The 2020 report on influencer marketing in Asia, produced by CastingAsia, highlights the significant rise and evolution of influencer marketing in the region, driven by digitalization and innovative industry players. Key findings reveal that YouTube is the dominant platform among influencers, with micro-influencers being the largest demographic group, while the pandemic did not adversely affect campaign activity on CastingAsia's platform. The report emphasizes the importance of tailored marketing strategies that account for regional diversity and outlines best practices for effectively engaging influencers.

1. State of
influencer
marketing
in Asia 2020
The go-to report for influencer
marketing in Asia
Copyright © AnyMind Group. All rights reserved.

2. 2
About CastingAsia
CastingAsia is a leading influencer marketing
business in Asia, and provides a combination of
tools and local expertise for marketers and
influencers.
The CastingAsia platform is an end-to-end
solution that includes influencer discovery and
analysis, campaign and content
management, and real-time reporting and
attribution (including CPC and CPA metrics).
There are data points from over 170,000
influencers across the world, with a majority
predominantly based in Asia.
Additionally, the CastingAsia Creators Network
is home to exclusive and non-exclusive
influencers and content creators including
celebrities, musicians, athletes and more,
providing them resources and support for
further growth.
CastingAsia is part of AnyMind Group, a
business enablement platform with solutions in
D2C, cloud manufacturing, entertainment
tech, marketing tech and HR tech.
About this report
The influencer marketing space has heated up over the past few years, with
platforms and resources readily available to both marketers and influencers.
Driven by strong market advancement, digitalization and capable industry
players, influencer marketing has gone from strength to strength in Asia, and
has become a part of most marketer’s arsenals today.
This report aims to help marketers make increasingly informed decisions on
influencer marketing, and drive education around influencer marketing across
the region, ultimately furthering the industry for more impactful and efficient
influencer marketing activities.
The report leverages data points from over 170,000 influencers through the
CastingAsia platform, and over 1,300 influencer marketing campaigns
conducted across Asia over the past year. All figures shown are accurate as of
publication date.
Over the coming months, we will be delivering smaller, more-focused reports
for various markets in Asia - watch this space!
The State of Influencer Marketing in Asia 2020 report covers Cambodia, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
and Vietnam.

3. Contents
Overview of influencer marketing in Asia
● Most used social media platforms by influencers in Asia
● Influencer demographics
● Top influencer verticals in Asia
● Pandemic impact on influencer marketing
● Platforms used for influencer marketing campaigns
A closer look at various markets
● Most commonly-used platforms by influencers per
market
● Influencers categorized by volume per market
Impact of influencer marketing
● Median engagement rates by platform
● Clicks versus engagement rates
3

4. Overview

5. 5
Two charts to start things off
Looking across the region, YouTube emerged as the most favoured channel for influencers in Asia, with almost one in every two
influencers owning an account on YouTube. Instagram lags behind, making up approximately a quarter of all influencers.
With micro-influencers making up the largest influencer demographic and nano-influencers making up the second-largest
population, it comes as no surprise that there’s so much hype today around leveraging on these influencers for campaigns.
Most-used social media platforms by influencers
in Asia
Influencer demographics

6. 6
Where are the influencers?
For influencers in Asia, the most common
vertical is arts & entertainment, which is no
surprise as it’s one of the broadest verticals -
containing talents from actors and
musicians, to dancers, models and more,
across varying levels of prominence.
The two most-common influencer verticals
are also the most dynamic, and brands in
various industries can also leverage on
influencers in the arts & entertainment and
fashion & lifestyle verticals.
Over the past year, the fastest-growing
influencer verticals across Asia are the
fitness, family and beauty verticals, with
influencers increasingly creating content
indoors. *Influencers are categorized based on the type of content that they primarily create
Top influencer verticals in the past year

7. 7
Did the pandemic impact influencer marketing?
There was no uncharacteristic drop in influencer campaigns on the CastingAsia platform throughout COVID-19, and a deeper
dive into campaign data showed shifts in campaign strategies. This is in no way representative of the wider influencer marketing
industry, with the CastingAsia platform’s capabilities ensuring marketers can still effectively run influencer marketing campaigns.
The period of March 2020 to April 2020 consisted of campaigns with a stronger focus on corporate social responsibility and
branding, whilst May 2020 and June 2020 saw digitally-equipped businesses excel. The majority of businesses resumed influencer
marketing from July 2020, with an increased number of influencer marketing activities expected in Q4 2020.
Lowest active
campaigns
Active campaigns by
month in the past year

8. 8
Which platforms are influencer marketing campaigns run on?
Instagram is the platform a majority
(45.08%) of influencer marketing
campaigns were run on in the past year,
and on the other end of the scale is Twitter,
with 10.57% of all influencer marketing
campaigns.
Interestingly, Twitter started slow, but
influencer marketing campaigns on Twitter
started seeing growth momentum from
March 2020 onwards - coinciding with the
month COVID-19 was declared a
pandemic.
Additionally, in the recorded months for
2019, Instagram was the platform of choice
for more than half of influencer marketing
campaigns, but that has dropped in 2020.

