Team AdfluenceWe’re in the second year of the pandemic. COVID-19 has disrupted almost every industry. And while some of them are still in the process of overcoming hurdles, for a few others things seem to be coming back on track.
As an industry, influencer marketing also had its share of setbacks. Content creators struggled with mental trauma, emotional distress, and financial crunch, which affected their ability to create content. There were also additional troubles caused by the 2-month lockdown the country saw. Influencers were highly affected by travel restrictions and social distancing norms. Many of them had to create and share content based on whatever resources they had at hand. Furthermore, with their audience cooped up at home, the usual type of content simply wasn’t cutting it. They had to experiment and try different things to keep their followers engaged.
From Short Sketch Creators to Travel Vloggers, every Influencer struggled in content creation during the lockdown. But, full points to them for maintaining their creativity, despite the physical, emotional & financial crunch. Click To Tweet
While things remained almost unchanged for some types of influencers, such as technical vloggers and gamers, others like travel influencers and fashion influencers found the lack of opportunity to create new content frustrating. Many influencers tried to think out of the box despite the emotional, physical, and financial strain they were experiencing, but it was far from easygoing. Let’s take a look at the different types of influencers and how they braved the lockdown and kept their creativity levels up.
Content Creators on YouTube
Facing content block? Use lockdown content!
Short sketch creators on YouTube went through a really difficult content block. While most of their pre-pandemic sketches had co-actors in an open setup, social distancing norms confined everyone to their homes. As a result, they had to resort to single actor sketches, which were not very different from vines.
How to keep creativity level up during COVID? Ask YouTube Sketch Creators! With their hilarious and engaging content, they have managed to keep their audience occupied and asking for more. Click To Tweet
Social media personalities like Ayush Mehra (Knock Knock, Asking for it with Ayush) kept creativity levels up by collaborating with people online. Similarly, comedian Atul Khatri focused on all the positive news during the lockdown in his Only Positive News series.
However, for creators like Harsh Beniwal and Prajakta Koli (@mostlysane, lockdown thoughts), the new batch of content revolved mostly around lockdown. Some of the creators posted videos or a series of videos on their genuine feelings regarding the lockdown (#RealTalkTuesday with @mostlysane). Others chose to create content for popular categories, like life before and after lockdown, celebrities during lockdown, daily life during lockdown, and meetings during lockdown.
What we’re trying to say is that most YouTube sketch creators had to get really creative and turn to the lockdown itself for inspiration. For this smart adaptation, they deserve all the applause.
Fashion Influencers on Instagram
Get out of character and start your own trend!
Holed up in their houses, fashionistas were yet another set of influencers who were hugely affected by the lockdown. Almost all of the events were cancelled, leaving very little opportunity for them to create content. Some fashion influencers like Pia Sutaria went out of character to raid the closets of their roommates or sisters, and this seemed to work in their favour. Their content, created from their houses without proper lighting and set up, was actually a breath of fresh air for the audience who loved this never-seen-before avatar of their favourite influencers.
To cite some examples, Roshni Bhatia (@thechiquefactor) started her own trend (#indianweariscool) where she would show her audience how to drape sarees fashionably. Some other fashionistas like Kritika Khurana (@thatbohogirl) and Komal Pandey (@komalpandeyofficial) started focusing on personal grooming, including makeup, lipstick, and nail polishes. Their videos ranged between off-screen content like raw video vs edited video, and edited content like ‘ek velvet dupatta, teen tareeke’. Apart from these original content creations, Instagram Reels also got pretty trendy in the lives of these fashion icons.
Fashion Influencers started their own trends and appeared before their audience in never-seen-before avatars - all to keep the creativity level up! Click To Tweet
Tech, Games and Pop Culture on YouTube
Experiment with content and grow with gamers!
Technical vloggers and gamers had it fairly easy as compared to other influencers. Their core content remained the same and was mostly unaffected despite the pandemic. Unboxing videos continued, as did explanation videos. Some technical vloggers like Gaurva Chaudhary, aka Technical Guruji, experimented with their content (sketches and a music collab with Honey Singh) along with providing news about the lockdown. Comic content creators like Mohit Yodha (comicverse) saw a huge rise in their popularity and thus amplified their content creation.
Similar to comic content, gaming vlogs too picked up a lot of pace during the lockdown. Gamers like Ajey Nagar (Carryminati) and Aditya Sawant (Dynamo Gaming) started providing insight into their channels (The Story of Dynamo Gaming and My YouTube Income).
Travel Influencers on YouTube & Instagram
Repurposing old travel content and discussing the future of travel vlogging
Travel prohibitions caused troubles for many kinds of influencers. However, for travel influencers, it was a nightmare. They could not travel to other places and yet had an audience to talk to. So, many travel influencers resorted to the next best thing – repurposing old content. Travel influencers like Nikhil Sharma (Mumbaikar Nikhil) posted quarantine videos. Savi and Vid (@bruisedpassports) shared their journey of becoming a travel influencer and engaged in quirky Q&As, all while using their old travel content.
YouTube vloggers like Varun Vagish (Mountain Trekker) posted educational content on how to travel during lockdown. Many travel vloggers also started daily vlogging and productivity videos on how to stay positive during the lockdown and how travel could look post-pandemic.
TV Celebs on Instagram
Jack of all content… and master of some!
Small screen celebrities and influencers were fairly active during the lockdown period. They were involved in various activities, including cooking, fitness, yoga, fashion, and daily tips. They were also very active in repurposing old travel content and COVID-related initiatives. Actor Varun Sood, Cause Ambassador for findabed.in, was involved in raising awareness about COVID.
Actor Divyanka Tripathy used Instagram reels and trends for marketing opportunities. Many actors like Kritika Kamra and Aditi Rao Hydari pumped up the daily dose of fashion by flooding social media with their daily pics.
Are minimal settings, lighting issues and emotional setbacks enough to keep an Influencer from creating engaging content? We think not. These great souls have managed to keep us interested during these testing times. Click To Tweet
Every influencer had their own complications to deal with during the lockdown. In addition to the mental, physical and financial stress, some faced content blocks while some had to make do with lack of proper shooting. However, content creation during the lockdown saw a definite rise, with each influencer, in some way or another, trying to entertain their audience. And though some of these experiments with content might or might not have worked according to the plan, keeping up the creativity level in such a time is a feat in itself. Kudos to all of them!
