The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) strengthens creator representation in the influencer marketing industry through its newly launched Influencer Advisory Subcommittee. This initiative places creators – the driving force behind the industry’s significant growth – at the center of developing industry standards and best practices.

Establishing Influence Industry Leadership

AiMCO emerged from careful observation of market needs. A growing influencer space needed an industry that thrives on trust, transparency, and credibility, explains Managing Director Patrick Whitnall. 

“Having worked with many industry bodies over the years like the IAB, the UK’s Radio Centre, or this market’s Media Federation Australia, we always thought that if you have a thriving industry, having a not-for-profit body helps give an independent voice to the space,” he says.

This vision led to the formation of AiMCO, uniting 30 founding partners across the industry, from creators to PR and social teams, influencer tech platforms, holding groups, and brands. “It took us about 18 months across many meetings to get together to create the world’s first influencer Code of Practice,” Patrick reveals.

The organization now plays a crucial role in collaborating with members, leaders, and government bodies to establish industry standards. “We’ve been reacting to governments applying existing legislation to this space, and therefore, we are trying to help our members understand and navigate what those things mean but also thinking proactively about what we need to start doing,” Patrick notes. 

He highlights partnerships with regulatory bodies, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), i.e., “Australia’s FTC,” regarding their view of influencers being on watch and ensuring that disclosures are happening, and the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA), and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) which have all started adapting and applying existing legislation.

Empowering Creator Voices

The creation of the Influencer Advisory Subcommittee marks a significant development in AiMCO’s growth. “First and foremost, I think that the heart, life, and soul of our industry are the creators,” Patrick emphasizes. “They must have a voice, or at least their challenges or their views on our industry need to be heard, and that needs to be heard by our membership and non-members.”

The subcommittee members were chosen through careful consideration. “It takes a certain number of the right creators to understand the two sides of the business… the creative side of the business, of which there are many creators, and they are amazing at that, but also understanding the business side,” Patrick states.

The committee’s composition reflects a commitment to representation. “I wanted to make sure that we had diverse voices, and it didn’t have just the voices that were of the represented because we wanted to make sure there was unrepresented talent as well,” Patrick shares. “Many of those people do this as a side hustle, so we had to look at unrepresented and represented talent. We also had to look at diverse voices and diverse backgrounds.”

Maddy Spencer, subcommittee member

Key Creator Challenges

The subcommittee has identified several priority areas to support creators’ professional development and well-being:

Financial Support and Education

The organization is developing comprehensive financial resources. “We’ll be publishing a tax guide for creators to understand their tax obligations better and what’s important to them,” Patrick reveals. “We’ll have something around superannuation. What that means is pensions… and where the responsibility lies to ensure that creators receive contributions to their pensions when working with brands, agencies, and agents.”

Patrick notes that industry-specific guidance is also in development: “If you are a beauty creator, having access to our TGA guide to ensure creators know how they should be applying best practice in that space is something that should be available to them.”

Mental Health and Well-being Support

The subcommittee recognizes the unique pressures creators face. “Being a creator can be quite an isolating and independent job,” Patrick acknowledges. “The sheer pressure they put on themselves to produce high-quality content their audiences want… when you’re home alone, posting, putting yourself out there, and not only dealing with finding work but also what your audience thinks about it.”

He highlights the importance of maintaining wellness while pursuing passion: “Most people go into this because they love what they do, which is amazing. You should be loving what you do. But everything else that comes from it is sometimes the overload, which can be quite hard. Hence, I think mental health and well-being are important for creators.”

Revenue Diversification Strategies

AiMCO aims to help creators build sustainable businesses. “Creators now have more possibilities to diversify their revenue beyond just brand partnerships,” Patrick explains. “Brand partnerships aren’t always a consistent revenue, but something that enables creators to create recommendations and earn through their audience; that ensures a consistent revenue for themselves.”

Recent conversations highlight knowledge gaps: “Even a creator I was talking to yesterday wasn’t aware of ways you could generate revenue outside of the traditional brand partnership space. So again, if the subcommittee feels that is something we should champion, what does that look like? Is it a guide? Is it a talk? Is it a webinar?”

Matty J, subcommittee member 

Platform Partnerships and Influencer Industry Access

The subcommittee works to improve creators’ access to major platforms. “I’ve always believed that most independent creators are small and medium enterprises. If they are not a highly considered creator, having access or connection to a Meta platform or TikTok can be hard,” Patrick explains. “If AiMCO grows in the creator space and gathers more creators, we can have those conversations with those platforms because of that collective scale rather than as individual creators.”

He identifies opportunities to expand platform resources: “The majority of the people on the committee in some way have an engagement with TikTok and Meta, and they probably get a lot of access to educational resources,” Patrick notes. “Aside from what Meta and TikTok are doing, it comes down to what type of access more creators can get beyond those that are the top tier.”

He sees AiMCO’s role as facilitating connections: “So I think what the subcommittee would probably do, and certainly spoke about at one of the first meetings, was how do we ensure that more people can get a connection to someone or a person to help get them better educated or learn more or get access to the things that some of the top tier creators get.”

Patrick notes that this approach benefits independent creators: “We try to utilize our scale to unlock opportunities for our members rather than them feeling that they are just an unrepresented individual,” Patrick shares, adding that the goal is to help creators “be members of AiMCO to unlock maybe some education or some access or an invite to something that they wouldn’t normally be able to get involved in.”

EYstreem, subcommittee member

Content Innovation and Market Growth

Patrick also sees expanding opportunities in content distribution. “The sheer quality of the content that we’re starting to see from creators will start to expand into going beyond social media walls,” he predicts. “You’ll see it in programmatic digital out-of-home, digital media, BVOD, and digital cinema.”

He also acknowledges regional market differences: “Australia misses out on several things in terms of what other markets are seeing, such as the creator funds or TikTok Shop…  We have such great creators that I think should also be considered for those opportunities. They say things like, ‘Someone sold so much on TikTok Shop the other day in America. I’d like to be doing that.'”

Building a Supportive Creator Community

For potential AiMCO members, Patrick highlights community benefits. “This would be a place for them to connect as a community,” he explains. “I think they would understand how to apply best practices to ensure they are comfortable that they will not do the wrong thing. I think they would feel that they are educated and learning from accreditation, but also be able to connect as a group.”

He notes the value of creator gatherings: “When I see events that creators come to, that’s sometimes the only time. They show each other what they’re doing or what apps or other things they’re doing, but those opportunities are few and far between, and they may or may not get one or two of those invites a year.

“We are a not-for-profit industry body. We thrive on membership,” Patrick concludes, inviting interested creators to join. “Without a thriving membership organization, we wouldn’t have delivered half of what we’ve done. And that’s why we’re looking to grow into the space of creators.”