Lydia Feely.
Our industry is accustomed to media or creative pitches, but over the past two years, we’ve seen a marked rise in social-only pitches, many with significant budgets, writes Lydia Feely of TrinityP3. She argues this is a clear sign that the Australian social/ creator economy is maturing.
As a sector, we’re used to headlines like: “Brand X has media buying up for pitch” or “Brand Y is looking for a new creative partner.” But what has stood out to me is the growth in pitches focused solely on social media, and some come with very sizable spends in the tens of millions.
Australia is playing catch-up to the UK and the US in the influencer/social space. In those more mature overseas markets, marketers have long since stopped treating social media as simply another paid media or downstream channel. Instead, they now see it as a discipline in its own right with dedicated budgets and agency selection processes.
Momentum is clearly building here, too. Increasingly, brands in Australia are separating the social remit, allocating it to a distinct agency or department, rather than tucking it under a general creative or media brief. This year alone, TrinityP3 has managed several such pitches, including those for high-profile brands seeking specialist capabilities in this part of their media spend.
According to Statista, 2025 marked the year the Australian creator economy surpassed the $1 billion mark. What’s most interesting is that it’s not just digital-native or youth-oriented brands leading the way.
We’re seeing established brands in quick service restaurants, automotive, FMCG, and loyalty programs lean into social and creator content far more than they would have just two years ago. These mature brands are treating social as a central discipline, alongside traditional media buying and creative.
One reason is that social media has evolved into one of the few channels capable of influencing the entire funnel. It can drive brand awareness and salience at scale, foster genuine communities and dialogue in a way traditional media can’t, whilst at the same time delivering conversion and performance outcomes.
Marketers tell me one driver of this shift is the sense that brands must move faster in the social space. To borrow a now-cliché phrase, they need to move “at the speed of culture.”
We all know a TikTok trend can rise and fall in days, if not hours. That reality forces brands to operate at a pace where trends, memes, and moments can be scaled and capitalised on almost overnight. Yet, many agencies and brands are not structured to respond in real-time.
Delivering at that speed requires agencies, or in-house teams, with the right structures, talent, and creative agility. This is why stand-alone pitches for social media make sense: not every creative or media agency can deliver with that level of responsiveness.
Major holding companies are also shifting. Publicis, for example, launched Influential, a clear signal that they see sufficient scale in social, influencer, and creator marketing to justify specialist agencies.
Another trend driving pitches is the demand for help scaling influencer marketing. Working with creators can be time-consuming and complex, from briefing and approvals to reporting and brand safety. Interestingly, in the past 12 months, platforms like Fabulate and Hypetap have introduced AI tools to streamline different aspects of the process.
All of this is leading brands to call for separate social pitches, underlining how central not only social media but the broader creator economy has become to marketing strategies.
Social Media and influencer marketing is no longer peripheral. The trend towards social-only pitches highlights a broader marketer focus on the creator economy and the urgency to avoid being outpaced in a world that moves far faster than it did even 18 months ago.
Brands that get their social and creator strategies right won’t just win clicks. They’ll future-proof their relevance in a market where cultural resonance, brand salience and the ability to move quickly increasingly equals market share.
Lydia Feely is the General Manager of TrinityP3