Features of the Influencer Marketing Market in Russia | by Liza Neverova | Aug, 2023

The Influencer Marketing market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the advertising industry. Brands are actively allocating budgets, which stimulates the development of agencies and services that support the ecosystem. The main features of the market include the development of “cancel culture,” working with familiar bloggers, and the popularity of giveaways. In the future, there is a forecast for the growth of young platforms’ audiences and the emergence of new formats of advertising integrations.

The Influencer Marketing market is rapidly evolving and transforming. New integration formats and rising stars appear annually. Brands continue to show interest in this direction. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s estimates, the influencer marketing industry is projected to reach $23.52 billion by 2025. However, in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down budget growth from advertisers, despite blogger audiences growing by 80%. Currently, the situation is gradually stabilizing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s forecast, the industry turnover is expected to grow to around $13.8 billion in 2021.

Over the past year, the number of platforms and platforms for interactions between bloggers and advertisers has increased. Currently, there are more than 1360 platforms worldwide. In Russia, the number of agencies has also increased. Key players in the market continue to be major agencies like Setters, the production center WildJam, and Didenok.

Let’s examine the main features and trends in the Influencer Marketing market in Russia:

1. A characteristic trend of 2020 was the rise of TikTok Houses — homes where bloggers live and continuously create content. While this phenomenon is relatively new, similar “content houses” for YouTubers emerged several years ago. However, it was in 2020 that this trend started appearing en masse in Russia, primarily for TikTok bloggers. As a result, they even began to be called “TikTok houses.” These houses allow bloggers to grow their audience in just six months and start receiving their first advertising contracts. An illustrative example is Danya Milokhin (a member of Dream Team House): at the beginning of 2020, few knew about him, but by the end of the year, he had 3 million Instagram followers, 11 million TikTok followers, and his music video on YouTube with Nikolay Baskov garnered 48 million views. He also received the GQ Man of the Year award. Many similar cases occurred thanks to bloggers joining specific TikTok houses.
2. In Russia, brands are paying more attention to the analytics of potential accounts for integration. Worldwide, 68% of advertisers are concerned about the presence of Fraud in a blogger’s profile. In Russia, agencies actively offer solutions for this. For example, the agency LabelUp launched a free bot to verify the “quality” of accounts, which works for three platforms: Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
3. There is also a growth in niche platforms and formats, such as Twitch, Yandex Zen, and podcasts. According to Trubuon Reach, every fourth internet user in Russia listens to podcasts at least once a month. Advertisers are beginning to notice and invest in this trend, leading to the emergence of a new wave of bloggers who will become popular through these platforms.

The local Influencer Marketing market has its distinctive features:

• In this sphere, similar to the entire advertising market, there’s a sense that “everyone knows each other.” This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Agencies often select their pool of bloggers and provide them with projects regularly, which doesn’t encourage healthy competition. When new profiles gain popularity, companies shower them with contracts, making them “sellout” bloggers and potentially annoying the audience.
• The Russian market has adopted the “cancel culture” trend, where individuals face societal condemnation and often financial repercussions for certain statements or actions. For instance, the case of Regina Todorenko illustrates that this mechanism is still developing in Russia. She faced backlash and lost two major advertising contracts due to a statement she made about domestic violence.
• Over the past years, there’s been a significant increase in “giveaways” and a rise in the number of “info-gang” individuals in the Russian online space. Giveaways involve famous bloggers, musicians, or celebrities conducting contests on Instagram to give prizes to their followers. Even luxury brands are participating in these giveaways. “Info-gang” refers to people who profit from selling useless training, courses, and seminars. They often claim expertise in areas like business, personal growth, or online earning, despite lacking real experience. This phenomenon is widespread and continues to grow, often involving individuals like businessmen, targeting specialists, nutritionists, coaches, psychologists, etc. Although the audience is still eager to consume content, it’s anticipated that this trend will decline in the coming years.

In conclusion, the Influencer Marketing market is actively developing in Russia and is expected to grow in the coming years. It has its own unique features and local trends that shape its trajectory. The increasing number of agencies and investments will contribute to its continued progress.