By Scott Guthrie

Globally, creator marketing spend has jumped fivefold in the past five years. Today, our industry is larger than the annual box office takings at cinemas.  

Research from Keller Advisory provides key factors behind this explosive growth. When compared with traditional advertising across 10 key attributes, creator content was found to be more trustworthy, relevant, exciting, unique, better at making an emotional connection and more likely to motivate viewers to buy than other forms of advertising. 

However, the past does not guarantee the future. Trust from consumers, advertisers and regulators must be earned continually. This is where organisations such as the Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB) and the Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) play a crucial role across the whole creator marketing ecosystem. Why so? Because the surest way for creator marketing to realise its full financial potential is by promoting best practices. 

Credos, the Advertising Association’s think tank, found that the most powerful driver for building the public’s trust in advertising is the quality of the creative. For quality, read: creativity, entertainment value and emotional engagement. Simply put, the more someone likes or enjoys an ad, the more likely they are to trust it. 

Beyond trust alone, high-quality influencer creative drives 4.7 times more profit compared to low-quality creative, according to Whalar and Kantar research. High-quality creative is also the biggest driver of brand salience, says the same report.  

Conversely, hidden advertising – when influencers fail to adequately declare their ads as ads – is our industry’s biggest trust diminisher. A total of 92 percent of Aussies and 91 percent of Brits expect creator transparency with brand-sponsored content, according to Snap. Hidden advertising is also the area most under scrutiny from regulators.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – the regulator that protects consumers within the country – has recently been granted new powers to issue fines for consumer law infringements of up to 10 percent of global turnover directly and without court action. 

Across the Channel, the European Union’s Digital Fairness Act (DFA), currently in its preparatory phase, aims to protect consumers from harmful online practices, including misleading or hidden influencer marketing.

To promote best practice, 11 EU member states now offer dedicated influencer training and certification, which includes monitoring influencers’ compliance through the use of AI-driven tools. 

These initiatives are gaining traction with influencers. For example, in France, 2100 influencers are now certified. Spain launched its certification less than six months ago and has already clocked up 1500 certified influencers.

Sharing best practices across hemispheres empowers advertisers, agencies and creators to learn how different jurisdictions are approaching the same global opportunities and challenges. On top of guidance on avoiding hidden advertising, both IMTB and AiMCO have developed industry codes of practice to champion best of breed activations in regulated verticals, including responsible alcohol advertising, gambling and lotteries and cosmetic procedures, for instance.

We both share points of view with our members about AI influencers, creator pay parity, payment terms, IP rights and how to measure and evaluate our discipline. 

Next week, influencers, practitioners and regulators around the world will be paying close attention to the starting pistol of Australia’s ban on social media for the under-16s. Will statutory regulation be more effective than media literacy initiatives? What key learnings from the first-of-a-kind ban can be applied locally? How will the regulation impact kidfluencers?

And, as we fast-approach party season, Australian advertisers, agencies and creators will, no doubt, be monitoring the impact of the UK’s advertising restrictions on high fat, sugar and salt. Ads for identifiable, less healthy food products were banned online from 1 October under a voluntary scheme, which will come into force under statutory legislation from 5 January 2026.

The May 2024 edition of The Harvard Business Review called for the creator marketing industry to “develop trade organisations and unions to protect influencers, marketers and the public”. 

That same month, the European Council made similar recommendations: that emerging influencer marketing representative organisations should be encouraged and supported to develop self-regulatory bodies. 

Both AiMCO and IMTB were ahead of the curve in spotting the growth spurts, but also the growing pains of our nascent sector. We continue to help shape the future of our industry as credible, creative and commercially powerful. 

Scott Guthrie is the director general of Influencer Marketing Trade Body