What were you doing 19 years ago? Chances are, you weren’t starting a social media-focused agency. Especially so given that Facebook was just three years old, YouTube was in the terrible twos and Instagram, TikTok and more were mere twinkles in their founders’ eyes.
But Sharyn Smith was founding Social Soup. The agency, which turns 19 this year, has ridden the wave of social media, influencer and creator marketing. It hasn’t always been easy, Smith conceded.
But now the market appears to have realised the size of the opportunity. That might make Social Soup’s defence of its Creator Agency of the Year title at the B&T Awards tricky — but we wouldn’t bet against Smith and her charges just yet.
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“We are the pioneering agency in this space,” Smith told B&T alongside partnerships director Emily Green and general manager Jo Dear Bowie-Johnson.
“When I saw the category [at the B&T Awards], I thought ‘We should win that’. We might be 19 years old but we’re still very current, relevant and influential in the industry. The goal was to showcase that. We’re not 19 and tapping out. It feels like the momentum is only just picking up. I’m often too early to trends but 19 years is a long time to wait,” Smith said.
Creator and influencer marketing has rapidly emerged as one of the most significant forces in the industry.
Late 2025 data from Meltwater shows that global influencer advertising spend grew 12.1 per cent year-on-year. We Are Social’s Digital 2026 report found Australian brands spent AU$830 million on influencer marketing over the past twelve months — up 13.5 per cent.
But the sector hasn’t always been so flush with cash.
“Four or five years ago, people hated on the space,” Smith said.
“It was a dark time as the hype [faded] and disillusionment set in. There was definitely a dark time working in this space. People were very negative about it in the industry, trade, everyone. There is some truth in that it was maturing but we’ve come through that.
“I wouldn’t say everything is perfect. There are always going to be bad actors but by and large, we’ve got good regulation in place. Every government regulatory body is across it. The systems and processes are there. The ecosystem of creators gets larger, more diverse and more sophisticated.”
“It comes with not understanding the industry,” added Green.
“[Outside observers are] not on the platforms and they’re looking at these 16-to-25-year-old people earning millions, having these opportunities. I think there’s an underlying sense of jealousy there as well.”
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At the 2025 B&T Awards, our judges lauded Social Soup’s launching and scaling of new intelligence and execution tools such as Shop & Scan, Content IQ and the Smart Platform. These new tools further helped the space move towards a more measurable, accountable future.
And according to Smith and the team, the world’s holding companies are starting to try to catch up.
“Every holdco has now acquired something in this space. Accenture Song just bought Whalar — everyone’s gearing up. There’s big investments, crazy investments, to drive scale,” said Smith.
“That doesn’t mean that they’re good. But they’ve definitely got some scale from the work they do in America and the UK but they haven’t been strong traditionally when they come here.
“I think we’re just smarter at what we do. We’ve got developed systems, processes and technology that we’ve been building for 19 years. It’s very customised to working at scale. We began in the micro-influencer space and we added the layers whereas most businesses just sort of ‘come in’ at the big end of town and then realise there’s an opportunity in micros and they try to operate at that level.”
That said, Smith said that Australia was “still behind” larger markets including the UK and US, particularly as it relates to investment. Green added that niche influencers — with followings between 1,000-10,000 — are becoming increasingly popular, though the mid-level influencers are “getting left behind”. There’s perhaps a sense that many trying to operate in the space have not yet grasped how to make their investment as effective as possible.
“A lot of clients will come to us and they’ll want to build a whole micro community. Or they’ll want to plug one or two macro [influencers] to amplify the message,” Green said.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the mid tiers getting left behind and not seeing as much of a need for them. That’s a shame because when you come out of the micro moment, you get management etc. but the brand deals actually dip until you get to the macro stage with brand deals, trips etc.”
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It takes a bit of time to grasp the numbers involved in this new world of creator marketing. While the Daily Mail, for instance, will run stories about the hundreds of thousands of dollars some influencers charge for a post, there’s much more to the space.
Recently, Unilever enlisted 50,000 creators to promote its Rexona brand at the World Cup. In a blog post, Afke van de Klashorst, Unilever’s, vice president of integrated brand experience, said the activation “reflects how we’re engaging with sport not just as sponsorship, but as a platform to build brand desire and cultural relevance to drive superior growth”.
The move caused a stir in the B&T office. But, after talking to Social Soup, it wasn’t surprising. Quite the opposite.
“Unilever does it really well, especially with Simple and TRESemmé, where they lean into micro communities,” said Green.
“They also lean into the sports industry nicely as well, inviting creators to the World Cup, having them on the pitch etc. [But] I think Unilever was behind in its ways. That’s why all the press and those articles came out about them bringing investment… I used to work at Unilever but it was really difficult to pitch influencers and express that they needed to have these within their budgets. It was always just PR, paid advertising and nothing behind influencers.”
Smith added that, globally, Unilever works with 300,000 creators. But that barely touched the sides when “every day” 5 billion people use its products.
The World Cup, of course, is the single biggest media moment of 2026, as it was in 2022 and will surely be again in 2030.
But the days of mass reach via TV, outside of live sport (and with the exception of perhaps the Married At First Sight finale). We asked the Social Soup team if creator marketing was the new way to get TV reach.
“Yes,” came Smith’s reply.
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