Why brands must seize the tier-2-led short-form content boom in 2025

The trajectory of short-form video (SFV) content has been nothing short of revolutionary since TikTok popularised the format.

Following TikTok's departure from the Indian market in 2020, platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, along with some homegrown SFV platforms such as Moj and Josh, have transformed this gap into an opportunity, investing heavily in their short-format offerings and fundamentally altering how digital content is consumed.

The sector's growth has been remarkable, with India's SFV market currently engaging nearly 250 million monthly users. According to a recent Redseer report, active users have increased by 3.6 times since 2020. The projection for 2025 is even more striking, with monthly active users expected to reach 650 million as per a GroupM report.

These numbers signal a call for marketers to recalibrate their digital strategies, positioning SFV at the forefront of their planning for 2025.

What’s in it for brands?

The compelling case for brands to prioritise SFV lies in its unprecedented reach in tier-2 cities and beyond, which account for over 63% of total engagement. 

In an earlier conversation with afaqs!, Mukesh Kumar, associate partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, emphasised this demographic shift: "A large portion of users from tier-2 cities and beyond engage with SFV for discovering products, fashion trends, music, and even movies." 

This emerging market represents significant discretionary spending potential, particularly appealing for brands seeking expansion beyond metropolitan areas.

"Brands targeting these audiences should focus on regional content, as the platforms offer strong reach and engagement in these markets. Improving ad product quality will also be crucial for platforms to attract more advertising revenue from brands focusing on this demographic," he further noted.  

In 2024, SFV platforms in India contributed around 1-1.5% of the total digital ad spend in India, a figure that has grown from less than 1% last year. However, the space accounts for 15-20% of total online time spent.

This disparity between engagement and revenue presents a massive opportunity for brands to capitalise on underpriced attention.

"Short-format video content is the need of the hour. It is cost-effective, quick to create, easy to repurpose, and ideal for cross-platform promotion. We’ve seen much lower cost per lead and higher view rates since we adopted short format videos."

Varun Malik, marketing head, Shalimar Paints

Several brands have already recognised this potential and made SFV a cornerstone of their digital strategy. For instance, Shalimar Paints is already heavy on this strategy, having integrated SFV across its marketing mix. 

Varun Malik, head of marketing at Shalimar Paints, explains their approach: "Short-format video content is the need of the hour. It is cost-effective, quick to create, easy to repurpose, and ideal for cross-platform promotion. We’ve seen much lower cost per lead and higher view rates since we adopted short format videos."

The best use cases: Maximising SFV's marketing potential in 2025

As per Malik, some brands stand to gain more from the space than others, based on the nature of their products.

"Apparel and fashion, automobiles, food & beverages, beauty & cosmetics, fitness & sports, electronics & gadgets, travel & hospitality, home décor, home improvement, and interiors will benefit more as demonstrating products or services in bite-sized video content can create much more engagement and impulse buying behaviour." 

He also outlines several powerful use cases for SFV within a marketer’s toolkit. These include quick product demonstrations, which effectively showcase features and benefits within seconds and are particularly useful for educating consumers about technical products. 

Another format of SFV that the brand has found success in is the ASMR-style content, creating engaging washability tests for their products in under 30 seconds. 

But, perhaps what stands out as the best use case for short-form content marketing is user-generated content (UGC). For Shalimar, these UGC initiatives have featured customer testimonials in minute-long formats, achieving impressive view-through rates of 15-20%, as per Malik. 

This positive sentiment towards UGC is also shared by Amyn Ghadiali, who is the country head at Gozoop Creative Digital. 

 He says, “User-generated content is the real game changer (for brands). Encouraging your audience to co-create trends transforms followers into brand advocates. With AI-powered editing tools democratising content creation, marketers can scale their SFV campaigns faster than ever.”

What you must avoid

"For brands, the challenge is no longer about just showing up; it's about standing out."

Amyn Ghadiali, country head, Gozoop Creative Digital

Despite the opportunities, brands face significant hurdles in maximising their SFV potential. 

Ghadiali highlights the content saturation challenge: "With over 100 million videos uploaded daily, it's a content jungle. For brands, the challenge is no longer about just showing up; it's about standing out."

This is where Ghadiali believes agencies also need to up their game every day and have talent and content specialists who understand this space well.

Measurement and attribution remain key concerns. Most ad spending on SFV platforms focuses on branding rather than performance-driven campaigns.

"Unlike search ads with clear intent, SFVs often play at the top of the funnel, sparking awareness rather than immediate conversions. Platforms like Instagram with their Attribution Insights are trying to bridge this gap, but it's still a work in progress."

The solution, he says, lies in consistency and collaboration. “Brands must invest in regular, high-quality uploads while partnering with influencers or faces who bring authenticity to the table. AI and blockchain might soon solve measurement woes by providing deeper insights and transparency, but until then, the real differentiator will be a brand’s ability to adapt, experiment, and stay fearless in this high-stakes game."

The influencer-brand dynamic in the SFV era

“Influencer-led paid content that garners enough organic engagement is then used by brands as ad units on their own handles.”

Kalyan Kumar, co-founder and CEO, KlugKlug

A lot of the influencers have geared their content heavily towards short-form videos, owing to its tremendous reach, amplified by the algorithms of the platforms. This high reach and engagement, which supersedes the creator’s own following or subscriber count, calls for altered influencer marketing strategies. 

Kalyan Kumar, who is the co-founder and CEO of KlugKlug, an influencer marketing platform, says that influencers and content creators are increasingly prioritising their SFV presence because of the benefits it brings them in terms of growth and brand collaborations.

 “Influencers are aware that platforms reward short-form videos disproportionately, unlike other content. And the brands are therefore adopting this format due to its reach,” he says. 

Another impact SFV has had on influencer-brand dynamics is that brands are now using influencer-led content as advertisements. Although the trend was triggered during the Covid-19 pandemic when brands were incapable of making high-budget heavy duty promotional content, Kumar says the practice has caught on. “Influencer-led paid content that garners enough organic engagement is then used by brands as ad units on their own handles.”

Beyond the paid partnership tags, the brand also takes control over that content and uses paid media to amplify it, Kumar adds. 

The trend has particularly benefited micro-influencers. Sahil Chopra, founder and CEO of iCubesWire, another influencer marketing platform, observes, "We are likely to see brands leaning into micro-influencers, who bring access to niche audiences and push user-generated content for community building."

"As the trend matures, brands will focus on innovative storytelling within seconds, making SFV a core element of influencer marketing strategies," he adds.