While creators may be the ones with all the followers, behind every successful creator business is a whole lot of strategy, client wrangling and talent management. And while plenty of people in adland can put a creator on a brief, it takes a different kind of leader to build the agency, team and capability that keeps the business moving forward.
Australia is blessed with some seriously good creator and influencer leaders, which makes narrowing the field down to just 10 a near impossible task.
However, as always with B&T’s Best of the Best, we’ve done our homework and looked across the industry at the people leading creator, influencer and social businesses — from independent agency founders and CEOs to leaders running dedicated creator divisions within larger agency groups.
This list looks at the leaders, not just the doers. So what matters most is what they have built around the work: business growth, client wins, team expansion, new capabilities, innovation and the broader role they are playing in shaping the creator and influencer industry.
While we couldn’t squeeze everyone into the list, several who just missed the cut deserve a nod, including Emma Barnes, co-founder of Click Media; Amaury Treguer and Mary Proulx, co-founders of Bread; and Rhania Farah, former Poem executive, who now freelances for brands including El Jannah and Nespresso.
So, who’s influencing the influencers? Here are B&T’s Best of the Best Creator & Influencer Agency Leaders.
10. Rachael Webb, head of brand & partnerships, Sticki
Rachael Webb has helped take Sticki from challenger agency to one of Australia’s leading independent creator and content agencies.
Webb leads Sticki’s brand and partnerships functions as part of its founding team. Sticki was built with transparency, commercial accountability, long-term partnerships and a push to prioritise the human being at the other end of the screen.
Her background spans creative, media buying, strategy and consumer psychology, meaning she is as interested in why someone stopped scrolling, cared or bought as she is in how many people saw the post.
And the impressive commercial results are pretty hard to peel your shoe off and ignore.
Sticki has grown revenue 105 per cent year-on-year, increased its team by 225 per cent and shifted retainer and repeat work from 20 per cent to 65 per cent of revenue. More than 250 campaigns across 100-plus brands landed at the agency in the last financial year. The agency has also landed and grown partnerships with Mattel, Bondi Sands, John Frieda, Vinnies, Lyka, Yumi’s and Bega Group, among others.
In amongst her portfolio of work for the agency, Web helped launch Sticki’s Events & Activations offering to create a bridge between online influence and real-world experience.
We’re not the only ones taking note, however, Sticki was one of just four Australian marketing leaders selected by Meta for its Innovation Exchange in Singapore. Webb is a judge for the AiMCO Awards and also serves on its Best Practice Committee.
9. Sive Buckley, managing partner & co-owner, Born Creators Group
Sive Buckley has helped build Born Creators Group into an international creator business operating across five countries spanning more than 70 people.
The Australian operation has experienced significant growth since launching four years ago, and B&T understands the business has grown revenue substantially (according to figures shared confidentially). The local business has also recently won more than 30 new clients and built a team that is 80 per cent female.
As a business, Born Creators Group has four specialist agencies that focus on distinct areas of marketing, technology and media execution.
Adcreators focuses on performance marketing, Endspace focuses on software and automation, Events Unlimited works in the product launch and live activations space and Social St. handles influencer partnerships and creative content production.
Social Street, for example, works with the likes of Rugby Australia (specifically capturing fanzone activations for @rugbycomau), Adina Hotels (including the contemporary flagship relaunch of the Adina Town Hall in Sydney), ALAND Group (and the ALAND Foundation x Foodbank partnership) and Milk Flower (the popular dessert and beverage chain).
In her role, Buckley works on the systems, teams, client relationships and commercial foundations required to scale a creator business — while continuing to grow its footprint across countries. Born Creators Group services a portfolio of over 550 client relationships internationally, and holds offices in Sydney’s Pyrmont, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and India.
The ability here to turn a creator-focused proposition into a sizeable international business is what earns Buckley her spot on the list.