9. A closer
look at
various
markets

10. 10
What platforms are influencers using in Asia?
With Asia being such a large and
diverse region, it is no surprise that each
market has varied platform usage rates
by influencers.
The dominant social media platform
differs by market, with Instagram the
most-used in markets like Hong Kong,
Malaysia and Singapore, whilst
Facebook is the dominant platform in
Myanmar.
Japan has the highest Twitter to other
platforms ratio out of all markets in Asia,
with the Philippines and Singapore
trailing somewhat behind.
Additionally, there is no market which
has an equal ratio of platform diversity.
Most commonly-used platforms for influencers

11. 11
How does influencer follower volume stack up across markets?
Across the region, micro-influencers are the
most populous demographic (46.32%) for
social media influencers in Asia, barring
Myanmar, where macro-influencers are the
most populous.
On top of that, Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines saw faster
growth in the micro-influencer population
over the past year, with the Philippines
pegged as one to watch over the next
year.
For standardization, influencers are classified as follows: end users (100-1k followers),
nano-influencers (1k-10k followers), micro-influencers (10k-100k followers), macro-influencers
(100k-1M followers), top stars (1M+ followers)
Influencers categorized by follower volume

12. Impact of
influencer
marketing

13. 13
Which platform is best for engagement?
Looking at the top three most-favoured
social media platforms by influencers in
Asia, Instagram emerged as the best
platform for engagement rates on
influencer content, with micro-influencers
performing the best.
On Facebook, micro-influencers have the
best median engagement rates, but
nano-influencers interestingly performed
better for engagement rates on YouTube.
Random sampling of 9k influencers in Asia with 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers.
Date range: September 2019 - August 2020
Median engagement rates by platform
Nano-influencers
(1k-10k followers)
Micro-influencers
(10k-100k followers)
Macro-influencers
(100k-1M followers)
Facebook
1.18% 1.20% 0.83%
0.42% 2.91% 0.52% 2.45% 0.28% 1.83%
Instagram
3.07% 3.28% 2.60%
1.37% 6.58% 1.57% 6.35% 1.25% 5.30%
YouTube
2.31% 1.61% 1.03%
0.79% 4.44% 0.68% 3.19% 0.35% 2.27%
1st quartile Median 3rd quartile

14. 14
Post engagement = clicks to site?
As seen from the chart to the left, high
engagement rates on influencer posts do
not necessarily mean an influencer’s
followers are clicking onto a landing page.
However, high engagement rates on
influencer posts are indicative of raised
awareness, whilst high click rates on
influencer posts are indicative of interest
and consideration.
To measure the success of influencer
marketing campaigns, it’s important for
marketers to set metrics based on desired
objectives, rather than measuring purely
based on engagement.
Data was obtained from campaigns run on the CastingAsia platform that measured engagement
and clicks. Outliers have been removed for better representation.
Clicks versus engagement rate on influencer posts

15. Key takeaways
Objectives
Always plan influencer marketing campaigns based on objectives. This will
allow marketers to decide the types and verticals of influencers needed,
platforms to utilize, performance metrics to consider and types of content to
be delivered.
Success in diversity
With Asia being such a diverse region, it’s important that marketers plan
influencer marketing campaigns around specific markets and even
provinces. Do not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, as this will make your
brand seem tone deaf not just to audiences, but influencers too.
Tiered approach
Focusing on just one segment or follower size of influencers limits the
potential of a great influencer marketing campaign. Instead, match your
brand’s audience and social media followers with the followers of
influencers, or leverage on multiple segments of influencers.

16. The only influencer marketing platform
you need
Get your hands on the platform powering the
influencer marketing industry.
As one of the most robust influencer marketing platforms in the world, CastingAsia provides you
with an end-to-end influencer marketing tool that even social media companies use.
Reach out now