CastingAsia, an influencer marketing business and part of AnyMind Group’s entertainment technology business line, has today released a report that reveals shifts in strategies for influencer marketing campaigns by businesses in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan during COVID-19.
When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, there was an 85% increase in branding campaigns for influencer marketing through the CastingAsia platform, and a 130% increase in influencer marketing campaigns that focused on corporate social responsibility and public causes like social distancing and raising awareness about safety and prevention measures for the Novel Coronavirus.
The analysis of over 1,300 influencer marketing campaigns from September 2019 to August 2020 showed digital-first brands, including gaming and e-commerce businesses, activate more influencer marketing campaigns from April 2020 to June 2020, with a majority of remaining businesses resuming influencer marketing activities from July 2020 onwards.
The wide-ranging report also revealed an increase in influencer marketing campaigns on Twitter and YouTube from March 2020, despite an overall favourability for influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram (45.08% usage rate of total campaigns) throughout the one year period.
The report also outlines the best platforms for engagement rates versus influencer demographics, and analyzes the correlation between clicks to website and engagement rate on influencer marketing campaigns.
Rohit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer for AnyMind Group, said: “We’re still in the early stage of influencer marketing, and constant evolution is to be expected. However, this report shows how marketers in Asia are increasingly embracing influencer marketing to remove physical and geographical borders with their customers, and we might actually be seeing just the ripples of the potential for social media influencers and influencer marketing.”
CastingAsia’s State of Influencer Marketing in Asia 2020 report covers 10 markets including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and analyzes over 170,000 influencers and influencer data points, and 1,300 campaigns run on the CastingAsia platform from September 2019 to August 2020.
