Influencer Marketing In Digital Era

Pranay Swarup has built and sold two companies in the last decade. He continues to scale one of them, Chtrbox.com, which is an influencer marketing company that was acquired last year by North American media group, QYOU. At the age of 25, he also co-founded Letsintern, which in 2015 grew into one of the world’s most visited internship and student career platforms. Letsintern was acquired by Aspiring Minds, now an SHL company, in 2016. 

Amid all that is happening, the creator economy excites Swarup the most. “Influencer marketing, which is core to the creator economy, is about to enter its peak. Chtrbox will have an exciting time ahead. I look forward to helping the company and its now parent brand, QYOU, to further grow and create a dent in the creator universe,” remarks Swarup.

Onwards & Upwards 

Chtrbox recently acquired a 15-member team to set up a new division ChtrSocial. This division is doing significant work, helping take creator-led marketing in India to the next level. 

“Our creator talent management division, Chtrbox Represent, is branching out, adding newly added services for our creators. While we work with thousands of creators, we exclusively manage over 60 talented creators under the division and will continue to be highly selective there,” Swarup explains. 

The other divisions focusing on regional influencers and micro-nano influencers have also scaled up. The company will not just go deeper into its creator-powered work in India but is also expanding globally in partnership with QYOU’s US-based creator group. Chtrbox is still a lean 70-member team in India as it continues to leverage technology to be efficient. However, it looks to scale up to over 100 team members in the next six months. 

The Headroom For Growth

Swarup is very bullish on digitisation in India’s marketing world and continues to see technology impact everything. He has been splitting his time across New York and Mumbai for the past two years and has first-hand observed brands and consumers from both markets that are at very different stages, exponentially leveraging technology more. 

“Chtrbox and QYOU Media have always been data-driven. Chtrbox pioneered data-driven influencer marketing in India. With a strong presence across multiple mediums, social, digital and television, QYOU & Chtrbox is leveraging data across all touchpoints to design intelligent plans for our clients,” says Swarup.

One of the sectors picking up in this context is gaming. QYOU Media recently acquired Maxamtech in India and will be building on its recently announced gaming channel. Chtrbox too is working more closely with gaming creators.