Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO). (2022).

AiMCO.

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The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) submitted this report to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in 2022 as part of the Digital Platforms Inquiry, focusing on social media advertising and influencer marketing. AiMCO, established in 2019, represents more than 100 member businesses across the influencer ecosystem and has developed one of the world’s first industry codes of practice (2020) to foster trust, transparency, and accountability.

The submission highlights the rapid growth of influencer advertising in Australia, noting that the country ranks as the fifth largest social media advertising market globally. Platforms such as Instagram (95% of campaigns) and TikTok (75%) dominate influencer activity, with YouTube and Facebook also significant. AiMCO underscores how platform-specific audience profiles drive campaign objectives—for instance, TikTok for youth engagement and virality, Instagram for lifestyle content, and YouTube for long-form video.

The report emphasizes three key themes: (1) transparency and accountability through standardized measurement, (2) platform differentiation, with TikTok’s algorithmic discovery offering unique reach potential, and (3) regulatory considerations, including age-gating for alcohol marketing and concerns over scams, misleading content, and algorithmic opacity. Measurement challenges persist due to inconsistent definitions of impressions, reach, and engagement across platforms, complicating cross-channel evaluation.

By advocating best-practice standards and regulatory dialogue, AiMCO positions itself as an industry leader in shaping ethical influencer marketing. The submission contributes to literature on governance of digital advertising, highlighting tensions between industry self-regulation and government oversight in protecting consumers while enabling innovation.