Actress and social media influencer Azziad Nasenya unwittingly ignited a conversation on Wednesday, July 22 after her influencer rate card was shared on social media, quickly going viral.
Azziad, who gained fame with her Tiktok cover of Femi One and Mejja's Utawezana earlier this year, has quickly become one of the country's most popular figures with hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms including Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
She even secured a spot on the cast of Selena, one of the country's most-watched TV shows. Expectedly, her rate card represents the impressive reach she has thanks to her brand.
With the actress charging up to Ksh100,000 per post on platforms including Tiktok and Instagram, a section of Kenyans raised eyebrows over the figure. This, however, attracted backlash from others who felt she was justified to charge whatever she deemed appropriate.
Kenyans.co.ke in-house Digital Media expert Brian Muuo helped shed light on the influencer landscape in the country and why Azziad's rate card was causing such a fuss.
He noted that Azziad was able to command a significant amount when working with advertisers as she brought to the table a large audience, many of whom fall between the 18-34 years demographic.
He explained that pricing for influencers was determined first and foremost by key metrics including followers, subscribers, views on videos, user engagement and user feedback.
"She can charge those amounts because she has built up a large audience that is guaranteed. Her videos, for example, quickly get hundreds of thousands of views on platforms such as Tiktok.
"Advertisers are willing to work with influencers but they must also be sure of a return on their investment," he observed.
Advising upcoming content creators, Muuo noted that it was important to prioritize building a core audience before setting out to charge high amounts for influencer projects.
"If, for example, you're a creative person and you've started sharing content around what you do, then continue doing that and grow that audience. Even platforms such as Youtube have various minimum thresholds for subscribers and watch hours on content before monetization," he explained.
He, however, asserted that it was important to undertake monetization of content and to charge appropriately for advertising once various thresholds were crossed depending on the platform.
While the content creation space has been steadily growing in recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions has seen a surge in hours spent consuming videos and other digital content not just in Kenya, but around the world
Online entertainers such as Flaqo and Elsa Majimbo have grown their online audience and secured various corporate endorsements and sponsorship deals as a result.
