Prince Khanna,
Founder & CEO at Engagelyee,
Founder & CEO at Eleve Media

Interviewed
by
Dr. Nagendra V. Chowdary
Prince is the Founder & CEO of Eleve Media Indias top-most
Influencer Marketing platform, enabling marketers to co-create Ref. DM-1-0009B
August 2017
content with online Influencers, Celebrities & Bloggers.
With over 8 years of experience in the Digital Media and Marketing
space, Prince has previously spearheaded MensXP.com the business
unit of Xpert Media Technology and Indias fastest growing E-mag
in the Men Lifestyle domain, for Sales and Management of Digital
Advertising in the Indian & International markets.
Prince started his career in the Digital Media space with Quasar
Media and later drove Media Sales effort for Web18s flagship
product Money Control.

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 Interview with Prince Khanna Social Media Influencer Marketing

Social Media Influencer Marketing

Prince Khanna

1. What is Eleve all about? What is its value proposition to the clients/customers?
With Eleve, we aim to connect a brand with people who are enthusiastic about them,
through a class leading technology platform. Essentially, creating a hotbed where brands
and influencers can become friends.

Our Influence Marketing platform enables brands to identify, connect, co-create (brands
and Influencer together) and amplify content through Social Media influencers. As Eleve,
we add a creative layer to formulate custom strategies basis the brand and their
requirements and offer a holistic approach to a clients content marketing needs. The
technology enables them with measurability, transparency, accountability and scalability
for their influence marketing strategies.

We aim to connect a brand with people who are

enthusiastic about them, through a class leading
technology platform. Essentially, creating a hotbed
where brands and influencers can become friends.

2. Can you explain the entire process of making a difference to a client with Eleves
value proposition? How would customers/clients benefit from Eleves services?
We focus on telling a story about the brands that work with us, rather than a monologue.
To have a clear understanding of what client needs are, and what they ultimately aim to
achieve every time we work on a marketing plan. A typical process may look like
understanding trigger to their needs, best fit in terms of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),
suggesting influencers to suit client persona and requirements, content quality planning,
timely execution, live tracking and management, and post campaign analysis.

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Social Media Influencer Marketing Interview with Prince Khanna

3. How do you describe Eleves progress thus far in building the traction around Social
Media Influencer Marketing?
We entered a chaotic and unorganised sector with an aim to bring categorisation and
order, with a technology that allowed scalability and trackability of performance, thus
allowing brands to gain large momentum. We see ourselves as thought leaders in every
way in this area. The segment has grown exponentially in the last 3 4 years, and we see
ourselves as the forerunners.

4. What according to you is Social Media Influencer Marketing and how does Eleve
enable the Social Media Influencers to make a difference to your clients?
Leveraging the Word-of-Mouth (WoM) of someone popular on the internet to create content
that sticks is essentially what it is. With a wide array of options for people to collaborate
with, we try and deliver a solution like a custom-fitted suit wherein every aspect of the
requirement contributes to a great campaign at the end of the day. Long-term engagements
in the area for launches across the year keep the momentum flowing and ensuring visibility
for our partner brands.

Reach, effectiveness, thought leadership, the ability

to incite genuine response from their audience, etc.,
are some of the factors we have based our
influencer identification algorithm on.

5. What are the Social Media Influencer categories that Eleve has and how has this pool
panned out in recent times?
We categorize our influencers as A, B and C after analyzing them on multiple quality factors,
across various genres, through an automated process based on algorithms. Our universe
consists of influencers from bloggers, vloggers, content creators, and celebrities.

6. How does Eleve choose Social Media Influencers or what is the criteria for Eleve to
choose a Social Media Influencer?
Reach, effectiveness, thought leadership, the ability to incite genuine response from their
audience, etc., are some of the factors we have based our influencer identification algorithm
on.

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 Interview with Prince Khanna Social Media Influencer Marketing

7. What are the categories where Social Media Influencers are popular and are being
leveraged?
Fashion, Auto, Lifestyle, Technology and Sports are some of the leading ones.

