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Glossary

The words of creator marketing in India, explained plainly — from nano to intent to barter — so a first brief reads like a tenth.

Creators, by size

Nano — roughly 1,000 to 10,000 followers; the highest engagement of any tier and the most local audience. Micro — 10,000 to 100,000; the tier most brands now prefer. Mid-tier and macro — 100,000 to a million; reach with less intimacy. Celebrity — a million and up; fame, not neighbourhood. Oye works with the first two.

Campaign words

Intent — what a brand wants to happen, stated as outcome, place, audience, platform and week; the input to the Oye platform. Brief — the instructions a creator receives: product, do’s and don’ts, disclosure, deadlines. Activation — creators accepting and running a brief. Always-on — a standing programme with a fixed creator pool rather than a one-off burst. Squad — a group of small creators run together on the same brief.

Money words

Barter — product instead of cash; disclosed like paid. Code — a creator-specific discount code that attributes orders. Affiliate — commission on sales through a creator’s link. TDS — tax deducted at source on creator payouts under Indian law. Gig — task-based independent work; a campaign is one.

Place words

Hyperlocal — targeted to a pin code and the few kilometres around it. Tier-2 / tier-3 — cities and towns below the metros; where most of India’s new users and creators are. Vernacular — in an Indian language other than English; increasingly the default. Dialect — the local form of a language (Bhojpuri, Varhadi, Tulu); the real unit of trust.

Content words

UGC — user-generated content: video made by customers or creators, often reused in listings and ads with rights. Reels / Shorts — short vertical video on Instagram and YouTube. Auto-DM — creator-configured automated replies on Instagram; on Oye, limited to comment, message, story-reply and mention triggers. Disclosure — the label (#ad, #collab, #sponsored) ASCI requires on any paid or barter post.

Rule words

ASCI — the advertising standards body whose influencer guidelines set disclosure rules. SEBI — the securities regulator; its rules limit financial creators to education unless registered. DPDP — India’s data-protection law. RERA — real-estate regulation; project registration numbers belong in property posts. See Compliance & guidelines.

Sources

Figures on this page are as reported by the sources below and rounded; estimates differ between reports and change every year. Text is our own.

  1. ASCI Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital MediaAdvertising Standards Council of India · Accessed 21 September 2026
  2. Gig economy booming, workers will triple to 2.35 crore by 2030, says Niti Aayog reportThePrint · Accessed 21 September 2026

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