Half of Australian creators (51%) have walked away from a brand deal they felt was inauthentic, according to new research from Australia and New Zealand’s experts in community-first influence, Social Soup. Among creators with more than 10,000 followers, that figure climbs to 66%.
The findings are a first look at Social Soup’s 2026 creator research, to be revealed in full at the company’s annual Influence Upfronts in Melbourne this morning and Sydney on 28 May.
Based on a survey of 265 creators conducted in March this year, the research shows Australian marketers are leaving significant revenue on the table, even as brand investment in influence reaches new highs.
Reasons cited by creators for turning down a brand deal include being asked to fake before-and-after results, deliver overly scripted content, and promote products that didn’t fit their lives.
Seventy-one per cent of creators say they understand their audiences better than the brands briefing them, with under-estimation of the time, effort and creative skill required to deliver effective content named as creators’ number one frustration with brands. Ninety per cent of creators are asking brands to work with them on an ongoing basis rather than one-off partnerships.
Social Soup Founder and CEO, Sharyn Smith, said: “Influence is finally getting the budget it has long deserved, but brands need to better understand the communities they are collaborating with.
“The findings from our research should reframe how marketers think about their influence investment: creators are selling trust but brands are still behaving as if they’re buying content. Half of creators are turning down deals that don’t ring true in order to protect the audience relationships that brands are paying to access.
“At Social Soup, we’ve spent 18 years building a community of more than 200,000 real people, and what this research makes clear is that community is the engine of real influence. The brands planning long-term ecosystems around how they build community, including tapping into long-term creator communities, will see results
