Influencer Marketing for us is like earned media, it has to be genuine: Vineeta Singh

Vineeta Singh, CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics talks about the brand's approach towards influencer marketing, in an industry where it is easy to get lost in vanity metrics.

We caught up with Vineeta Singh, CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics who took the stage at Goafest 2022 and talked about the resilience of building a brand for Bharat. Here's a quick download of what she had to tell us.

Talking about how SUGAR their approach towards influencer marketing, she said, "We have the same approach with our influencer marketing as with the brand overall. We feel that if you spend and you get ‘Cat A’ influencers, that’s a very transactional relationship. Today they advertise for Sugar, tomorrow something else. We realised that our consumers are very discerning. They will see through fake influencing. They don’t want to be influenced in the traditional way."

The brand works with smaller influencers, who genuinely love SUGAR and have been engaged with the

brand. "We have more than 1000 influencers working with us, but we prefer the ones who genuinely love SUGAR. Authenticity comes first. Influencer marketing for us is like earned media, it should be genuine."

As the influencer marketing industry inflates, she highlights that brands need to find creators that fit their needs and persona.

"As a brand, if you are not feeling the pressure to always work with the most talked about ‘influencer’ then you will be fine. Work on the right fit for the influencer and consumer. Say no to all the noise and everything else that’s happening, and you will be fine."

"If you get tangled up in the whole ‘FOMO’, then that’s just going to lead to unnecessary spends," Vineeta says.

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When asked about the different channels that SUGAR is tapping, Vineeta stated that SUGAR is evaluating all the new age social media channels where YouTube plays a big role for them.

We are looking at new-age social media channels like ShareChat, Mauj, WeDo, Chingari; along with Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. YouTube being a huge one for us right now. We have almost 600K followers. The engagement there is pretty high because beauty, not only in English but also in regional languages is one of the highest engagement categories on the platform. We are also

experimenting with Metaverse and our own virtual store," she concludes.

Vineeta was recently a part of Shark Tank's India chapter and sharing her experience, said, "Fame comes with all the negative stuff as well. It's the dark side of being popular. People say mean things about the way you look, the way you talk, the way you dress. It's not easy living with criticism when you run your own company. I really hope all the negative criticism doesn't get to me."