Last night’s Food for Thought Panel Discussion featuring Jarryd Pentony (Head of PR & Content, littleBIG), Genevieve Day (Founder, Day Management) and Sarita Holland (Content Creator), offered invaluable real-world insights on how to maximise your influencer campaigns, from the point of view of the brand owner, creator and, crucially, the audience.
Here are the tangible takeaways you can use to level up your influencer marketing today.
THE TOPLINE
The landscape of influencer engagement has matured. The most successful strategies are no longer built on chance or fleeting trends, but on clear objectives, strategic data use and authentic, long-term partnerships.
1. Industry Evolution & Best Practices
Influencer engagement is no longer just a soft PR tactic; it’s also a strategic, contractual investment.
- Strategy Over Seeding: Engagement has shifted from informal “handshake” agreements to measured, data-driven partnerships. While methods still range from Gifted/Seeding to Events/Activations and Contra, Paid, Contractual Engagements are the most crucial to nail well.
- Clarity of Purpose: Success must be defined explicitly according to the campaign objective—be it brand awareness, engagement, reach or direct ROI. Brands must be unequivocally clear about the desired outcome from the outset.
- The Power of Longevity: The panel stressed the value of long-term relationships over one-off, transactional promotions. Lasting partnerships are the foundation for genuine authenticity and drive greater consumer trust. Of course, they shouldn’t be entered into until the alignment is clear and proven. Starting small with a view to a long-term relationship is smart.
2. Strategic Creative Briefs and Content Delivery
The brief is where success begins. It must balance brand control with the creative freedom that delivers authentic content.
- Detailed, Not Dictatorial: Clear, highly detailed briefs are essential, covering strict dos and don’ts, desired deliverables and compliance requirements (legal, colour, brand). However, they must also allow room for creative interpretation.
- Trust the Creator: Overly-scripted, highly-controlled campaigns tend to dampen engagement. The panel’s most critical tip is to trust the influencer to create content that matches their organic style—it consistently performs better with their audience, which means more reach and engagement in your message.
- Optimise for Discovery: Include clear direction on optimising content for social Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Geo-targeting (GEO), such as stating relevant keywords and framing the content as a direct answer to a common question (e.g., “What to eat at the Summer Night Market?”).
- Provide Upfront Feedback: Brands are advised to explicitly state feedback upfront to avoid drawn-out revision cycles, which drain resources and diminish the content’s creative impact.
3. Insights on Effective Influencer Selection
The size of the following is secondary to the quality of the audience. Your investment is in their reach and credibility.
- Go Beyond Follower Count: Current best practice is to screen influencers not just for reach or “sparkly content” but for their audience’s relevance. Essential metrics to scrutinise are:
- Demographics: Specifically the location and age of their audience.
- Content Results: Reach, views, and interactions from the last three months.
- Data-Driven Alignment: Deep-diving into an influencer’s analytics prevents misalignment between the campaign goals and their actual audience impact.
- Content as an Asset: There is increased utility in booking influencers simply to generate content, without the explicit requirement for them to post it. This high-quality content can be repurposed by the brand across paid or organic channels, with the proper contract in place of course.
4. Common Pitfalls and Actionable Advice
Marketers can achieve greater ROI by avoiding predictable mistakes and adopting current best practices.
Maximising Content Value
- Video! Video! Video! Short-form video is generally the most effective format.
- Use Visual Hooks: Visual “hooks” and TikTok-style casual shots now outperform polished, “magazine-like” content.
- Promo Codes: Promo codes and swipe-up links are best used for individual, specific products that are easily attainable (e.g., FMCG).
- Package Experiences: For regional or complex offerings (e.g., cellar doors), packaging a full experience (overnight stay, activities) significantly increases the incentive for quality influencer content.
Pitfalls to Avoid
- No Unsolicited Gifts: Sending out unsolicited gifted products is wasteful if influencers aren’t asked first, as it can lead to clashes with existing brand deals or resource wastage.
- Share Performance: An ongoing mistake: brands often don’t share campaign performance feedback with influencers, limiting the opportunity for iterative improvement.
- Check Usage Rights: Brands risk legal consequences when boosting posts with unlicensed trending music. Clear guidelines on music rights are essential when boosting or whitelisting content for ads.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The most effective campaigns are holistic, multi-channel and briefed specifically per medium – e.g., what works for TikTok differs dramatically from static Instagram.
- Should your goal be long-term, building authentic, enduring partnerships with the right influencer is more valuable than frequent one-off promotions.
- Trust, clarity and mutual respect between brands, agencies and creators lead to the best outcomes and highest content quality.
And there’s more where this free, in-person marketing goodness came from! Head here to register for the final Food for Thought Session for 2025: Balancing Brand Building With Tactical Wins with Brown Family Wine Group’s Katherine Brown.
ABOUT GENEVIEVE DAY
Genevieve is a standout leader in Australia’s marketing industry, having founded Day Management—one of the country’s very first digital talent management agencies—in 2015. A true pioneer, Genevieve has been recognised by the Australian Financial Review Fast 100 List and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for her impact. She and her team continue to set the pace for influencer marketing, working with global icons including Apple, L’Oreal Paris, Uber, and of course, littleBIG clients. In 2024, she published her debut book, The Juggle, exploring how founders and business leaders balance career and family, while sharing candid insights from her own journey as both a founder and a mother.
ABOUT SARITA HOLLAND
Sarita is a multifaceted content creator, presenter, model, and mother of three teens, brimming with energy and authenticity. Many will remember her from The Price is Right or as the wife of former AFL star Brodie Holland, but Sarita has gone on to build a loyal, engaged social media following who eagerly tune in for her thrifty fashion tips, crowd-favourite “lazy dinners,” beauty advice, travel and entertainment experiences and upbeat glimpses into family life. Sarita’s warmth and credibility have made her a truly beloved and trustworthy voice within Australia’s digital landscape.
ABOUT JARRYD PENTONY
Jarryd is littleBIG’s Head of PR & Content. With more than 10 years experience in driving PR strategies for food, drink and tourism businesses—and earning a Mumbrella PR Professional of the Year nomination along the way—he’s learned a few things. He has spearheaded strategy and campaigns for Queen Victoria Market, City of Ballarat, Brown Brothers, Devil’s Corner, Tamar Ridge, Pirie, Sovereign Hill, Melbourne Airport and international airlines, BeerFest, Pureharvest, Procal Dairies, Bippi Chilli and many others. Many of his campaigns have a large influencer component and he has seen influencer strategy grow and evolve over his career.
