Data over hype: How Hypetap is bringing commercial rigour to creator marketing

"We've been storing data since day one, even story frames that disappear after 24 hours," says Chris Davis, Managing Director at Hypetap. "There's no other influencer agency globally that has that level of data."

It's a bold claim, but one backed by 13 years of expertise. Founded in Melbourne in 2013, before "influencer" had even entered the marketing lexicon, Hypetap has steadily built a robust reputation as an agency, backed by what might be one of the industry's most comprehensive creator intelligence platforms. Now, as the business expands into the UK and US, it is bringing a data-first approach to a sector still grappling with how to measure creator marketing's commercial value.

Marketers have spent years trying to justify creator budgets beyond vanity metrics, while CFOs increasingly expect measurable business outcomes. Hypetap's answer is Hypetap Intelligence, a proprietary platform storing more than 10 billion data points that underpins everything from creator selection to campaign measurement.

"We want to tie back to the business objectives of the clients we work with," Davis explains. "It's not just a case of reporting on likes, comments and engagements because anybody can do that. We can speak in a business’ language, in a commercial language."

From awareness to acquisition

That commercial fluency has translated into tangible results. When Hypetap helped Depop launch into the US market, the platform went from unknown to number two in its category within a year. Alongside the campaign, Hypetap tracked share of voice and competitor activity, producing monthly insight reports for Depop's senior leadership.

"We can tell them what others in the space are doing, the type of strategy they're implementing," Davis says. "Because of all the cost data we have, we can infer how much competitors are spending each month."

For Colgate-Palmolive in Australia, that category intelligence became equally valuable. Hypetap's reporting revealed that a competitor's messaging was prompting consumers to ask different questions, questions Colgate wasn't answering. Those findings informed the communications team's wider strategy across other channels.

"The comment section under content is a gold mine," Davis says. "That's the stuff we really drill down into at the end of every campaign because that's the stuff we need to address."

Rather than treating creator campaigns as isolated activations, Hypetap uses them to uncover consumer insight that can influence broader business decisions.

The technology underneath

Thirty per cent of Hypetap's workforce is made up of developers and data scientists - an unusual ratio for a creative agency. It's a deliberate decision. Rather than relying on third-party platforms, Hypetap has spent years building technology around the way it delivers campaigns.

"We've done thousands of campaigns, worked with thousands of creators, worked with hundreds of brands," Davis says. "Over time, we've established our own process, which means we can tailor the technology to exactly how we want to deliver campaigns."

The platform combines AI-powered visual recognition, speech-to-text transcription, sentiment analysis and brand safety tools to help brands understand creator content at scale. It can identify themes within content, distinguish between positive and negative sentiment in context, and flag potential reputational risks before campaigns begin.

That capability has already influenced major brand decisions. When Pepsi Australia was considering a roster of high-profile creators, Hypetap's background checks prompted the brand to walk away from several options before the agency identified more suitable alternatives.

The platform has also removed hours of manual work. Tasks such as building creator recommendation decks, which once took teams several hours, can now be completed almost instantly.

"We can spend more time behind the strategy, behind the thinking of finding the right creators," Davis says. "Then we add them to the list, press the button and we're done."

Challenging the micro-influencer orthodoxy

As Hypetap expands internationally, its historical dataset is beginning to challenge some of the creator economy's most widely accepted assumptions.

"A lot of brands are now saying 'We just need to work with 100 micro-influencers and then put loads of paid media behind their content,'" Davis says. "What we're finding from the data is that only the top 1% of nano creators actually perform well in branded content, whereas if you look at mega-tier influencers, that number increases to 46%."

Rather than advocating one creator tier over another, Davis argues that effective creator strategy depends on matching the right mix of talent to the audience and campaign objective.

The agency has reached similar conclusions around organic and paid content. Recent research has led some brands to apply paid media learnings to organic creator briefs, expecting creators to mention brands within the opening seconds of a video.

"That's not the right strategy," Davis argues. "What we found in our data is that when it comes to organic content, slightly longer content, 30 seconds plus, outperforms shorter content. The creator has longer to tell that story and weave the brand in more naturally."

For Hypetap, the answer is not one format over another, but recognising that organic and paid content require different creative strategies.

Culture built for growth

Despite its technology focus, Hypetap places just as much emphasis on culture. Davis says employee engagement scores regularly exceed 97%, something he attributes to a shared sense of ownership across the business.

"We all live and breathe the values, which I know sounds a bit cheesy, but we all really buy into what we're doing here," he says. "As long as we can all say that we're doing the best work we possibly can, we have a great time."

That mindset has been particularly important as the company has entered new markets.

"We've had to act like a brand new agency even though we've got all this heritage," Davis says. "That startup mentality means the team all live and breathe Hypetap as a brand. Everyone feels like they're contributing to the growth."

Where creator marketing is heading

Davis is adamant that creator marketing is no longer simply another media channel.

"Creators fuel everything else in the mix," he says. "We love the idea that creator is becoming more integral to everything."

As brands increasingly involve creators in product development, creative strategy, live events and advertising, Davis believes the industry's future will belong to those who can demonstrate genuine commercial impact rather than simply report engagement metrics.

"I've been doing this for 12 years and I've seen that evolution," he reflects. "I feel like we're finally starting to get to that point where brands are starting to see the value of creators."

For brands still treating creator marketing as an afterthought, Hypetap's message is straightforward: define business objectives early, invest in strategy and let data guide decisions rather than assumptions.

"We try to make sure that we back up everything we say with data so that every decision is objective rather than subjective," Davis says. "That's how we build trust with clients. That's what makes the work more seamless."

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