The Rise of VK Influencers: Marketing Insights and Trends for 2024

Today, VKontakte is one of the most popular social networks in Russia. According to Mediascope data, 71% of the country's population over the age of 12 uses it every month. 43% of people (around 52 million people) visit the site at least once a day, and the average time a user spends on the site is 43 minutes a day. 

In 2022, after Instagram* and TikTok were blocked, many bloggers moved to VKontakte to avoid losing their audience. Along the way, VK developers began to expand opportunities for new authors and advertisers. As a result, VK has become a more popular resource for both targeted advertising and Influencer marketing in Russia.

Let's have a closer look at opinion leaders: who is in the ratings, what he/she advertises, and what trends of influencer marketing in VKontakte are relevant in 2024.

VK features for bloggers

Before we look at the ratings, it is worth mentioning the VK features for authors. Since the end of 2022, the developers of the social network have been actively introducing new features. Eventually, VK offers bloggers tools similar to Instagram*, plus other innovations.

The smart feed is similar to Instagram*'s "Recommendations" and selects users to show content based on their interests. It's an organic tool that uses artificial intelligence algorithms.

VK Clips are short videos in a vertical format. The content collects over 200 million views daily. A bonus for authors with 10+ thousand users is the ability to embed an advert in the clip and earn revenue from it.

Live streams have advanced advertising functionality. The author can add a link, product, or survey during the broadcast. Besides, viewers can support the blogger financially with a special button.

Stories, similar to Instagram*, are published in a vertical format and disappear 24 hours after publication.

Targeted advertising is paid promotion in all VKontakte channels for communities, goods, services, websites, and mobile applications. Campaigns are launched through the VK-Ads advertising platform.

The Clipper support program is designed for bloggers who actively use VK Clips. The authors who gain the highest number of views have a chance to get a prize fund of 100 million roubles.

VK Donut has a paid subscription for exclusive content.

In addition to the basic tools, VK has a function of automatic content transfer from YouTube and Instagram*. Thanks to such variations, the activity of authors in VK is gradually increasing.

Overview of popular VK Influencers

According to the analytics platform Brand Analytics, 24,240,560 authors post their content on VK (short for VKontakte). This includes popular Russian bloggers. After Instagram* was banned, more than 3,000 celebrities created their pages on the social network or resumed their activity after a long break. Some of them increased their audience several times over in a relatively short period of time. For example, the audience of video blogger Dmitry Maslennikov grew four times last year (note - 1.4 million subscribers), and singer Olga Buzova - 1.5 times (note - 1 million subscribers). 

The top 20 VK bloggers are mostly idols of teenagers and young people. Each influencer in the rating has 1-3 million subscribers and their own style of content presentation.

Veydi_rush

Veydi_rush or Vadim Spiridenkov is a blogger who became famous thanks to TikTok. He creates short humorous videos, mostly sketches about modern girls. 

Almost the entire target group is female, accounting for 1.2 million of the 1.4 million subscribers. 10% of them are from Moscow, about 5% from St. Petersburg and about 2% from other large Russian cities. Most of the audience is young: about 50% of the audience is between 23 and 35 years old, 16-23 year olds make up 10% of the audience, and 35-45 year olds - 35%.On average, posts have 700,000 views and videos have between one and two million views. The number of likes on posts ranges from 30 to 100 thousand, and the number of comments from 500 to 1500.

The blogger makes advertising in the format of short funny videos. Due to that the number of views of posts and videos does not decrease in comparison with the main content. In the example below, the author has natively integrated an advert for a VK dating app game.

VK Apps Love Ads by blogger Veydi_rush

Dmitry Maslennikov

Dmitry Maslennikov is a video blogger who became popular on YouTube thanks to his narrative, "mystical" videos. Currently, Dmitry has diversified the content of his site by adding entertainment content of various genres. The author uses short videos, text, and photo posts and publishes links to new YouTube videos. 

The readers of the blog are split about 50/50 between men and women. 10% of the subscribers live in Moscow, another 5% live in St. Petersburg, and the rest are located in other regions of Russia. Young people aged between 18 and 25 make up almost half of the audience. Subscribers of other ages are equally divided. On average, posts get 400,000 views, 10,000-30,000 likes, and several hundred comments. 

Mostly, Dmitry places ads in the form of a post with photos. Sometimes the blogger uses the VK Clips format. 

Kuplinov Play

Dmitry Kuplinov is a streamer, letsplayer, and video blogger on YouTube. The account is mainly dedicated to entertainment. The author publishes streams always and everywhere, including VK, using the live stream format. 

About 70% of Dmitry's viewers are men, while women make up 30%. 50% of the subscribers are between 18 and 25 years old, 20% are between 16 and 18, and about 15% are between 25 and 35. Post views rarely reach 100 thousand, likes - up to 10 thousand. There are usually a few dozen comments below the posts. 

It is very rare for Kuplinov to integrate advertisements. The blogger uses streams, short videos, and multi-channel publications (note - VK, YouTube, Telegram). Usually, the brand's promo fits most natively into the influencer's theme. For example, he promoted an online library using his favorite horror genre combined with his signature humor.

Post caption: " Well, Valera, are you a knight of darkness now?" Kuplinov Play promotional post for the Stroki online library

Kukoyaki

Kukoyaki is an account of  musician, actor, and blogger Denis Kukoyaka. On the page, they post funny family videos, thanks to which Denis and his family became popular in Russia. 

Almost all the subscribers of the community are women. Half of them are between 18 and 25 years old. 20% are between 25 and 35 years old. 5% each - from 16 to 18 and from 35 to 50 years old. About 13% of the audience is from Moscow and 6% is from St. Petersburg. Video content gains, on average, 200 thousand views, blogger's posts - 150 thousand. There are up to 15 thousand likes, a few dozen comments, and sometimes a few hundred. 

