Narratif launches in India, aims to fix the biggest gap in influencer marketing

New Delhi: NARRATIF has launched in India, positioning itself as an “Influencer Strategy Consultancy and Enterprise Creator Intelligence Platform” aimed at helping brands build and manage influencer programmes with tighter governance, consistency and long-term planning, instead of campaign-led execution.

Co-founded by Rushabh Deena Shah and Sarvesh Singh, the company said it is built on the view that “influence is not accidental, it is engineered”, and wants brands to move away from fragmented creator marketing towards narrative-led creator ecosystems backed by strategy, data and foresight.

“Influencer marketing has grown faster than the systems managing it,” the founding team said. “Brands today spend heavily on creators but lack governance, consistency, and long-term strategic control. Narratif exists to change that, by helping brands own their narrative.”

NARRATIF’s pitch is that influencer marketing in India, despite rapid growth, is still run with a short-term, execution-first approach. It said brands often rotate creators frequently, depend on multiple agencies, and struggle to link creator activity to business outcomes. This, it said, leads to inconsistent creative output, fragmented performance insights, weak creator relationship continuity, and marketing teams relying on external execution partners for key decisions.

The company said it will operate on a proprietary “triple-engine” model combining strategy, creative intelligence, and enterprise governance into one system, designed to bring structure and accountability to creator marketing at scale. It said the model is meant to move brands from fragmented influencer activity to predictable, scalable programmes with clearer governance.

NARRATIF said its offering is designed for large, influencer-heavy organisations across FMCG, beauty, D2C, retail, e-commerce, fintech, electronics, OTT, travel, and other sectors, where teams need governance across markets, agencies and platforms.

The launch comes as influencer marketing becomes a larger line item for Indian advertisers. A report by The Goat Agency (WPP Media) and Kantar has pegged the Indian influencer marketing industry at Rs 3,600 crore in 2024 and projected 25% growth in 2025. 

The trust and compliance layer is also tightening, with ASCI’s influencer advertising guidelines focusing on disclosures and transparent labelling of branded content.

NARRATIF said it is not entering the market as an execution agency. “We are not building another influencer agency,” the team said. “We are building the systems, intelligence, and strategic thinking that will define the next decade of influence in India and beyond.”

On the category it is trying to build, the company pointed to global platforms such as CreatorIQ and Upfluence as evidence of the rise of enterprise creator governance, while arguing India has lacked a solution built for the country’s scale and creator dynamics.

On roles, NARRATIF said Sarvesh Singh, a media and sales professional with over 20 years of experience across The Times Group, BIG CBS, Mahindra, Magicpin and Wondrlab, will lead business strategy and revenue, with a focus on partnerships, growth models and commercial frameworks for brands using creators.

Rushabh Deena Shah, who has worked across influencer marketing, digital operations, youth programmes and creator-tech for about a decade, will lead strategy, creator-economy research and thought leadership. His previous roles and ventures include Frapp (later Futwork), SeedMart, Schbang, Regional Influencers, Opportune (Wondrlab) and RI Webventures.

The company said it plans to partner with top consumer brands in India and work with a network of execution agencies. It also said it is targeting regional expansion into the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with a stated long-term ambition to become a strategic and technology backbone for creator marketing.