8. Ben Mayor, social director, Akcelo
Ben Mayor has helped build social and creator thinking into some of Akcelo’s biggest brand work, with the independent brand experience and innovation agency agency working across major names including McDonald’s and World Rugby.
In June this year, Akcelo also won Virgin Australia’s social media account, with the agency now working across both the Virgin Australia and Velocity Frequent Flyer teams to elevate the impact of social through social-first creative and content production, along with being a strategic partner in how social is embedded throughout the multi-faceted business.
Akcelo integrates influencers and creators as a core layer of what they describe as the “Brand Experience (BX) Era” where instead of executing traditional, siloed influencer sponsorships, the agency embeds creators deeply into multi-channel storytelling, social-first content production, and hybrid digital-physical campaigns.
In late 2025, Akcelo acquired advertising agency POPULA to add to its depth of specialist mobile-first expertise and experience. The move has ultimately strengthened Akcelo’s offering in the mobile, social and digital space.
And they did impressively well on the awards front.
At the 2025 B&T Awards, the agency took home the Branding, Design & CX Agency and Experiential / Promotional Agency presented by Displaywise awards.
7. Thomas Hutley, managing director, OM Content
Last year, Thomas Hutley was handed a fairly sizeable task to launch Creo into the Australian market.
Creo is Omnicom’s global end-to-end creator marketing capability, and Australia was only the second market outside the US to launch the proposition.
When it came to it, Hutley saw an opportunity to establish a differentiated creator marketing offering in Australia and embed it across Omnicom Media’s extensive agency and client network.
Hutley heads up the Australian team consisting of more than 100 specialists across content, partnerships, social and creator marketing, supporting all six Omnicom Media agencies and their clients.
He led the national launch across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, engaging more than 200 Omnicom clients and positioning Creo as a specialist offering spanning creator strategy, technology, activation and measurement. Within just its first year, Creo became one of OM Content’s fastest-growing capabilities, achieving double-digit growth.
The momentum was accompanied by significant industry recognition, with OM Content and Creo receiving two major accolades at the AiMCO Awards: Best Large Agency or Business and Best Influencer Marketing Technology or Service.
The growth story has only continued for the agency in 2026, with Creo now the fastest-growing capability within the broader OM Content offering.
Recently, the agency was a finalist at the MFA Awards in June for the Partnership Award category: PHD Media & OM Content, AFLW wX, AFL.
From bringing a global creator proposition to Australia to driving its adoption across one of the country’s largest agency networks, Hutley has helped move creator marketing from a specialist activation towards a more integrated part of the media and marketing mix.
6. Skye Lambley, CEO, Herd MSL, Influential & Salterbaxter ANZ
Skye Lambley has spent the past year growing Publicis Groupe ANZ’s creator and influencer marketing.
Publicis Groupe launched its dedicated influencer and social agency, Influential Australia, in September of last year, built to integrate Publicis’ global data intelligence and audience insights—particularly leveraging Epsilon’s consumer data—with the advanced tech of its late 2024 global acquisition, Influential, alongside its May 2025 acquisition of Captiv8.
Under her leadership, its Influential agency has grown by more than 25 people in its first 12 months. Lambley’s influence (geddit) on the influencer and creator market also extends to Herd MSL which offers talent management, influencer engagement and social media management alongside its traditional comms functions.
And the proof is in the pudding. Herd MSL won the Best Creator-Led Campaign category at the 2025 B&T Awards for their ‘Pour It, Mix it, Hack It’ campaign for Nescafé.
Lambley has also put significant emphasis on talent. Through investment in development, opportunity and long-term careers, she has maintained an approximate 95 per cent retention rate, ensuring clients continue to benefit from experienced teams during a period of rapid growth.
Her broader thinking around the category is also worth noting. Lambley describes creators as “the new social creatives” and embeds creator thinking into strategy, creative development and measurement.
She has also invested in AI adoption, creator capability and new ways of working. It is a fairly ambitious remit — growing businesses, building teams and pushing Publicis Groupe’s approach to influence into a new phase.
