Brands Shift 15-25% of Marketing Budgets to Creators: IIGC

Indian brands now route 15-25% of marketing budgets into the creator economy, according to the IIGC (India Influencer Governance Council), per a Storyboard18 report. The range is wide, but the midpoint tells the real story: creator spend has moved from experimental line item to baseline planning category.

The IIGC is a self-regulatory industry body that tracks influencer marketing standards and disclosure compliance across India's creator economy. Its latest read suggests brand managers have reclassified creator partnerships as core media, not pilots.

What does this change for marketers?

It forces brand teams to think in relationships, not placements. A 15% slice of a mid-sized brand's annual pot is no longer rounding error. It's enough to demand dedicated creator ops, contract templates, and disclosure audits as standard practice.

The compliance angle matters most. As budgets grow, ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) and the country's influencer disclosure guidelines gain teeth. Brands without a creator-compliance playbook will trip on it during the next regulatory sweep.

What about the agency side?

Talent desks now compete with media planners for internal share of voice. Day-to-day work shifts toward briefing creators on brand safety, negotiating usage rights for paid amplification, and measuring outcomes against earned-media benchmarks rather than legacy GRPs (gross rating points, the broadcast reach metric). For agencies still organized around media buying, the org chart needs a rewrite.

Expect talent costs to keep climbing as mid-tier creators reprice upward. Creator-fee inflation is the practical pain point most teams underbudget.

How should practitioners read the range?

Three takeaways worth pinning to the wall:

• Budget ownership: creator spend may now sit above paid social for some categories, particularly beauty, fashion, and D2C (direct-to-consumer) food
• Compliance: as budgets grow, regulatory scrutiny grows with them — disclosure rules tighten
• Measurement: brands will need to defend creator ROI against legacy media frameworks with cleaner attribution

The IIGC hasn't published its methodology, and the 15-25% figure blends sectors from FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) to fintech to auto. Treat it as directional, not audit-grade. The number nonetheless tracks what agency new-business pitches have been quietly signaling for two years: creators convert where traditional media underperforms, especially with Gen Z and Tier 2/3 city audiences.

Is this structural or cyclical?

That's the real test. Watch whether the 15-25% share holds through any ad-spend slowdown over the next two quarters. If brands protect creator budgets while cutting other channels, the structural argument is settled. If creator spend contracts with the rest, the figure was a peak-cycle artifact.

Practitioners planning next year's allocations should price both scenarios. The IIGC's next quarterly read will be the first stress test.

By Marcus Bennett