Flush with $10M, One Impression looks to harness Middle East's creator economy
Gurugram-based influencer marketing startup One Impression is a ‘marketplace for influencers’. Now, it wants to onboard content creators in the Middle East, starting with the UAE.
Key Takeaways
- Influencer marketing platform One Impression has helped more than 500 brands discover creators for their campaigns.
- Out of the 7 million creators on its platform, 7,000 are from the Middle East. It now wants to further penetrate the market using the fresh $10 million raised recently.
- It plans to do away with the invite-only model, and introduce self-sign-up and login for brands and content creators.
The creator economy is booming in the Middle East, propelled by the widespread adoption of platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This ballooning industry in the region caught the eye of Gurugram-based startup One Impression.
The influencer marketing platform has a repository of seven million content creators registered on its platform, of whom 7,000 hail from the Middle East.
In a conversation with YourStory Gulf Edition, Apaksh Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of , explains the popularity of influencer marketing in the Middle East by drawing a parallel with India.
“In India, brands spend a significant chunk of their marketing budget on Bollywood celebrities. But in the Middle East, film celebrities are not as extraordinary as those in India. Instead, the brands in the region focus on social media influencers for marketing,” he says.
Last month, One Impression raised a Series A funding round of $10 million from South Korean gaming major Krafton Inc. The team wants to utilise this fresh capital to expand in the UAE and Southeast Asia.
Why the Middle East?
As per the data curated by the team, the Middle East is home to about 90,000 creators on TikTok, 21,000 YouTubers, and 51,000 creators on Instagram. The influencer marketing platform market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.5% during the forecast period of 2022-2029 to reach $69.92 billion, as per Data Bridge Market Research.
Having worked with influencers in the Middle East, Gupta describes the region as “a doorway to content creators from across the globe,” serving as the first leg of international expansion for many brands.
“I often get calls from Indian brands asking if we know any influencers in the region who would be willing to be a part of their marketing campaigns,” he adds.
Most of One Impression’s Middle Eastern influencer base has a follower count between 100,000 and 400,000. The company onboarded them to its platform to tap into their network and help them reach out to more content creators.
“We have partnered with these content creators and a lot of local talent management agencies, and running marketing campaigns with them to connect with the first 2-3% of the influencers in the region. Once we are successful in doing so, we will build the rest of the network organically,” Gupta adds.
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Working with influencers
Founded in 2018, One Impression serves as a ‘marketplace for influencers’. With a team of more than 100 members, it helps brands discover influencers for their campaigns and draws payment contracts on their behalf.
The idea germinated a year prior when Gupta, a serial entrepreneur, needed to tap into the influencer network for marketing campaigns for his third venture—a fashion company called SummerLabel. He realised that while many brands had begun to onboard content creators for campaigns, the space was highly fragmented.
“Influencers had to rely on multiple talent management agencies for a stable income source and access to top brands. These agencies were charging different fees for the same influencer. Again, brands wanted to work with influencers but did not know how to do it,” he explains.
He co-founded One Impression with his brother, Jivesh Gupta, to democratise the space.
The platform invites brands and influencers to register free of cost. For every contract signed between influencers and brands, it charges a 10% commission from both parties. It did not disclose its revenue.
However, retaining creators is a big challenge as influencers have other avenues—such as Mavrck and Hashtag Paid—along with a plethora of talent agencies.
“To gain the trust of influencers, there has to be a seamless timely payment process and constant business from repeat brands instead of one-time business. Only then can creators feel that they belong to the community,” Gupta adds.
One Impression has so far run influencer campaigns with more than 500 brands, including Amazon, Unilever, Meesho, Pinterest, and more. It has a base in India, the UAE, and Indonesia.
As One Impression forays deeper into the UAE and the larger Middle East market, it plans to do away with the invite-only model from Q2 of 2023 and introduce self-sign-up and login for brands and content creators. This, the team feels, will be beneficial for smaller brands which can collaborate with creators with a smaller follower count, and will make the creator economy truly democratic.
(Cover image by Nihar Apte)
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Edited by Kanishk Singh