But if that wasn’t enough, she also serves as CEO of strategic comms agency Salterbaxter.
5. Alex Reid & Tom Maynard, co-founders, Amplify
Alex Reid and Tom Maynard have built Amplify into an international creative agency with creators very much embedded in its proposition.
The agency works across influencer marketing, social and content, talent management, sport, production and creator-owned IP. Its clients range from blue-chip firms such as P&G to brands including TikTok, Warner Bros., Canva and Tinder.
The Crushes campaign for Tinder in October last year was fronted by Australian influencer Tammy Hembrow, MAFS alum Eliot Donovan, and creator Emma Mac.
The work looked at modern dating crushes through playful short-form TikTok and Instagram content focused on “crush era” energy.
The agency also works with Head & Shoulders, where it provides a particularly good example of how the agency approaches creators.
To break the long-standing consumer taboo and awkwardness surrounding scalp flakes, the campaign utilised an entertaining ‘Lie Detector Challenge’. Prominent internet creators and athletes, including Australian rugby league player Angus Crichton and various beauty influencers, were hooked up to a real polygraph test and quizzed on personal elements of their life and hair health.
Rather than asking the creators to deliver a branded message, the creators became part of the creative idea itself. And that’s reflective in the broader role Amplify has carved out, where creators are treated as more of a creative force rather than just another distribution channel.
The business has also continued to expand its capabilities and footprint.
In June 2026, Amplify acquired Melbourne-based creative agency Snack Drawer, expanding its Australian creative capabilities and global footprint.
The acquisition is another indication of the direction Reid and Maynard are taking the business — broadening the agency around creativity, culture and creators rather than keeping influencer marketing in its own little box.
4. Suzie Shaw, APAC CEO, We Are Social
Suzie Shaw has one of the biggest remits on this list, heading up We Are Social across APAC while also leading its 60-strong Australian team.
The scale of the job alone sets Shaw apart from other leaders in this space. The We Are Social team manages the full influencer funnel as part of an integrated social approach, ultimately identifying and collaborating with the creators directly for the brands they work with.
We Are Social enjoyed significant industry recognition in 2026 under her leadership as APAC CEO. The agency secured significant major new client wins including Airbnb Australia and KFC.
In 2025, the agency also won four new clients during 2025, including Xero, Adidas, UNSW and ASIC MoneySmart. Revenue also jumped by 41 per cent in that same year.
Under Shaw’s leadership, We Are Social has continued to build itself up as a socially led creative agency, with creators and influencer marketing increasingly sitting alongside its broader social and cultural proposition. The agency’s Creator Colective has grown to more than 200 creators globally. Offices for the agency span Australia, North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
She also positions We Are Social as a thought leader in the industry. Its Digital 2026 Global Overview and Think Forward 2026 reports have focused heavily on the changing creator landscape, including the shift towards long-term creator partnerships rather than quick, one-off sponsored posts.
That thinking reflects the broader direction of the business under Shaw: social and creators as an ongoing part of how brands build relationships with audiences, rather than a campaign add-on.
And with Shaw overseeing the business across APAC, her work has a much bigger canvas than just the Australian market.
3. Sam Kelly, CEO & partner, Hello
Sam Kelly has helped transform Hello from its origins as Hello Social into a broader integrated marketing and creative agency. In late 2025 (after four years as partner and managing director) he was appointed CEO and now leads an expanding team of more than 65 professionals across creative, social, strategy, PR, events, media and talent management.
The agency’s client list currently includes Uber, Unilever, Kmart, CommBank, Paramount+ and BMW.
And there has been plenty happening on the creator front for the agency. Hello secured Jennifer Coolidge for its Audible campaign in August this year (reported exclusively by B&T) bringing a major global name into the work and generating significant attention for the audio platform.
The agency also delivered Paramount Pictures’ ‘Mission: Impossible Night Run’, turning Sydney Harbour into a live-action secret run club led by 21 targeted creators, to promote Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
And it reaped the reward.
