Earlier this year, broking firm Angel One Ltd launched its own content platform just as India’s markets regulator was tightening the screws on financial influencers. Finfluencers, as they are known, have been instrumental in spreading financial literacy among India’s young demographic but have also been hauled up for misleading investors.
As the Securities and Exchange Board of India tightened its regulations on associations with financial influencers, some of the country’s biggest trading platforms including Angel One and Motital Oswal Financial Services have increased focus on building their in-house content teams.
Angel One’s platform, called Fin One, is run by a 30-member content team targeting a young audience. On Instagram, Fin One, which has a tagline reading ‘From Paisa to Punchlines—making finance fun’ and is loaded with humorous financial memes, has nearly 14,000 followers.
Fin One allows Angel One to engage directly with a young, and even older, demographic just beginning to familiarise itself with financial concepts such as equity and options trading, mutual funds and other complex investments, and more efficient savings options.
“The in-house content model provides greater control over compliance and messaging, which is particularly important given the evolving regulatory landscape,” a spokesperson for Angel One said in an emailed response to Mint’s queries.
Angel One’s spokesperson highlighted that when Sebi introduced guidelines for financial influencers inJune, its content arm Fin One ensured seamless marketing continuity without relying heavily on external influencers.
“By producing content internally, we mitigate risks associated with misinformation or opinionated advice, focusing instead on educational, informational, and regulation-compliant content,” the spokesperson said.
Angel One also underscored that while its Fin One members had a flair for content creation, the focus was on their ability to understand user needs for financial literacy.
“Unlike selecting external influencers, who may be chosen based on their following and existing content style, in-house team members are trained to create content that aligns with our brand voice and goals. The in-house team brings a high level of user empathy, tailoring content that connects with the audience in Hindi,” the spokesperson said.
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Sustainable RoIs
In-house content teams became integral to financial companies particularly after Sebi in October barred regulated entities from associating with unregistered content creators. It gave these entities three months to terminate their contracts with unregistered financial advisers.
Earlier this month, Sebi clarified that the rules apply to all entities it regulates, including asset management companies, investment managers of alternative investment funds, infrastructure investment trusts, real estate investment trusts, stock exchanges, clearing corporations, and registered depositories.
These decisions came after Sebi cracked down on financial influencers earlier this year, taking down more than 15,000 ‘content sites’ as part of its efforts to protect investors.
Apart from the compliance necessity, financial companies are finding in-house content teams to cost-efficient as well as better in terms of return on investment (RoI). Firms like Zerodha Broking Ltd and Groww have been operating in-house financial education content teams for nearly a decade.
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“Typical influencers may charge between a few thousand to a few lakh rupees for one piece of content, but they most often handle the shoot, editing, and show-packaging themselves. In the case of internal employees, we need to invest in all these aspects. However, it still works out cheaper to do it internally, provided you have scale,” said Sandeep Walunj, group chief marketing officer, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Also, external influencers work on a “pay-as-you-go” model, which requires financial companies to consciously manage RoI. Having an in-house team of content creators shifts that model to “grow-as-you-go”—the employees become a part of the company’s overall growth, said Walunj.
Thus, while influencers may offer a short-term boost in reach and engagement, an in-house content model ensures a steady flow of tailored content, and the long-term association ensures better and more sustainable RoI, he added.
‘No substitute for mass promotions’
Financial influences don’t agree with that assessment, insisting that in-house content will not be suitable in the long run.
“While organisations are creating content in-house, it is no substitute for mass-scale launch, promotional or branding or lead-generation campaigns that’s done with multiple influencers at once,” said Pranjal Kamra, an influencer and founder of fintech startup Finology Ventures. “(In-house content) is more for retention, retaining attention, and hoping to create word-of-mouth.”
Also read | Experts divided on Sebi rules barring finfluencers from giving investment advice
Kamra, however, added that it was hard to predict if the in-house content creation model would become a successful template in the long run. “Whether it’s hurting influencers now? No, too early to say so,” he added.
Ayush Guha, business head at talent management company HYPP, said while business for financial influencers would be affected they “would be able to find other ways to monetize their content in the long run”.
Guha and other industry experts, however, conceded that Sebi’s guard rails are crucial for protecting investors.
“As financial platforms venture into sharing exclusive information and content with users on social media bypassing the influencer marketing route, financial content presented to consumers seems to get safer,” said a partner at one of the big four audit firms, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Earlier influencers would share information without disclosing sponsorships in affiliate links, but now users would know that the information is coming from the brand, clearly cutting down on the confusion and misinformation, thanks to the guidelines,” he added.
