• Australian influencers are signing more deals with international and domestic brands as Australia has lifted the harshest COVID-19 restrictions.
• Influencer agency Cape’s Dr Brent Coker said creators are free to work with companies to create content, unencumbered by lockdowns or fearing a backlash for ignoring public health measures.
• He says that even audiences under lockdown are happy to engage with influencers who aren’t, noting that people are following creators out of aspiration rather than just relatability.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

With COVID-19 all but eliminated in Australia, things are good — particularly if you’re an influencer.

Australian creators are picking up more business from local and international brands as some of their overseas counterparts remain restricted by the pandemic, according to one Australian influencer agency.

Dr Brent Coker is the director of influencer management at Cape, and he said business has been booming recently.

“We’re definitely seeing an uptick in requests from local and overseas, particularly from Asian countries looking for influencer help,” he told Business Insider Australia.

Coker said that some public health measures are placing limits on what influencers and brands can do.

Typically, influencers will create content that they disseminate on their channels, while often providing syndication rights for the business to use that content for advertisements in their own channels.

Influencers can’t influence their audience if they’re unable to make content in the first place — something that’s restricted by lockdowns and venue restrictions.

“We had a client recently open a new restaurant. So we want to get one of our fashion influencers to go there, sip on a martini, and push that through social,” he said.

“If they’re locked down, they can’t do that. And that’s one of the most effective ways for restaurants to make content.”

Compared with many other countries, Australia has emerged remarkably well from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Coker, this has presented an opportunity for Australian influencers to work like they did pre-pandemic, while some of their international competition remain restricted or, if not, face a potential backlash from audiences for shirking responsible behaviours.

During earlier parts of the pandemic, Coker says the agency wondered if there would be a backlash from audiences seeing influencers’ content.

“Is it the case that consumers in lockdown, they want to see other people lockdown? That they want to see them doing things that they relate to?”

But what they found was that audiences didn’t mind — as long as creators weren’t shirking public health rules — and this interest showed through their engagement statistics.

“We didn’t see anyone get cancelled for going on holidays. We didn’t find any more unfollows, the engagement is the same. We think it’s because audiences don’t mind aspirational content,” he said.

If anything, Coker thinks the light restrictions makes Australian influencers even more enviable — and therefore more interesting.

“Why do audiences follow these influencers? Because they love being inspired. Even if they can’t be on holiday, it lets them simulate it in their own mind and imagine that one day they will act towards me,” Coker said.

“Like ecommerce, COVID-19 has put a fuel on that fire.”

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