But, again, it’s Hello’s business model that’s key here.
Hello has also been expanding its offering far beyond social and creator work, recently becoming FUJIFILM Australia’s full-service agency with a remit across brand, creative and media as well as social and creator work and PR.
Propelled by consecutive business wins, the agency has grown its headcount and invested in its leadership structure, including the appointment of a dedicated managing director to help manage that scale.
Kelly is also deputy chair of AiMCO and a board director for the Audited Media Association of Australia.
So while there are plenty of creators in Hello’s work, Kelly’s own role is increasingly about building the big machine that surrounds them.
2. Shivani Maharaj, chief creator officer, WPP Media
Shivani Maharaj launched INFLUENCE in June 2025, where she also stepped into the role of ANZ’s first chief creator officer — and in its first 12 months, the business scaled from 12 to more than 65 specialists.
That is a pretty serious amount of growth in a pretty short amount of time.
One of Maharaj’s notable achievements has been the formation and scaling of WPP Beauty Tech Labs for its biggest client, L’Oréal Groupe. The operation delivers influencer marketing across 38 brands with a team of more than 32 people.
And they clearly do it well. As reported by B&T, WPP Media retained L’Oreal’s media planning, buying, advocacy and influence account following a competitive review in July this year.
But Maharaj’s leadership extends far beyond building WPP Media’s creator capability.
Shivani Maharaj won the Social Media Award at the B&T Women in Media Awards for the third consecutive year in September 2025, and while she didn’t scoop it up this year, her colleague Michale Tan, who works under her leadership did.
She is also a founding AiMCO Guiding Council member, helping develop best practice, governance and ethical standards for influencer marketing. She has also assisted with the launch of the AiMCO Awards and inaugural Summit, co-authored national accreditation programs and continued to invest in education through mentoring, training and thought leadership.
WPP Media CEO Aimee Buchanan has described Maharaj’s work with AiMCO as helping “drive the future of the sector” and labelled her a “standout leader”.
And AiMCO managing director Patrick Whitnall has similarly praised her contribution in the way that she “nurtures and supports talent at every level” and describes her as becoming one of the most valued members of the has become one of the AiMCO community.
The combination of business growth, capability building, talent development and industry leadership makes Maharaj one of the top people helping define what the creator industry looks like as it matures.
1. Sharyn Smith, founder, Social Soup
Sharyn Smith has been building the 18-year-old agency Social Soup around influencer marketing for years and years — long before every second agency in adland had a creator offering. And that longevity is now backed by some serious industry recognition, with Social Soup taking home the inaugural B&T Creator Agency of the Year title at the B&T Awards. A massive accomplishment for Social Soup.
Smith currently sits on the Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO), giving her a role in the development of the broader industry as well as the business she founded.
Social Soup’s work demonstrates the depth of the business’s creator capability. For H2 Coco’s new matcha range, for example, the agency recruited 100 Gen Z wellness, fitness and lifestyle creators – asking them to walk into a 7-Eleven, find the new product and share that experience with their audiences.
The campaign generated 149 pieces of creator content, 97,500 total views and a 7.68 per cent average engagement rate — totaling to nearly three times the industry benchmark.
Social Soup also recently launched House of Winefluence, its new wine creator academy with long-term partner Treasury Wine Estates. The initiative will see Social Soup build and implement an exclusive, always-on creator community for TWE, described as the first program of its kind for the Australian alcohol industry.
The agency has also worked with Sorbent and Handee, putting products including Dermacare facial tissues, Flushables Wipes and Handee paper towel into the hands of Australian households already buying competitor products and building everyday creator content around them.
And this is all ultimately why Smith takes the top spot.
She has built a business in the category, continued to evolve its offering as the industry has changed, helped develop the standards around influencer marketing and, crucially, created a company capable of turning creator relationships into a repeatable business proposition for a number of major brands.