8. What are all the ways to measure the efficacy of Social Media Influencer Marketing
by a client? How does Eleve monitor the outcome of a Social Media Influencer
Marketing campaigns?
We rely on our tool which picks up data from respective Application Program Interfaces
(APIs) for the platforms the campaigns are conducted on, also mapping the organic outcome
and reach of a campaign. One of the key objectives of running an Influencer Marketing
campaign is also to have organic contributors i.e., how many more people talk from
followers of influencers after getting communication from influencers. We offer micro
level analytics including media, sentiment, clicks, etc., to deliver a campaign X-Ray. In
order to achieve the same, each influencer is handpicked basis their strengths, reach,
quality of conversations and effectiveness.

Almost 2/3 purchases are driven by a

recommendation by a peer. Our aim is to leverage
that to reach out to the Target Group (TG) in
question.

9. Which have been the best Social Media Influencer Marketing campaigns for Eleve
thus far and what have been the insights from them?
Case studies for Coke.

10. What according to you are the advantages of building brand advocacy through Social
Media Influencer Marketing?
Great connect, reliability, faster initiation and better turnout. Almost 2/3 purchases are
driven by a recommendation by a peer. Our aim is to leverage that to reach out to the
Target Group (TG) in question.

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Social Media Influencer Marketing Interview with Prince Khanna

11. Of late, India Inc. has been witnessing the trend of replacing celebrity endorsers with
Social Media Influencers. Is it a healthy trend and also is it sustainable over a long-
term or is it just a fad?
Yes, and only growing. It has led to the rise of celebrities outside the traditional sense of
it. Look at how YouTube and Instagram have grown, and the avenues they provide. Most
importantly, real people with real opinions and likelihood of using and recommending a
product genuinely. Celebrities with millions of followers charge a bomb to the client,
however, all followers of that celebrity might not always be relevant for a brand hence
Social Media influencers are a cost effective and a viable option for them.

12. How does Social Media Influencer Marketing help build scale for the client?
In a world where the most time we spend in the day is on the social web, outreach if far
higher than any other form like TV, print or outdoor. With the Sec A, urban audiences, and
the biggest online markets (with the largest number of users on Facebook from India), it is
only about leveraging the reach correctly to deliver the message. Scale is arrived at naturally.

Celebrities with millions of followers charge a

bomb to the client, however, all followers of that
celebrity might not always be relevant for a brand
hence Social Media influencers are a cost effective
and a viable option for them.
13. Is there any difference between Social Media Influencer Marketing and Affiliate
Marketing? If there is, what are the differences?
A thin line, but largely the difference is that an influencer has owned audience and not
necessarily an affiliate marketing company would have its owned audience. Affiliate
companies also largely rely on third-party audience, which they integrate and give the
desired output to a brands objective.

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14. How would you compare cost dynamics and outcomes of Social Media Influencer
Marketing vis--vis other modes of marketing?
In an industry where other forms of marketing are recording consistently falling numbers,
the social web is only growing by leaps and bounds. With the currently falling CTR rate,
high entry level costs, and slow turnarounds, the social web is much faster to plan and
execute, and delivers higher numbers.

15. What is the role and importance of content Marketing in an effective Social Media
Influencer Marketing?
While most brands try product-driven approach for their Social Media content strategy
some brands do it differently by using informative and rich content. We know content is
the King no matter what platform, however, context is the Queen. The only reason your
audience will listen to you is because of good content that educates them and makes them
more aware and not necessarily make a sales pitch for a brand. Our effort is to create as
unique content as possible to ensure wider penetration through our marketing efforts with
influencers.

We know content is the King no matter what

platform, however, context is the Queen.

16. When do you think companies should resort to Social Media Influencer Marketing?
ASAP. In a space where you can literally buy anything on the internet, if youre not visible,
youre missing out. Find the right influencers and Engage!

17. For what kind of Companies/Brands do you think Social Media Influencer Marketing
would be effective and useful?
Every Kind. You just need the right message. We have examples of so many brands that
thought the social web is not for them, and they came around. Ten years ago, nobody
could think vegetables could be sold online. Look at where we are now.

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Social Media Influencer Marketing Interview with Prince Khanna

18. What are the five important trends that you have witnessed as far as Social Media
Influencer Marketing in India is concerned in recent times?
(a) The emergence of video this year

(b) The rate of content generation organically online (video + image) where almost 80%
content has been generated in the last few years

(c) The wide array of people who talk about a number of topics under the sun, even rare
topics as nuclear energy, underwater photography, etc.

(d) The rise of selfies in todays world

(e) The power of ever evolving tools like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and how they
make the world an easier place to communicate

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