The Shaping of SEA and APAC Influencer Economy

As a result, many brands, agencies, and influencers around the world are anticipating the rise of influencer marketing with hope to gain more business opportunities, enlarge audiences as well as build strong brand reputation.

In response to that movement, Tellscore, one of the leading firms in influencer marketing and operator of Tellscore Platform held its fourth series of Thailand Influencer Awards 2022 by Tellscore in Bangkok recently to deliver awards and honour to top performing creators on digital channels. This year's event was run under the concept of “Forward”: Looking Forward >> Thinking Forward >> Moving Forward.

This year, influencers from five countries in Asia-Pacific namely Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have been invited to race for the Best Regional Influencer Award, which is one of new four categories which have been included this round, along with three others; Best Virtual Influencer, Best NFT Artist and Best Kids Influencer. 

Besides the awards celebration, Tellscore also hosted two engaging discussion panels, the first one entitled “How is NFT Shaping the Content Creator Economy”.

Experts joining this panel looked into how NFT can motivate creators or influencers to pay attention and start experimenting with creating content in NFT format while keeping a close eye on the evolving digital asset regulations and market fluctuation.

The second discussion panel, “The Shaping of Asia Pacific Influencer Economy”. Joined by 5 market leaders from 5 countries, focused on the fragmented market and diverse consumer behaviour of South East Asia and Asia Pacific market and that is why rolling out influencer marketing campaign has been challenging for new-to-market marketers, yet with the promise of 6-7 times better ROI than traditional marketing channels, influencer marketing is sought after by marketers throughout.

 
Suvita Charanwong, CEO and Co-Founder of Tellscore said the event will bridge both national and regional influencer communities. Members in each country will be able to strengthen collaboration opportunities based on their expertise and also improve brands’ and agencies' understanding of the audience's behaviour. 

Influencer specialists across the region have signalled an optimistic outlook for cross-border influencer marketing despite facing difficulties during the Covid-19 outbreak, pointing out that influencers and brands must rethink the diversity of audience behaviour in each market

For instance, Detch Singh from Hypetap Australia mentioned the scarcity of the number of influencers when compared to the other four countries participating in the discussion panel and that in itself governs how brands and agencies work with influencers.

A good example is how Australian marketers tend to expect less direct sales from their influencers when compared to the other four countries.

While most influencers and creators in Thailand and the Philippines find that celebrating entertainment value with their audience has helped add to their successful journey, said Ace Gapuz, CEO of Blogapalooza, the Philippines and Suvita Charanwong, CEO of Tellscore Thailand.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is a multicultural country with Muslims, Malays, and local Chinese which in itself creates niches of conversation that sometimes only Malaysians can resonate with, said Yuhwen Foong, CEO of SushiVid, Malaysia.

While in Indonesia, with a population size of 260 million, there’s a sense of competition among the abundance of emerging influencers and creators.

However, industry maturity is evident in the past 2-3 years where brands and agencies go for the quality of content and not only the quantity of followers, said Rade Tampubolon, CEO of SociaBuzz and Ajeng Febrianti, Community Manager of Tellscore Indonesia.

All in all, in each country/ market there are also matters of influencer pricing standards, market expectations, population size, society values, cultural norms, and social commerce adoption that are shaping the influencer marketing industry in each country.

Brands aiming to enter a new country ought to get acquainted with this diverse yet fragmented behaviour or collaborate with local agencies that know their turf.

 After all, influencer marketing experts urge all creators and brands to match the right content format, social media platform and effective storytelling to maximize value to the audience.

If creators and brands can offer inclusivity and creativity, they should be able to stand out in any market.