New report suggests TikTok stars lack empathy, emulatability

Jannat Zubair, Avneet Kaur and Awez Darbar score best amongst Top 10; overall scores trail Bollywood and cricket celebrities by a long distance

The first IIHB Report on India’s Top 100 TikTok Influencers last week was well received. The report looked at the revenue earnings of the Top 20 in the TikTok world. The second Report of the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB), looks at the qualitative metrics, the softer aspects of these influencers as ‘human brands’. The report focuses on two important dimensions: the Empathy + Emulatability – the (e2) Index and the Influencer Index (i2) which is an amalgam of Familiarity, Likeability, Trust, Content and Fun.

The e2 Index

The e2 Index for any celebrity determines the commercial value of the celebrity’s fame: it is the ability of the said celebrity to get the fan or the follower to behave much like the hero, wanting to be like him/her, to look like him/her and to flaunt the same brands as him/her.

TikTok followers do not quite look up to their heroes in the same way as fans normally look up to celebrities in Bollywood or in cricket. They do look up to them for fun and entertainment, but do not actually consider them to be role models, be it for clothing and accessories or hairstyling and makeup.

Sure, the TikTok heroes are fun to follow, but they do not necessarily set standards for aspirations. The TikTok heroes fare even worse when we look at their ability to sell through even movies and music. Their empathy and trust scores are kind of average, dramatically lower than film and sports celebrities.

When trying to sell products like a mobile or a motorbike or say a money product like a credit card or similar, the emulatability score of top TikTokers is at best tepid. Comparative scores of Bollywood and top cricketers are way way higher.

Top scorers on the e2 Index

Jannat Zubair leads on the empathy attributes that check how much the follower or fan wants to be like the Influencer. Zubair top scored on being the most sought after for her messaging on getting dressed, choice of accessories, hair-styling and make-up. Avneet Kaur was in second place.

“The e2 Index of Top TikTokers trails celebrities from tinsel town and cricket quite tremendously. Their followers are their fans, but don’t really want to be like them in dress, appearance, demeanour or taste. Our similar studies on Bollywood stars show, on an average 20-25% higher scores,” says Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor, IIHB. “This therefore converts into lower revenue generation potential from brands for the TikTok toppers”.

Awez Darbar leads by far on the emulatability attributes. Tops as the best source of advice on movies, music, purchase of personal use devices like a mobile and for buying a bike. All TikTok influencers fare very poorly on money matters. Followers don’t consider their financial advice to be of much value. Scores of Top TikTokers on other purchases, both mobiles and mobikes are poor too. —FPJ Web Desk