Behind the success story of Masoom Meenawala

The influencer is dead. At 29 years old, and just over a decade into her career that began with a fashion blog in 2011, no one knows this better than Masoom Meenawala. Dividing her time between Mumbai and Antwerp, Minawalla’s fascinating life miniatures have garnered over 1.2 million followers on Instagram, her online presence now managed by a team of 15 full-time employees who work from the content creator’s closet. Handles everything from business development to collaboration to captions.

Behind the scenes there is a mind that is just one significant step ahead of the next big thing. This week, as her #MasoomTakesFashionWeek surfaced on Instagram, she’s bringing an experience (at Milan Fashion Week)—an experience that took me years to gain through my work as a fashion journalist—to those For people who will never have to work a fraction as hard as I am. In short, Minawalla’s job is to translate his reach into an open invitation for his followers.

Forging Link — Virtual to IRL

A few years back, the idea of ​​democratizing fashion was brought together by several major brands. At the time, in reality, this meant providing more accessible lines for a larger and more diverse consumer base. Designers and brands achieved some degree of success. But on the internet, creators like Masoom took a much bigger leap. “I see myself as an entrepreneur. I’m a businessman, I run a start-up, and I have a team. And my product is satisfied,” she explains The Hindu Weekend,

To make her content reach the people who follow her, Minawala relies on a vast store of data. “My analysis tells me who people are connecting with, so it shows me what they want,” she says. But on the other hand, she adds that “It also shows me that people don’t really know what they want. So it’s taken me a long time to figure out what’s relevant to me…” You have a big question. Why do we need content creators when we can all access almost the same information?

For him, the answer – one of many – lies in becoming a link between India and the global fashion industry. “That’s the point of my virtual series: Taking People to Fashion Week with you,” says Minaval, which will take her audience to shows, events, and backstage, as well as organize contests and gifts. “The reality is that most of my followers may never make it here, and many people just don’t even want to. So, the content I create is for them.” Also, at the end it’s nice to see Indians representing the country, which is regularly populated by mostly European, East Asian and Chinese composers.

Meenawala with designers Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Rahul Mishra. photo credit: special arrangement

India at the forefront

Minawala feels that the population of the content creator universe in India is less than what it should be. “A big brand doing a multi-collaboration campaign in the West is an investment of about half a million euros,” she shares. “Whereas in India, a fashion label can work with a combination of micro, mid-level and big names to reach different demographics.” Due to the number of creators available to collaborate, paid partnerships can start as low as ₹10,000 and go up to a few lakhs per Instagram post or reel. (While Minawala did not wish to comment, she lives in the upper echelons of Indian content creators in the fashion space and can charge ₹3 to ₹5 lakh per post, according to industry sources. This could make her the biggest name in the field.)

“It is a great force, and there is no other country in the world other than China,” she says. Apparently, it is only in these two countries that Instagram provides a specific point of contact – the personal relationship manager – to creators who reach a certain amount of followers in an effort to support them and provide them with information and analysis on trending. provide. A helpful gesture and, at the very least, a smart, clever investment too.

So where do he and his partners, established and budding, stand in this vast web of creators who put together everything from style tips to accessories, haute couture to bargains? “In the business of content, when collaborating with a big brand, it is based on building trust. No brand will invest in taking someone to the Cannes Film Festival if they think that person will be incompatible with their content or be dropped next year. And it takes years to accomplish that,” she says. “I’m here to be that conduit.”

Minawala with actor-model Andie McDowell at Cannes | photo credit: special arrangement

And he has worked on it. In 2019, she first walked the red carpet at Cannes for L’Oréal, and then last year – where she was criticized for her height. “But I’m not promoting myself as a celebrity [the red carpet has seen stars such as Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Priyanka Chopra Jonas previously]” says the beautiful content creator. “I’m not here for the way I look.”

As you read this, she’s attending shows and events hosted by brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Dior, Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bulgari, and more. And instead of battling for tickets to Paris Fashion Week five years ago, she now reaches out to brands’ PR and marketing teams to design their Fashion Week itineraries before they travel.

when connection is king

Minawala hopes that more Indian creators will come forward. “Depending on their categories, if an Indian content creator is doing 10 to 30 paid campaigns in their place, their European counterpart is doing just two to three,” she says. “Here, the quantity is huge. And so we have to correct the narrative. If Indian manufacturers are able to capture the market right now, we are sitting on a gold mine.

The amount of work, and the number of brands and designers willing to collaborate with creators like Minawala, Amrita Thakur, Kayan Contractor and others, should push the limits of their creativity, I ask. “As an investor, I know a lot about CPC [cost per click] is, and is the average CPC that a fashion, beauty or lifestyle brand is achieving through various marketing channels [which is what we are], Can I use it now and make content creation a viable business?”

What is more important, however, is how she defines the role of content creators today. People who are in a position of great power as the human connector between producers and consumers are trusted by both brands and consumers. “Nobody’s relevance is guaranteed,” she says with a final wisdom. She cites the example of the global (and controversial) multi-influencer campaign that featured a Dior saddle bag in 2018. “In the history of fashion, we have never seen a comeback like Dior, and they absolutely did. Behind an impressively led strategy. ,

But is everything just for sale? “From the large boardroom at the Louis Vuitton headquarters to a regional entrepreneur starting his own sari business in a small town in India, everyone is going to come to the same conclusion: that nothing is more important than human connection,” she says. Says it cleverly. , “For better or worse, we are at the peak of that relationship.”