Apparently between 20-30 per cent of media budgets are handed over to content creators (AKA influencers). What was once considered a side hustle to snag discount codes, has now become a major line item in the marketing mix. This week festivals have taken the spotlight. Here is a summary of the content creators that made waves this week.
The Australian influencer economy is steadily approaching the $1 billion mark, with $830 million alone spent in 2025. That’s a 13.5 per cent increase year-on-year. For those working if the ‘influencer trend’ has peaked yet. It hasn’t.
Current projections suggest that by 2030 could hit $2.46 billion.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has estimated that the global content creator economy could be worth half a trillion US dollars by 2027.
This week, we are looking into the creator and brand movements in Coachella valley over the past weekend or shall I say, the influencer olympics. The festival has become synonymous with the phrase “brand trip”, every year, the California desert turning into a content churning machine.
It’s part festival, part marketing runway. Here are some of the best executed activations from Coachella weekend 1 featuring plenty of homegrown Australian creators.
Revolve
The major US retailer Revolve hosted it’s Revolve Festival, the unofficial checkpoint of influencer success, widely recognised for its separating of guests based on number of social media followers, and if you don’t have over a million, don’t bother. The desert event doubles as a live music events with performances form the likes of Don Toliver, Mustard and more, all designed for optimal social media rollout. Among those in attendance were Aussie content creators Tammy Hembrow and Leah Halton, joined by a packed global creator crowd turning the festival weekend into an endless brand-meets-content cycle.
Rhode
Hailey Bieber’s Rhode joined the long list of celeb brands to embark on their Coachella journey introducing ‘Rhode World’. The invite-only activation turned the desert into a content-ready extension of the brand’s minimalist skincare universe. Designed as part installation, part creator playground, the space functioned as a high-output background for social content. Many Australian creators attended included the likes of Ava Francis and Sophia Begg (aka Sopha Dopha).
View this post on Instagram
818 Tequila
818 Tequila’s took over the desert with it’s own outpost activation as well as a co-branding collab moment with Hailey Biebers Rhode. The brand, owned by Kendall Jenner, collaborated alongside Bieber’s brand Rhode to execute a small drinks station within Rhode World. Think overlapping creator attendance and co-branded gifting. The result was a quieter yet effective footprint. The lack of spectacle reinforced the brand’s positioning as embedded within cultural moments. 818 also had it’s very own activation labelled the 818 outpost but the bestie brand collab was one of the most talked about brand moments of the weekend.
View this post on Instagram
This past weekend, content was being churned out at never before seen rates, with Coachella operating as a live case study in the experience economy. Beyond the volume is the structure. Brands can no long just attend cultural moments, they need to build them alongside creators who now act as both distribution and validation. Every year, Coachella is proof that the creator ecosystem is what carries brand moments far beyond the festival grounds.
