The Influence Group’s Social Soup, the largest influencer marketing business in Australia and New Zealand, today announced the appointment of Chris Burt-Allan (pictured, left) to the innovative new role of creator director.
A sustainability advocate, fashion influencer and “reformed management consultant”, Chris brings 15 years’ corporate and marketing experience to Social Soup and its clients.
Social Soup managing director, Katie Palmer-Rose (pictured, right), said the creation of the new role for Chris reflects a key shift in influencer marketing.
“As the world demands greater authenticity, there is a shift from transactional influencer to creators who are connecting with their communities. For brands to be able to leverage this change in an impactful way, they need to think about influencers and how they engage with them differently,” she said.
“The trend globally in influence is prioritising ongoing influence and partnerships with creators. This requires specialist skills to not only understand and build creative and content that will work, but to build relationships with influencers over a period of time. Enter Chris, who is incredibly well credentialed to take on that role.”
As creator director, Burt-Allan is responsible for supporting and educating creators; creative ideation and solutions; client and talent relationships; and platform partnerships.
Burt-Allan said: “I’m thrilled to bring my skills and insight, alongside my unique industry experience, to Social Soup to the benefit of both clients and creators. I have a strong belief in the limitless opportunity for influencer marketing and see myself playing a key role in empowering brands to extract value in this area.”
“No one can deny the exponential growth of influencer marketing in the past decade, nor the impact that it’s having on the industry. Right now, it’s imperative that marketers and brands have their fingers on the pulse if they want to compete successfully.”
The Influence Group director and Social Soup founder and CEO, Sharyn Smith, said: “As Australia’s #1 influencer marketing business, we have a responsibility to invest in content creators.”
“They are the channel. We need to build tighter relationships with them and invest in upskilling and enabling them to be true brand collaborators, not simply transactional content suppliers.”
“Chris will be focused on ensuring authenticity and consumer engagement across everything we do, and strengthening our partnerships with influencers, platforms and talent agents. We are very excited to have him join Social Soup,” she said.
