Creator Flow took the stage at State of Social Perth at Optus Stadium, in front of a full house of marketers.
Our session, "In Praise of Bad Footage," was led by Ama Silva, Creator Flow's Director of Marketing and Operations.
What we covered
The argument: unpolished creator content now outperforms produced ads, and the brands winning on paid social are the ones that have built systems to produce it constantly.
It opened with how we got here. Static feeds trained us to scroll, memes trained us to relate, and the video feed trained us to stay. Even how we text went from "K" to emoji to gifs to stickers. If a text message needs that much nuance to feel real, an ad does too.
From there, three ideas:
Creative is the new targeting. Meta's Andromeda reads the ad itself and picks which ones to show in milliseconds, before the auction. Content shot on a phone, sound on, face to camera, delivers 16% lower CPA and 29% higher conversion (Meta, AppsFlyer & Dentsu).
Fatigue is a supply problem. By the fourth repeated exposure, conversion likelihood drops 45% (Analytics at Meta). More budget won't fix a content shortage.
Systems beat campaigns. Keep running campaigns, but make sure each one feeds a loop that keeps producing: source creators, produce content, test, identify winners, scale, and feed the insights back in.
The market context made the point land: Australian brands spent A$830M on creator marketing last year, heading past A$1B in 2026 (Meltwater & We Are Social, Digital 2026).
Leading the conversation on UGC
Creator Flow sits between creators and the brands and agencies who brief them, which gives us a clear view of what's working in paid social and what isn't. With more than 6,000 creator videos delivered across Australia and New Zealand, we see it as our job to share that view openly. Taking the stage is one way we help marketers understand how UGC is changing everyday marketing, not just big campaign moments.
