Why Brands Are Putting More Money Behind Creator-Led Content.
Influencer marketing has grown up.
Five or ten years ago, the formula was relatively straightforward.
Find someone with a big audience. Send them a product. Pay for a post. Hope people notice.
That’s not what creator marketing looks like anymore.
Brands are now using creators across organic social, UGC, paid advertising, product launches, testimonials, events, brand storytelling and ongoing content production.
The creator isn’t necessarily just the media channel anymore.
The creator can be the creative.
And brands are putting serious money behind it.
IAB found creator advertising grew 26% in 2025 — around four times faster than the wider media industry. Almost half of creator-ad buyers now consider creators a “must buy.”
Why?
Because creator content isn’t only generating likes.
It’s increasingly being used to generate business.
Australian brands are already proving it.
Look at Maybelline Australia.
For its Colossal Curl Bounce mascara launch, Maybelline partnered with seven creators and deliberately went beyond traditional beauty influencers, bringing entertainment creators into the campaign too.
Creator content was then supported with Spark and In-Feed advertising.
The result?
28M+ video views.
4.9% sales uplift.
12% increase in product awareness.
9X the product-awareness benchmark.
Maybelline’s campaign demonstrated something particularly important: audiences responded to branded content when the product was integrated naturally into the creator’s existing style.
And creator content isn’t only working organically.
Australian activewear brand Lorna Jane was already producing organic TikTok content and working with creators when it decided to build TikTok into an always-on performance channel.
The reported result:
4X higher ROAS.
6X higher conversion rate.
95% reduction in cost per acquisition.
Then there’s Australian business software brand MYOB.
Instead of relying solely on polished branded advertising, MYOB worked with creators — including tradies and entrepreneurs — to show real people using its product in their businesses.
Creator content reportedly produced a 78% lower cost per acquisition than branded content and generated more than 200 conversions in three weeks.
Bakers Delight provides another national example. Creators incorporated the brand into real seasonal moments such as school lunches, Christmas and Easter.
The campaign generated:
1.56 million views.
1.26 million reach.
46,000+ likes.
2.35% average engagement.
Subway Australia’s Hot Honey launch also generated 2.1 million organic views and a 6.44% engagement rate through creator-led content.
Organic and paid are becoming one bigger opportunity.
This is one of the most important shifts for creators to understand.
Creator content doesn’t have to disappear after it’s posted.
Good creator content can become advertising creative.
It can be amplified.
Retargeted.
Repurposed.
Tested.
Turned into different formats.
Used throughout a campaign.
And that’s why the value of a creator can be much bigger than their follower count.
In IAB’s research, brands said creator campaigns were being used for brand awareness (43%), reaching new audiences (41%), building trust (35%) and driving online sales or conversions (32%).
This is full-funnel marketing now.
So what are brands actually buying?
This changes the question creators should be asking.
Not:
“How many followers do I need before brands will pay me?”
But:
“What can I help a brand achieve?”
Can you understand their customer?
Make their product interesting?
Tell their story?
Create content that feels natural?
Produce content they can advertise with?
Get people through a door?
Launch something?
Create ten useful pieces of content instead of one sponsored post?
Turn attention into action?
That’s where the bigger opportunity lies.
Your audience has value. Your ability to create has value. Your ability to understand the commercial objective has even more.
That’s the gap TCCA wants to bridge.
Creators know content.
Marketers know growth.
TCCA brings both together.