As many as 40% of shoppers who rely on influencers to discover brands, deals, and sales events during the festive season are influenced by micro-influencers (influencers with 10,000-100,000 followers), the Festive Insights report by social media major Meta and consumer insights platform GWI found.
“They (micro-influencers) have become another important vehicle in the marketing mix of brands because this brings in a lot more credibility and trust,” Arun Srinivas, director and head of ads business (India) at Meta, told ET.
Notably, over three in four consumers said it is important for them to see advertising in their local language during festive shopping, the study showed.
“On our platforms specifically, we are seeing strong adoption of all our key products this festive season – from AI powered ad formats to business messaging and Reels,” Srinivas said.
AI technology empowers and helps deliver the most bang for every buck across businesses of different sizes, he noted.
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“This (AI tools) also enables a lot of businesses to churn out refreshing creatives in an intensely completed festive season. We definitely expect to see both large and small businesses to leverage this capability in the coming season,” he said.Srinivas noted that, globally, Meta’s generative AI ad creative tools are used by over a million advertisers, with over 15 million ads created using them last month. Further, many advertisers are seeing strong results heading into the holiday season – for instance, ad campaigns using these features resulted in an 11% higher click-through-rate and 7.6% higher conversion rate on average, compared to campaigns that didn’t use them.
The festive report also indicated that quick commerce, which has been expanding into new categories, is expected to play a significant role as one in four electronics buyers and one in three personal care buyers purchase via these platforms.
It showed that 96% of shoppers expect their shopping pattern to change this year on the back of online shopping, ecommerce penetration, and the rise of quick commerce.
On engagement levels on Meta platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – Srinivas said, “Our apps play a significant role in the everyday moments in people’s lives, and during these (festive) periods when people want to share how they look in their festive attire or Reels with their friends and families, intuitively, I guess there are more of these moments, so it’s a pretty high-engagement time.”
The study found that 80% of festive shoppers discover deals and products on Meta platforms, with 85% becoming aware of at least one sales event through the platform.
Conducted in September, the survey covered about 2,400 internet users aged 16-64 years who usually shop during the festive season.
