In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen famously wrote: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Written in 1813, Pride and Prejudice wasn’t a novel that advocated marriage for a woman to be complete. For its time, it upheld the virtues of a well-read woman. It critiqued the conventional definition of marriage in those times.

While a lot seems to have changed since, not much really has. However, what seems to have changed is the courage several married women find to walk out of failed marriages and rebuild an identity that is only theirs to claim.

Anupriya Kapur is one such woman.

“I took a seven-year break after I became a mother and during that time, I went through postpartum depression and was generally very low on self-worth. I was also suicidal at one point. I was trying to understand what I could do when I decided to be financially independent after such a long break,” Kapur, a fitness, lifestyle, and travel influencer with over two lakh followers on Instagram, said.

After an unhappy stint at American Express, she decided to start her own blog around 2014-15 and chronicle her journey to help more women. She also took up running and other physical activities to cope better.

 

“I started talking a lot about running, the importance of physical fitness, and financial independence in a woman’s life. That blog started getting me work as a ghostwriter. I started managing a couple of celebrities and was also writing for some of them,” Kapur says.

Her ghostwriting stint ended after being fired by a celebrity who did not like her absence following her mother’s death. She then decided to do something for herself.

By then, Adidas had got in touch with her to be their brand representative. They advised her to set up a profile on Instagram which, they felt, was the future. Thus began her journey of becoming a social media influencer.

Kapur’s Instagram profile has a mélange of content—from videos of her busting myths around water intake and fat loss and hiking around Manali to waste management, and also on popular Instagram trends.

But the most endearing among all of them are the ones with her son. In one such video, she breaks the stereotypes against long-haired boys and men by lip-syncing to the song “Mama said it’s quite alright” to her teenage son Kabir’s neat, long hair.

“I did not take up a job for the longest time after my son was born because I was paranoid. I was molested as a child by my uncle and I didn’t want my child to be exposed to something like that. I wanted to be there for him till he was able to express if something was wrong,” Kapur says.

 

Kapur’s foray into the world of brand endorsements began with her blog. Several brands used to collaborate with her for write-ups on their products. The products ranged from fitness gears to skincare products to even insurance. But through Instagram, brand engagements happened much quicker. Right after she had 10,000 followers, Kapur got verified and offers for brand tie-ups started coming in.

“Digital agencies approach me. I do not have a team so I communicate with them directly. If it’s a skincare or food brand, I ask for some time to try out the products. Some brands leave it completely on the creators to design the content but few others give a clear set of instructions to be followed,” says Kapur. She also had to leave certain campaigns because of idea mismatches.

Saurav Keshan, founder and CEO of Engage, an influencer and content marketing agency, explains how it works. “Primarily, there are two objectives to most influencer campaigns. Driving sales or immediate intent through clicks to websites, offers and so on, and buzz—driving long-term intent, consideration, and information about a service or product. The campaigns I did with Anupriya were buzz campaigns wherein we wanted to reach a premium audience with the capacity to pay and spend on travel. The ROI (return on investment) was measured in terms of reach and engagement. With other influencers, we have done sales-based campaigns where they help get brand enrollments and drive offers,” he says. Keshan worked with Anupriya on campaigns for GMR Delhi Airport and
Honor Mobile.

According to Keshan, relevant content creates relatability and most influencers have nurtured their audience and they understand them. The content created by influencers is more relatable and helps brands to communicate at different levels through both the influencers and on the brand pages.

The world of advertising and marketing is full of film and sports stars. How do the influencers then fit into the same brand’s universe?

“Marketing is becoming more relatable. People want to see real faces. If I see an ad for a gym with a foreigner as its face, I may not be able to relate to it. That’s why I think influencer marketing is so critical for brands because we are regular people. So, I get to try a brand and talk about it a month or so later. Wouldn’t people trust me more about the brand than a celebrity who is probably not even using that product or would never use it in future?” Kapur asks.

“Larger folks are great when it comes to reach, but being able to relate to a product is not something that one or two celebrities can drive,” agrees Apaksh Gupta, founder and CEO of One Impression, an influencer marketing platform.

Also, celebrities charge a fixed remuneration for endorsing a brand which is decided based on their market value and net worth. For digital influencers, this calculation can get a little tricky. Kapur decides what she would charge depending on the brands and their briefs. There is no standardised method that the industry follows because everyone has a different set of followers and audience that they bring to the table.

“The quality of the audience makes a huge difference along with the age category of a creator and the spending power of your audience,” Kapur says.

Kapur has a very simple way of selecting the brands she would endorse – whatever she is okay to consume, she will endorse. While she is okay to endorse mithai which is consumed once in a while, she steers clear of endorsing everyday consumption products that have high sugar content. “If my son has Maggi once a week, I am okay to endorse it. I endorse things that I or my family would use in our everyday lives,” she says.

The world of digital marketing has also undergone a 360-degree change. From static posts, it is all about videos now. The attention span of audiences has reduced drastically. “With TikTok, everyone now is a content creator. It gave everyone that power and it was a great thing,” Kapur said. But while social media democratised the world of content creation, it also brought in a separate set of problems. It has made everyone an expert on everything. So, you would often stumble upon videos on, say, nutrition by people who aren’t qualified to give an opinion on that.

“When such specific branded content comes up, a lot of times I say no to them. I do talk about nutrition or fitness but with a caveat that do not take this as medical advice,” Kapur says.

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Anupriya’s Favourite Brand Associations

• Make my Trip – Because I got to showcase a part of India beautifully through the campaign.
• Global Desi – Twining with my friend’s daughter, I got to put out my wish for a world where young girls feel safe.
• SBI card – Because I got to create campaigns with my father during Diwali last year.
• Airbnb – Particularly close to my heart because it was done with my son.
• MG Motor – It was a campaign for electric vehicles and there was lot of creative freedom.