reator endorsements, Today, influencer marketing isn’t just an afterthought; it is essential brand infrastructure and, more importantly, a powerhouse driver of retail revenue. The fragmentation problem The traditional retail playbook was predictable: Buy TV, buy outdoor, rank in search.  Now, discovery happens everywhere at once. Among Gen Z, 64 per cent use TikTok as a primary search engine, often searching within seconds of opening the app. If your brand isn’t appearing organically in these cultural conversations, you are, in effect, invisible where the actual discovery is taking place.   The problem is that many brands still treat creators as distributors of ‘ads’ rather than strategic partners who own the trust of specific communities. When measurement frameworks are murky, brands fall into the virality trap, chasing short-term spikes that feel like success but don’t contribute to durable growth. From ‘social experiments’ to intelligent influence One model, which we call intelligent influence, shifts the focus from chasing likes to delivering tangible business growth backed by real-time evidence. For retail, this means moving creator marketing from the periphery to the centre of the strategic mix. The goal shouldn’t be to ‘rent’ temporary attention, but to build a long-term competitive advantage, which requires a shift in how we measure impact. Instead of just reach, we look at deeper measures such as Share of Voice (SOV), Sentiment, Share of Model, Applications and more as leading indicators of market share. When you own the conversation in your category, you aren’t just winning a campaign, you’re winning revenue. This isn’t just our theory, it’s a proven strategy of market effectiveness. As identified by Les Binet and Peter Field using the IPA Databank, 10 points of excess share of voice (ESOV) results in about 0.5 per cent market share growth a year. In the high-stakes world of retail, where even a 0.1 per cent shift in market share can represent hundreds of millions in revenue, maintaining that positive ESOV gap through creator-led visibility is no longer optional. Finding there is more to the metrics To make influencer marketing perform at this level, retail brands must embrace a data-rich approach that brings clarity and accountability to the channel. However, true intelligence in this space is about more than just post-campaign reporting; it is about suitability, compliance, and the rigorous processes used to execute. Data science allows us to map community dynamics and vet creators with scientific precision. It ensures that the creative narrative isn’t just popular, but safe and effective for the brand. Without these robust, data-led processes, brands risk reputational and financial damage. We saw an example of this recently with PhotobookShop, which the ACCC hit with $39,600 in penalties. The regulator issued infringement notices after the brand commissioned influencers for reviews without disclosing gifted products and substantively edited those reviews to remove negative feedback. This demonstrates that both compliance and authenticity are critical in protecting brand equity. Real intelligence involves using custom technology to connect discovery, delivery and measurement, so you know the true business impact of every dollar spent, within a fully compliant operating model. Evidence in action At Hypetap, we have seen this play out with global clients like Depop. When Depop wanted to accelerate US growth, we didn’t just look for cool creators. We used data science to identify a social search opportunity where Gen Z was using Instagram and TikTok over traditional search for fashion discovery. By engineering creator-led ‘Shop Drops’, we turned wardrobe clear-outs into revenue drivers. The impact? Millions of organic impressions, a dominant share of voice, and a significant lift in user sign-ups. The data-led path forward To make influencer marketing perform at this level, retail brands must embrace a data-rich reporting structure that brings clarity and accountability to the channel. To understand what works, the use of AI-powered image recognition and caption analysis underpinned by first-party data is key. The test for CMOs is to challenge their team and agency partners to stop guessing where to play. Use data-driven insights to find the whitespace in your category and treat creators as the specialists who can navigate it successfully and directly engage your target audience. Key takeaways for the retail funnel: Consistency over virality: Brands grow through repeated exposure and presence, not isolated spikes in reach. Social search is the new SEO: If you aren’t visible in creator-led conversations, you’re missing the primary search engine for shoppers of all ages. Accountability is mandatory: Use custom technology to connect discovery, delivery and measurement so you know the true business impact of every dollar spent. Influencer marketing is no longer the ‘Wild West’. It is a sophisticated, scientific, and commercially driven channel. For retail brands looking to defend their market position and drive meaningful growth, it’s time to move beyond influence as an afterthought and start investing in it as a core revenue engine. Case study: Depop US Growth Background: In 2025, Depop faced a significant challenge accelerating its footprint in the US circular fashion resale market. The category was dominated by eBay, which held between 50 per cent to 95 per cent of social-led share of voice throughout the year. Objectives: The brief required moving Depop from ‘always-on’ inspiration to tangible user acquisition. The team aimed to disrupt the hierarchy through measurable organic growth and dominate social search, to establish Depop as the most culturally resonant platform in the US. Strategy: Using Hypetap Intelligence, we identified that Gen Z and Millennial audiences were bypassing traditional search engines for TikTok and Instagram discovery. The ‘Taste Recognises Taste’ strategy targeted these demographics by focusing on Shop Drops to create a sense of urgency. Execution: Running from September to December 2025, the campaign empowered 24 influencers to ‘drop’ their wardrobes at specific times. This leveraged shock value and emotional hooks, such as one creator pricing items at $1 to generate instant hype.Results: The campaign achieved a total reach of 54.8 million and generated 9.5 million organic impressions. Depop surged to take the majority share of voice in November, overtaking long-term category leaders. The activation delivered over 67,000 link clicks and a 5.6 per cent click-to-sign up conversion rate.