Fabulate, an advertising platform that used Ai to help agencies buy social media creator content, has examined social media marketing stats on its platform during 2025 to come up with the latest trends in influencer/creator marketing.
The size of your following is no longer all that matters. Instagram is still important for product discovery, and engagement beyond a specific niche is blurring the lines of influence. Data was gathered from interactions with the top creators listed with the company.
These are the new ways of interacting with creator content in 2026, according to Fabulate:
Discovery has moved beyond follower count.
Creators with large followings still feature, but a significant share of the Fab 100 sits in the 50K-500K range, particularly on Instagram. These creators deliver a balance brands are actively seeking. They offer scale, but still feel accessible, trusted, and commercially realistic, with engagement that holds up over time. This signals a clear move away from reach for reach’s sake.
Instagram drives discovery. TikTok drives momentum.
Instagram remains the primary discovery platform inside Fabulate, where searches begin and shortlists are formed. TikTok plays a complementary role, driving cultural relevance and growth. The creators who appear most consistently across the Fab 100 are active on both platforms, showing up in ways that feel native rather than repetitive. Cross platform presence now plays a critical role in creator selection.
Family, lifestyle, and comedy dominate.
These three categories appear most frequently across searches. Family creators resonate through content that reflects modern households and real life decision making. Lifestyle creators stand out for their flexibility, moving easily across wellness, beauty-adjacent content, home, and everyday routines. Comedy and skit creators continue to punch above their weight, delivering high shareability and attention that doesn’t feel like advertising.
Engagement is beating strict niche definition.
Search behaviour shows that people are filtering less by category alone and more by signals like average views, consistency, and audience response. As a result, many creators in the Fab 100 blur category lines. Creators who build broader worlds and evolve their content are being searched more frequently than those who stay tightly boxed in.
Australian audience relevance matters.
A strong Australian audience skew appears consistently across the Fab 100. Audience quality and geography are increasingly prioritised over headline numbers.
Consistency is outperforming virality.
Many creators on the Fab 100 didn’t grow through a single viral moment. Instead, they built steady momentum through consistent posting, clear themes, and long term trust. Reliability continues to outperform one-off spikes in attention.
A recent report from Futuresource Consulting notes similar trends. The Futurescope research draws on market research and direct feedback from manufacturers, resellers, associations, and end users to provide a strategic framework for enterprises and brands seeking to understand and engage with the creator market.
Online Content Creation: Social media’s dominance is reshaping video consumption, with audiences favouring authentic, organic content. YouTube has overtaken ITV as the UK’s second most-watched media source.
Creator Economy: The global creator economy is booming, fuelled by individuals seeking to monetise creativity and move beyond traditional employment. 34% of content creators now make a living from social media.
Equipment Evolution: As pro PTZ cameras disrupt traditional camcorder demand in studios, education, and enterprise, content creators represent a vast new frontier for video gear manufacturers. The challenge is to encourage creators to upgrade from smartphones to dedicated video equipment.
Natural Progression: The creator journey typically involves a shift to higher-quality gear as success grows, making this transition both possible and inevitable.
Fabulate’s top 10 creators are:
Fabulate is an AI powered platform designed specifically for creator marketing. From brand safety and vetting to workflow, analytics, and approvals, everything lives in one place. This creates faster decisions, smoother campaigns, and performance you can actually measure.