According to The Indian Institute of Human Brands, TikTok content creators were entertainers but not influencers.
This was revealed in the second part of its 'DNA of the Indian TikToker' report.
Followers of the content creators would take their advice on entertainment (movies and music) but not on mobile phones, motorbikes and money related matters.
The first part of the report revealed that TikTokers were losing Rs 100-120 crore because of the ban in India.
The second part of the report focused on empathy and emulatability and revealed the following:
- TikTok followers do not quite look up to their heroes in the same way as fans normally look up to celebrities in Bollywood or in cricket They do look up to them for fun and entertainment, but do not actually consider them to be role models, be it for clothing and accessories or hairstyling and makeup.
- TikTok heroes are fun to follow, but they do not necessarily set standards for aspirations. Their empathy and trust scores are kind of average, dramatically lower than film and sports celebrities.
- When trying to sell products like a mobile or a motorbike or say a money product like a credit card or similar, the emulatability score of top TikTokers is at best tepid. Comparative scores of Bollywood and top cricketers are way way higher.
Sandeep Goyal, chief mentor, IIHB, said, “The e2 Index of Top TikTokers trails celebrities from tinsel town and cricket quite tremendously. Their followers are their fans, but don’t really want to be like them in dress, appearance, demeanour or taste. Our similar studies on Bollywood stars show, on an average 20-25 per cent higher scores. This therefore converts into lower revenue generation potential from brands for the TikTok toppers. The scores on the ability to actually sell a tangible product are surprisingly even lower. Emulatabity of the influencers as a credible source for messaging on purchases again trails the sell-through power of Bollywood by a 50 per cent margin or more based on our past studies."
He added, “I personally find the entire TikTok tribe extremely fascinating. Almost all of them are small towners with huge reservoirs of talent. And ambition. And tenacity. To be honest, the creative output of most of them was pretty average and without much finesse. But then who are we to judge?”
