Thursday 17th September 2026: ‘Creator Connect’ report launches at Creator Connect event, as IAB Australia and AiMCO mark IAB Global Creator Week.
Creators now shape which brands six in ten Australians (61%) discover, with that influence rising to 85% among those under 40, new research from IAB Australia shows. The ‘Creator Connect’ research is released today at an event co-hosted with AiMCO, the Australian Influencer Marketing Council, to mark Australia’s contribution to IAB Global Creator Week, a first-of-its-kind initiative uniting IAB organisations across 29 countries to advance standards and professionalism in creator marketing.
Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, said the findings confirm creator marketing has moved from the edge of the media plan to the centre of it.
“Creator marketing is now a mainstream part of the media mix. This data shows creators genuinely shape how consumers find and weigh up brands. The job now is building on that through partnerships people see as credible and transparent,” said Le Roy.
Reputation of the promoted brand (86%) and a creator’s own expertise (84%) are the strongest factors Australians weigh before acting on a recommendation, well ahead of how entertaining the content is (74%). That influence is heavily generational, with 85% of Australians under 40 discovering brands through creators, compared with just 21% of those aged 60 to 70. Disclosure of a paid partnership does dent intent to act, though the effect is modest, and a strong brand reputation absorbs most of the cost.
IAB Australia’s research also compared Australia against four other markets – the US, the UK, India and Mexico – and found a gap in how far consumers trust artificial intelligence to surface creators. Just 23% of Australian AI users have discovered a new creator through an AI-generated result they now follow, the lowest of the five markets studied, compared with 64% in India. Everyday people sharing real experience are trusted over celebrities in every market surveyed, a reminder that scale is no substitute for credibility.
Le Roy said the global data points to a clear lesson for brands and shows where local expertise fits in.
“Consistent across all global markets is that credibility beats reach. Brands get better results backing creators with a proven track record than chasing the biggest audience. Australia is more cautious than most markets about trusting AI to surface creators, which leaves room for brands to build trust through transparency.”
The full research findings will be revealed this morning at the Creator Connect event hosted from 8am-10am at the WPP Campus in Barangaroo. The event includes a panel on the future of creator marketing moderated by Patrick Whitnall, Managing Director of AiMCO, with Shivani Maharaj of WPP Media, Nathan Powell of Fabulate and Caroline Oates of YouTube.
Patrick Whitnall, Managing Director of AiMCO, said partnering with IAB Australia for the event underscores how closely the two disciplines now sit together. “This research confirms what our members see every day. Creators now sit at the heart of how Australians discover and choose brands, and its trust, that makes that influence work. Partnering with IAB Australia gives our members access to IAB’s global data and insight at exactly the moment influencer marketing and digital advertising are converging.”
Additional findings from the report:
- Investment is following consumer behaviour. US creator marketing ad spend reached US$37 billion in 2025 and is forecast to hit US$43.9 billion in 2026, and creators are now considered an essential channel by 48% of US brands, ahead of connected TV.
- Creator and influencer ads and partnerships are the single ad format US buyers most plan to increase focus on in 2026, the top-ranked format for the second wave running, ahead of cohort-based targeting (53%) and publisher deals built on first-party data (48%). 54% of US ad decision-makers named it their top pick for increased investment this year.
- The categories where Australians say creator content matters most – travel, food and fashion – are not where the biggest US ad budgets currently go. Retail and CPG lead US spend instead, suggesting local investment still has room to catch up.
- For agencies, proving return on investment remains the top challenge in creator marketing, ahead of attribution and reach. For media owners, trust barriers such as payment security still need addressing before shoppable features can scale.
About the research:
The Creator Connect Report draws on the IAB Australia and Pureprofile Commerce and Discovery Report 2026 (Australia n=1,079, New Zealand n=877, fielded June 2026), The Creator Signal (IAB Insights Engine, powered by Attest, n=2,200 across the US, UK, Australia, India and Mexico, fielded May 2026), and IAB’s Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report (453 US advertising decision-makers, IAB and Advertiser Perceptions, 2025) and IAB’s 2026 Outlook Study: September Update (211 US advertising decision-makers, IAB, September 2026). The full report is available via the IAB Australia website.