The first IIHB Report on India’s Top 100 TikTok Influencers last week was extremely well received. The report looked at the revenue earnings of the Top 20 in the TikTok world. The second Report of the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), looks at the qualitative metrics, the softer aspects of these influencers as ‘human brands’.
The Report focuses on two very important dimensions : the Empathy + Emulatability – the (e2) Index and the Influencer Index (i2) which is an amalgam of Familiarity, Likeability, Trust, Content and Fun.
First to The e2 Index: Empathy / Emulatability
The e2 Index for any celebrity determines the commercial value of the celebrity’s fame: it is the ability of the said celebrity to get the fan or the follower to behave much like the hero, wanting to be like him/her, to look like him/her and to flaunt the same brands as him/her.
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.
Sure, the TikTok heroes are fun to follow, but they do not necessarily set standards for aspirations. The TikTok heroes fare even worse when we look at their ability to sell through even movies and music. 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.
To the top scorers on the e2 Index:
Jannat Zubair leads on the empathy attributes that check how much the follower or fan wants to be like the Influencer. Zubair top scored on being the most sought after for her messaging on getting dressed, choice of accessories, hair-styling and make-up. Avneet Kaur was in second place.
“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% higher scores,” says Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor, IIHB. “This therefore converts into lower revenue generation potential from brands for the TikTok toppers”.
Awez Darbar leads by far on the emulatability attributes. Tops as the best source of advice on movies, music, purchase of personal use devices like a mobile and for buying a bike.
All TikTok influencers fare very poorly on money matters. Followers don’t consider their financial advice to be of much value. Scores of Top TikTokers on other purchases, both mobiles and mobikes are poor too.
“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% margin or more based on our past studies,” adds Dr. Goyal.
The IIHB Report also looks at the attributes that help build FRED – Familiarity, Relevance, Esteem & Differentiation for India’s most followed TikTokers, each of whom had amassed millions of ardent followers. In the past nearly two weeks, the IIHB research team worked overtime to de-construct the DNA of the top TikTokers, analysing them over attributes that define their personalities, highlight their talents, and gives valuable amplification to their fame and repute. Each of the top TikTokers has been analysed over 32 key attributes, ranging from Trustworthy to Topical to Trendy, and from Entertaining and Engaging to Fun and Friendly. The Influencer Index (i2) so arrived at takes into account aggregated numbers that rate the individual TikTok celebrity on Familiarity, Likeability, Trust, Content and Fun. The Report also has Attribute Stacks created as ‘word clouds’ for each of the Top TikTokers for a one-glance assessment of their key promises.
“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?” concludes Dr. Goyal.
All TikTok leaders score very high on being entertaining. Which surely was the reason for their fan following running into millions. They are also seen to be good looking, stylish, trendy and with tonnes of swag. Interestingly, followers felt the Top 10 were rich – a very aspirational description that put these influencers on a pedestal with their tribes.
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF HUMAN BRANDS (IIHB)
