Melanie Spencer: Thompson Spencer co-founder and CEO on the new data revealing what Kiwi influencers really earn

Many people dream of becoming social media influencers - but the reality is a lot less glamorous. 

According to new data from the IRD, only 60 people in New Zealand are working full-time as influencers, with the average annual income being $46,000.

Thompson Spencer co-founder and CEO Melanie Spencer is surprised by these statistics.

"We have influencers earning well over $10,000 per piece of content... we've got an influencer that's earned $30,000-$40,000 this year and we're only halfway through."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, it turns out being an influencer is not quite
the dream career we all may have thought. According to IID,
only about sixty people in the country are working as
influencers full time and the average income is only about
forty six thousand dollars a year and our context for context,
the minimum wage full time can earn forty eight thousand
dollars a year. Melanie Spencer is co founder and CEO

(00:22):
of marketing agency Thompson Spencer and with us. Hey Melanie, Hello, Heather,
how are you. I'm very well, Thank you? Does it
surprise you? Did you already know that these people weren't
really on the big dollars?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
This information surprises me, to be honest, because we know
of influencers earning a lot more than that, and often
they supplement their salary for influencer content. So I'm just
not sure about the accuracy of this information.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Are they well? This raises the question, are the influencer
you're aware of paying their taxes?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
They are? They are?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
How much is the So give me the top dollar
that you're aware of an influencer earning.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh, look, we have influencers earning well over ten thousand
dollars per piece of content, and that kind of equates.
We've got an influencer that's earned already forty two thousand
dollars this year, and that's you know, we're only halfway through,
so you know they are earning a lot more for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, but again, if we're sort of like we're coming
up three quarters the way through the year, they've earned
forty two thousand, and then we're looking at them maybe
earning seventy to eighty thousand. Right, Still not Kardashian all stuff,
is it?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's still not Kardashian levels. But there are some some
influences that we know of that are earning in the hundreds.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
For Are we counting all the free stuff they get
as well, like the swimming pools and all that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Probably not, probably not, but they do. They do have
to state when when they get free stuff, and it
is it is one hundred percent rule when they put
content up whether they've been gifted something interesting.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Hey, Melanie, thank you appreciate it. Melanie Spencer, co founder
and CEO of Tom Suspencer. For more from Heather Duplessy,
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks the'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio