Over 82% of all Australians were on social media in 2022 — of these users, 38% of Australian social media accounts followed influencers, while 60% followed retailers, and 65% followed brands. Australian social media influencers are important for a brand for many reasons — brands can partner with influencers to increase their reach and find new audiences who might not be following your organization, leverage the trust, community and high engagement many influencers have, and maximize marketing budgets by tapping into nano and micro influencers.
In this article, we'll dive deep into the Australian digital landscape spotlighting:
- What makes a creator a top influencer?
- The top 15 Australian creators by growth.
- The 10 most followed Australian influencers.
- How to work with top creators.
What Makes a Creator A Top Influencer?
Many creators and influencers, including celebrities, have large followings — but how do you know which influencer is right for your strategy? Brands can tap into their most impactful relationships to find key metrics and creator attributes to determine which influencers are the best fit. These metrics include:
- Followers: While a creator with millions of followers has a large reach, this isn’t necessarily always best for your brand. Brands should take this into account but also look at nano and micro-influencers, who tend to garner more meaningful engagement with their community than mega-influencers.
- Brand Partnerships: Brands should look at past brands and campaigns influencers have done in the past — not only should they look for what type of content they made, but how reputable and respected the brands are.
- Engagement: It’s helpful to see how engaged a creator’s audience is. Brands should look at likes, shares, reposts and comments.
- Brand Authenticity: Does a partnership feel organic? To gauge whether a creator is a good fit, look at their tone, voice and audience demographics to ensure it’s a great fit.
- Audience Perception: Use tools like social listening to review what users say about a creator and sentiment analysis to look at how they feel about a particular creator.
Top 15 Australian Creators (Based on Growth)
While many Australian brands may tap into influencers outside of the country, there are numerous benefits to working with local creators. Homegrown creators can uniquely resonate with specific demographics, resulting in campaigns that drive deeper, more meaningful engagement. In 2024, the Australian influencer market size was a staggering 21.1 billion dollars, up over 4 billion dollars from 2022. Brands that don’t develop meaningful partnerships with local influencers risk missing out on ultra-engaged audiences.
Local influencers, particularly nano and micro-influencers, earn more engagement because the Instagram algorithm, TikTok algorithm and other social media algorithms prioritize content based on a user's proximity, amplifying locally relevant content.
With the evident advantages of aligning with local, Australian influencer talent, brands ought to stay informed about the leading creators in this space. Allow us to introduce the top Australian influencers that lifestyle, fashion, beauty, skincare, wellness, family and travel industries should have on their radar in 2024.
1. @yumika_thorne_
- Followers: 138K
- Creator Type: Family, Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 1,590%
Yumika is a family and lifestyle blogger. She showcases style inspiration for the whole family, with a bright, colorful, captivating feed. Yumika’s experienced the most growth — at a staggering 1,590% — of all Australian creators we analyzed.
2. @louiburke
- Followers: 89.2K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 955%
Loui Burke’s Instagram feed is full of lifestyle tips from how to keep flowers fresh longer to table-setting tips to skin and hair routines. His feel is a wonderful balance of entertaining tips, fashion and more; with a consistent look and feel throughout the entire feed.
3. @shivvanity
- Followers: 91.6K
- Creator Type: Skincare & Beauty
- Growth Rate: 912%
Shivani’s Instagram features the latest and greatest beauty products — her feed features an array of impressive product flatlays, while her Reels content shows the look and feel of beauty products, a great way for audiences to get a sense of the tactile experience of a product.
4. @mayaakaate
- Followers: 56K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 830%
Maya shares hair tutorials, fashion inspiration and more in her beautifully cohesive feed — full of neutrals with minimal pops of color, Maya is the perfect creator for anyone interested in ‘that girl’ aesthetic content.
5. @byemmaleah
- Followers: 125K
- Creator Type: Skincare & Beauty
- Growth Rate: 679%
Emilia’s Instagram focuses on lifestyle content with a big emphasis on beauty and skincare. Her feed is perfect for anyone looking for tutorials or tips to store and organize their products.
6. @jadeevice
- Followers: 120K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 572%
Jade is known for her TikTok content but also has a strong presence on Instagram. Her feed mostly features Reel trends, including dance challenges, product testing and more.
7. @chanelmcclarty
- Followers: 39.6K
- Creator Type: Fashion
- Growth Rate: 518%
Australian fashion influencer, Chanel’s Instagram feed is full of luxury inspiration. She shares outfit ideas, her favorite luxury brand advertisements and of course, fashion inspiration.
8. @arin.things
- Followers: 32K
- Creator Type: Beauty, Wellness, Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 473%
Australian beauty influencer Arin, is a beauty creator who focuses on everything from her weekly hair routine, to her favorite makeup products and heaps of skincare reviews. In the past year, her feed has transitioned from clean, simple product shots to more posts and Reels that feature her.
9. @roxsolway
- Followers: 30.6K
- Creator Type: Family
- Growth Rate: 255%
Rox is a family and lifestyle influencer who focuses on raising her children through conscious and connected parenting. Her feed features family shots and plenty of advice and wisdom for parents. Rox’s Instagram is a great example of content that uses a variety of fonts and filters, yet still looks cohesive at a glance.
10. @andydavie
- Followers: 62.6K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 238%
Andy is a lifestyle influencer that features a blend of product endorsements and outfit inspirations. His feed is further enriched by his adventures around Australia swimming, biking and more set against the beautiful backdrop of the Gold Coast.
11. @champagnesilvoisplait_
- Followers: 59.2K
- Creator Type: Fashion
- Growth Rate: 215%
Rachael brings fashion to life on Instagram, effortlessly curating diverse outfits. Not only does she display innovative ways to style clothing, but she also gives a glimpse into her personal styling sessions with clients. It's the ideal feed for both professional stylists and those keen on reinventing their existing wardrobe with fresh twists.
12. @alanahchannon
- Followers: 8.9K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 215%
Alanah’s Instagram feed is colorful, fun and appeals to a variety of ages. Far from being pigeonholed, her feed is a delightful medley of, food photos, personal style content, festival highlights and so much more.
13. @janetnimundele
- Followers: 27.3K
- Creator Type: Fashion
- Growth Rate: 163%
Janet is a model and creator with a refreshingly colorful feed, sharing outfit inspiration with a host of street-style snaps. Her feed is a great source for users interested in styling suits and dresses who aren’t afraid of color.
14. @alixmacrae
- Followers: 27.6K
- Creator Type: Travel
- Growth Rate: 162%
Australian travel influencer, Alix’s feed is full of bright, sunny traveling inspiration. Whether her adventures take her to Queensland, Melbourne or outside of Australia, you can expect a stunning array of beach content and ocean views.
15. @mackenziemcintyre
- Followers: 53.9K
- Creator Type: Lifestyle
- Growth Rate: 156%
MacKenzie’s a popular TikTok creator with a significant following on Instagram as well. His content features funny Reels, selfies and glimpses of his adventures, from festivals to Ironman challenges and more.
How To Find Australian Influencers With Dash Hudson
It can be challenging to find the right creators to partner with — to help brands in their search for the best influencers, Dash Hudson’s Relationships feature now includes an Instagram Creator Discovery tool to help you build impactful, mutually beneficial partnerships. Brands can surface influencers by factors like followers, industry, interests, geographical location and more. Enabling your team to easily find the best creators for its unique social strategy without an extensive manual search — Yes, even top Australian influencers. By tapping into creators’ ultra-engaged communities, brands can increase their reach, generate brand awareness and more.
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Top 10 Most Followed Instagram Accounts in Australia
While working with local micro and nano influencers are powerful marketing strategies for brands, recognizing the most followed Instagram personalities is equally important. Being aware of the influencer landscape enables teams to discover the types of big celebrities and mega-creators that resonate with users the most. These insights can help inform your own content, brand ambassador collaborations, creative partnerships and more.
These are the top Australian Instagram influencers:
1. @annecurtissmith
- Followers: 19.7 million
Anne Curtis Smith is an Australian model and host whose follower count has grown by 3.6 million since 2020. She shares photos from recent modeling shoots and jobs, photos with family and friends, product recommendations and more, for a curated yet diverse feed.
2. @tammyhembrow
- Followers: 17.6 million
Tammy Hembrow is a popular Australian influencer who shares her fitness routines on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok — her feed focuses on fashion and lifestyle.
3. @davidwarner31
- Followers: 10.2 million
David Warner is an Australian cricket player whose follower count has grown exponentially, earning 4.9 million followers since 2020. He shares shots from games, traveling photos and lots of family photos.
4. @danielricciardo
- Followers: 8.7 million
Daniel Riccardo is a motorsports driver with eight Grand Prix wins and 32 Formula One podiums under his belt. He shares casual photos from his daily life, and professional, hi-fi photo and video content from races.
5. @phoebejtonkin
- Followers: 8.4 million
Phoebe Tonkin is an Australian actress who’s also widely known on social media — her feed features selfies, fashion and photos from recent and past projects.
6. @bindisueirwin
- Followers: 5.6 million
Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter, follows in her father’s conservation footsteps — her feed features photos of family, animals and posts from her recent projects.
7. @savannah.clark
- Followers: 3.7 million
Savannah Clark is an Australian singer and dancer with 3.7 million Instagram followers, a 500K increase since 2020. She posts song snippets, behind-the-scenes glimpses and red-carpet appearances on her Instagram.
8. @chloe_t
- Followers: 2.7 million
Australian fitness influencer, Chloe Ting shares workout routines and inspiration in her link in bio. She experienced a burst of popularity during the pandemic with people looking for at-home workout inspiration.
9. @itsjackson
- Followers: 2.2 million
Jackson O’Doherty is a popular YouTuber with 2.65 million subscribers. On Instagram, he shares Reel snippets from his longer YouTube videos, behind-the-scenes shots and humorous selfies.
10. @robertirwinphotography
- Followers: 4.5 million
Much like his famous sister, Robert Irwin is following in his conservationist father’s footsteps. His feed features lots of Australian Zoo and animal content, selfies and more of his wildlife adventures.
How To Work With Influencers
After you select the best influencers to work with, it’s time to reach out and pitch your brand, campaign and partnership to an influencer. Here are three tips to use when initiating contact with an influencer:
1. Know The Creator
Creators can tell if a brand isn’t familiar with their content. When searching for creators to work with, you’ll already be familiar with things like their audience demographics, engagement rates and overall brand identity — creators want to partner with brands their audience will trust, they’ll use and who resonate with their overall brand identity. Showing your familiarity with their content and how your brand relates to it will help produce a strong pitch.
2. Prepare Your Pitch
Now that you’re familiar with the creator’s content, prepare and finalize your pitch. A pitch should include:
- Who your brand is and what your campaign is about.
- Past, relevant influencer campaign highlights.
- Compensation and any other budget details.
- Timelines.
- Desired goals and KPIs.
- Workflow and process.
What’s more, be sure you reach out on the correct channel — often, an influencer’s management contact is found in their bio. If not, reach out to creators on their most active channels. If they’re primarily a TikTok creator, don’t reach out via Instagram and vice versa.
3. Communicate and Collaborate
When you pitch an offer to creators, be sure to outline the workflow and process — including any communication expectations. Influencers spend around 9 hours each day on social media. Establishing communication expectations, like which stages you expect to hear from them and how often your team will reach out, will prevent both parties from being disappointed and will help keep the project on track.
This will also inform how you collaborate — when you partner with creators, you’re tapping into their network of engaged followers and their social skillset. Share your ideas, feedback and see what you can learn from the influencer experts.
FAQs
Who has the most followers in Australia?
Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) is the most followed Australian on Instagram, with 57.6 million followers. The most followed person on Instagram is Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano), with 607 million followers.
How many Australians are influencers?
There are approximately 6 million Australian influencers, which means approximately 19% of the population are influencers.
How do I find influencers in Australia?
Marketers can find Australian influencers by using tools like Dash Hudson’s Creator Discovery tool, monitoring social media for up-and-coming influencers, and tapping into audience demographics to see which accounts resonate with your target audience.