The author cooperates with brands on different social platforms quite often. For VK promotion Denis often uses the format of expanded videos from 60 seconds or a post with a photo. Usually, the blogger's integrations are funny and thematic. As a result, the adverts are native and easily adapted to the main content.

Kukoyaki family featured video for the 'Vkusno i Tochka' brand

Valya Karnaval

Valya Karnaval is a popular Russian singer and blogger. The girl became famous thanks to short videos that she actively posted on social networks.

The trend of video content continues to this day. The author publishes several VK clips almost every day and combines them with photo posts. The regularity of the publications ensures constant attention from subscribers. On average, Valya's posts receive at least 1000 likes, and clips receive 300,000. 

Valya actively cooperates with brands in several social networks at the same time. For example, the blogger published her advertising integration with the Cola brand in the VK Clip format and on YouTube.

Valya Karnaval’s VK Clip for the Cola brand

Advertising integration examples from niche VK bloggers

We keep saying, and we've seen it in practice, that brands don't always need (and can't afford) to integrate with millionaire bloggers. There are many reasons for that. The main one is the sharp need for niche blogging because of specific characteristics of a product or service. 

Below are a few examples of such influencers.

Elena Krygina

Elena Krygina is a make-up artist, video blogger, and entrepreneur. The author's target audience consists of women aged 20-45 who live in different regions of Russia and are interested in business, cosmetics, and make-up. 

Elena's VK profile has 38 thousand subscribers. On average, her posts receive 5-10 thousand views. The blogger actively promotes her own company's products, cosmetics from various brands, and events she takes part in. For promotional purposes, the author actively uses the post format with a carousel of images.

Cosmetics review post on Elena Krygina's page 

Slavniy Druzhe Oblomoff

Oleg Grigoriev is a video blogger on YouTube: he cooks and reviews food from restaurants. The author's content is mainly devoted to culinary topics. Oleg's audience is therefore diverse: men and women aged 16-60 who are interested in products, cooking, and entertainment. 

The blogger has 350,000 subscribers, with posts averaging between 50 and 150,000 views, several hundred likes, and dozens of comments. 

Oleg works with brands mainly on YouTube, integrating advertising content into videos. Periodically, the author posts on his VK profile. These posts are often dedicated to product promotion.

Repost on Slavniy Druzhe Oblomoff page in support of the LebedyanMoloko brand 

DiaNica

One of the most difficult topics to promote is pharmaceuticals. For example, let's look at blogger Nika’s VK page, dedicated to diabetes. 

Despite the small number of subscribers (note - 16 thousand), the blogger's posts, on average, have from 3 to 9 thousand views and a high level of audience engagement. This can be seen in the huge number of comments under the posts. 

Nika does not use any ‘super’ techniques to attract new users. There are no short videos with effects or music in the account, the visual content does not have a single solution. Nevertheless, the topics that the author raises affect the audience. Along the way, the blogger advertises various products from marketplaces, which can be useful for a person with diabetes. 

Promos are very difficult to distinguish from the main content. Due to that, such advertising integration has a maximum impact on the target audience.

 A carousel post about the insulin pump belt on the DiaNika page with a link to the popular Russian marketplace Wildberries

Advertising content labeling

From September 1, 2023, in Russia, it is possible to be subject to a fine under the law if an advertisement has no labeling. Labeling is the process of adding a notice to an ad stating that it is an advertisement, an identifier, and information about the customer. The ad is thus given a token in the format "erid: xxx".

For example, this is what a VKontakte ad looks like:

 

For videos, the token will be shown directly in the video:
 

In text ads, you can put an identifier anywhere you want. However, most ads are marked at the very end of the post.
 

Every month, an advertising report is submitted to the Unified Register of Advertising on the Internet. This is necessary for: 

• advertisers to have an idea of what their money is spent on; 
• the Antimonopoly Service to detect illegal advertising; 
• the tax authorities to control taxation.

All ads seen by users in Russia should be tagged, even if the advertiser is located outside the country. 

Advertisements are typically reported by the publisher of the ad or the intermediary between the brand and the influencer. So it's usually an advertising agency, a freelancer, or the company itself if it ran or bought the ad itself.

When the ad, video, or images are ready, the person responsible for tagging sends the material and data about the advertiser to the advertising data operator (e.g. VK if the ad is launched by VKontakte). The operator sends the data to the Unified Register of Internet Advertising and assigns a token to each element. An advertisement is placed with this token and marked as "advertisement". In addition, within 30 days after one month of advertising, the person responsible for tagging and the advertiser (blogger or advertising system) send information about the creator, advertiser, and statistics to the advertising data operator.

In practice, it's not as complicated as it looks at first glance. RMAA managers take care of all the functions related to advertising legislation, from filing an application to reporting to the state authorities after the campaign. We have given more details about the process of advertisers' interaction with legislative bodies in our White Paper 'Russian Digital Market Overview'. 

Despite the legislative aspect, advertising on VK through opinion leaders is a very promising trend in 2024. The social network's audience is diverse and its advertising tools are becoming more advanced. This opens a wide range of opportunities for Russian authors, millionaire bloggers, and highly specialized opinion leaders. 

RMAA will help you develop your advertising strategy and select the right bloggers to achieve your goals in the Russian and the CIS markets within your planned budget.  

If you do not have such goals yet, we invite you to read more about marketing in Russia and the CIS. Subscribe to our blog to keep up to date with the latest advertising events.

 

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*Meta Platforms Inc. project, the activities of which are banned in Russia.