Why India-based JEEVMEDIA is courting brands in India after going global first

New Delhi: In India’s crowded influencer marketing market, JeevMedia is trying to tell a story different from most creator agencies. It did not begin by chasing Indian brands and then talking about global expansion. Its founder, Prafulla Kumar Jha, said the agency first built creator access, brand trust and recurring revenue outside India, and is now using that base to enter the domestic market more actively. In an interaction with BuzzInContent.com, Jha said the India push should not be read as a new company launch but as a shift in business focus. “We have been working from India for the last four years. But since day one, we were working with brands outside India,” he said. “My goal was to go global first and then eventually bring in the same aspect in India as well.” According to Jha, the approach came from a gap he saw in the market. India had several large creator and influencer agencies working with domestic creators and brands, but few India-based agencies had built a creator-management business with international creators. “My first idea was to build an agency that can go global, that can work with creators and bring in that trust which is missing right now in the market,” Jha said. Founded in December 2022, JeevMedia works across creator management and influencer marketing. The company manages more than 50 creators globally and executes campaigns through a network of over 2,000 creators. Its exclusive talent roster includes Spain-based filmmaker Raoul van Mullem, Turkish tech creator Elif Codes and US-based creator Arshman Khalid, among others. Its major breakthrough came through Wondershare, the global software company. JeevMedia had been working with smaller AI companies in different markets before the Wondershare mandate expanded. “The breakthrough, to be very honest, was working with Wondershare,” Jha said. “We were working with Wondershare on a couple of campaigns. And then all of a sudden, they told us, would you be able to manage all our budgets?” At that stage, JeevMedia was still a three-member team. “We were just three people team at that time. But I never said no. I was like, okay, let’s do it,” he said. The agency scaled from three people to 10 people for the project within two months. “We did everything within two months, which is just 60 days,” Jha said, adding that JeevMedia continues to work with Wondershare every month. Jha said most of the agency’s international clients are technology and AI companies. In India, however, the company is not entering with only a tech-first approach. It has started working with jewellery and luxury brands and wants to build first in lifestyle and fashion before expanding into other categories. “In India, our strategy is completely different,” Jha said. “We want to go towards lifestyle and fashion first in the Indian markets. And then eventually definitely scale to other categories as well over time.” The India entry comes after the agency built a more stable international base. Jha said JeevMedia earlier did not actively pursue Indian brands, though opportunities existed. The recent marketing push in India, he said, was aimed at perception building. “We have been in this country for the last four years. Now, we are actively pursuing businesses. We are working with Indian brands as well now,” he said. The reason for entering India, he said, is not that the international business is complete, but that India remains a growth market for an India-based company. “Every company wants growth. And there’s no upper end to growth,” he said. “Since we are an India-based company, not operating in India would be wrong.” Jha said almost 99% of JeevMedia’s team is based in India, with a small sales presence in Dubai. Running a global creator business from India comes with administrative challenges, especially around multi-currency payments, taxes and country-specific compliance. When asked how JeevMedia deals with cultural nuances across markets, Jha said the company believes content behaviour is becoming increasingly similar, but the real work lies in understanding the client brief and translating it properly for creators. Jha said the agency does not forward brand briefs to creators in the same form in which they arrive. The team first simplifies the brief and then shares it with creators so that the expectation is clear and the content process is faster. “The brief that the client sends is not the same brief that we send to the creator. We simplify it, then we send it to the creator,” he said. While creator management is central to JeevMedia’s positioning, its revenue mix remains largely brand-led. Jha said influencer marketing currently brings around 90% of the agency’s business, while talent management contributes around 10%. “Influencer marketing brings around 90% of our business and 10% comes from talent,” he said. The agency wants to change that balance over the next few years. “We want to increase the talent management business as well. We are planning to go heavy on talent as well. We are trying to make this a 60-40 in the next couple of years,” Jha said. For exclusive creators, Jha said JeevMedia offers inbox management, legal services, access to global brand opportunities and a team that can operate across time zones. In a cluttered Indian influencer market, JeevMedia is not positioning price as its main differentiator. Jha said the agency’s pitch is built on global experience, speed of execution, direct brand relationships and faster creator payments. “We bring the global impact that we have already built in the markets,” he said. “We have a lot of proof of work that we have worked with billion-dollar companies outside India. So that definitely gives us an edge whenever we are on calls with any client or any creator.” Speed, he said, is a clear operating advantage. “Our agency is very good when it comes to executing campaigns that just have 24-hour deadlines,” Jha said. “Everybody across the markets knows that if they want to get a campaign delivered within 24 hours, we are the first one to reach out.” The second differentiator, Jha said, is creator payment. He said JeevMedia pays creators within a week, helped by the capital it generated from international markets. “In India, there are a lot of brands who pay creators in 30 days or 90 days. We pay creators within a week,” he said. “Since we work with international markets, we have access to capital. And that helps us to pay creators faster.” Jha said delayed payments remain one of the biggest problems in India’s creator economy. While the industry often talks about fake followers, inflated engagement and measurement issues, he said the more immediate problem for many creators is payment clarity. “The only problem that I currently feel now that I’ve started working with Indian brands and creators is delayed payment cycles,” he said. “I see a lot of creators posting reels on the internet, and they haven’t been paid for a very long time.” He said brands and agencies need to communicate payment timelines clearly before collaborations begin. “If the brand is clear about their intent, I’m sure the creators would be happier. There would be fewer challenges as well,” he said. “Lack of clarity for the creator is something that is becoming a blocker in the Indian market.” JeevMedia is also exploring user-generated content and clipping as possible service lines. But Jha said the way UGC is being defined in India is often unclear. “In India, the concept of UGC is a bit broken,” he said. According to him, many brands in India use the term UGC for paid creator videos that are later used as ad assets. Jha said AI is useful for creators when used for research, scripting and content support, but he is sceptical about the long-term value of fully AI-generated influencers. “Ever since AI came, it has been very useful for content creators because the kind of script you can make in two days, you can make it in two minutes,” he said. But AI influencers, he said, may struggle with long-term audience connection. “At the end of the day, social media is all about people,” Jha said. “Once they know that this is not a real human being, they’ll not be able to connect. Even if that person looks 100% real, they’ll not connect.” JeevMedia is now looking to expand further into India, Europe, GCC and South-East Asian markets. Jha said the agency grew around 200% year-on-year and now has a 40-member team. The larger test for JeevMedia will not be whether it can generate visibility in India. It will be whether its global-first operating model, built on international creator access, fast execution, creator support and faster payouts, can become a meaningful advantage in a domestic influencer market where competition is already intense, and differentiation is difficult to sustain.