Latest / Influencer Marketing with Fexingo: Creators, Sponsorships, and Modern Endorsement Deals / The Unpaid Labor Behind Influencer Campaigns
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this number that's been stuck in my head since I read a report from the Influencer Marketing Benchmarks survey. The average influencer spends something like 15 hours on unpaid pitch work for every single paid post they eventually land. Fifteen hours of decks, emails, concept boards, revisions — all before they see a dollar. Luna: And that's for the ones who actually land the deal. How many pitches never even get a response? Lucas: That's the part that's really brutal. The same survey found that for every ten pitches, maybe one or two turn into a paid conversation. The rest just vanish into a brand's inbox. So you've got creators essentially doing free consulting work at scale. Luna: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — a tip on negotiating a deal, a better way to pitch yourself — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a real difference. And it keeps everything ad-free, so we can keep digging into numbers like these. Anyway — back to that 15-hour figure. I wanted to ground this in a real example. I spoke with a beauty micro-influencer — let's call her Maya — who has about 12,000 followers on Instagram and another 4,000 on TikTok. Luna: So solidly in the micro tier. Not a household name but definitely has an engaged audience. Lucas: Exactly. Maya decided to track every single hour she spent on brand outreach for three months. She sent out 47 pitches — personalized emails, DM intros, even some through influencer platforms. She heard back from 12 brands. Six asked for more information. Two sent her a product. One gave her a paid brief. And that one paid deal? It was for $500 for a single Instagram Reel. Luna: So she spent roughly 80 hours of work to earn $500. That's about $6.25 an hour — before taxes, before the cost of producing the content. Lucas: And she's not an outlier. The Creator Labor Coalition did a study last year and found that the median effective hourly rate for influencers under 50,000 followers is just $8.40 when you factor in all the unpaid labor. That's below minimum wage in most states. Luna: I think a lot of people outside the industry assume that once you get a sponsorship, you're set. But the reality is that the pitch process is a second job. And it's one that favors creators who can afford to work for free. Lucas: That's a really important point. Because if you're a creator without savings, or you're a parent, or you're working another full-time job, the time cost of pitching might simply be too high. So the people who end up getting those brand deals are disproportionately creators who already have some financial cushion. That biases the whole system. Luna: There's also a power dynamic issue. Brands hold all the cards. They can demand spec work, mood boards, multiple revisions, even free product trials — all before committing to a single dollar. And creators, especially smaller ones, are afraid to push back because they don't want to lose the opportunity. Lucas: Right. And that's where I've seen some interesting pushback. A few agencies and platforms are starting to build in minimum standards. For example, the platform Aspire has a feature where brands can submit a 'brief fee' — a small payment, say $50 or $100 — just to enter into a serious conversation with a creator. It's not a full deal, but it compensates the creator for the time to read the brief and respond thoughtfully. Luna: Is that catching on? I know CreatorIQ also rolled out something called 'pitch pay' earlier this year for certain campaigns. Lucas: It's still niche. I talked to a product manager at Aspire who said that only about 12% of brands using their platform opt into the brief fee feature. The rest view it as an unnecessary cost. But the creators who receive those fees report feeling more valued and engaged. And the conversion rate from brief to actual deal is higher — because the brand has skin in the game. Luna: So it's not just altruism. There's a business case for paying for pitches. Better quality responses, more serious creators. Lucas: Exactly. And then there's a more radical approach. Some creator unions and collectives are pushing for standard 'pitch fees' across the industry. The Creator Labor Coalition has proposed a model where any brand request that takes more than 30 minutes to fulfill should come with a minimum $50 fee. They're trying to get it adopted by major platforms. Luna: But that's a hard sell to brands who are used to getting free labor. Especially when there are thousands of creators willing to pitch for free just to get their foot in the door. Lucas: That's the classic collective action problem. No single creator wants to be the one who says no to a pitch fee, because they're afraid another creator will say yes. But if enough creators demand it, or if a platform makes it standard, the norm can shift. Luna: I've also seen some creators try a different approach: they just don't pitch at all. They focus on building their audience and wait for brands to come to them. But that's a luxury that takes years to achieve, if ever. Lucas: Right, and even then, the inbound requests often come with their own unpaid expectations. I remember a case where a creator with 200,000 followers was asked to participate in a 'brand audition' — essentially creating a sample post for free — for a chance to be selected for a campaign. They spent four hours on it and didn't get the deal. Luna: Spec work like that is common in creative industries — graphic designers, copywriters — but it's been normalized in influencer marketing because the barriers to entry are low and the supply of creators is huge. Lucas: And that's exactly why I think this is a structural issue, not just a matter of individual creators being more savvy. The entire incentive system is built on creators absorbing risk and labor upfront. Until there's a mechanism to compensate that labor, the industry is essentially subsidized by creator goodwill. Luna: So what's the path forward? Are we going to see more regulation, or platform-driven solutions, or is this something that will just persist? Lucas: I think we'll see a mix. The FTC has already been tightening disclosure rules, and it's not a huge leap to imagine them taking an interest in unpaid labor if it becomes a competitive fairness issue. But I think the more immediate change will come from creator education and collective action. There's a growing number of creator communities — like the Influencer Union and the Creator Guild — that are sharing rate cards and openly discussing what to charge for pitch work. Luna: Transparency is the antidote to exploitation. When creators know what others are charging, they're less likely to undercut themselves. Lucas: Exactly. And there's also a role for brands that want to be seen as ethical. A few smaller DTC brands have started publicly stating that they pay a pitch fee for any brief that requires more than a simple email response. It's a differentiator for them — a way to attract better creators and build goodwill. Luna: That's smart branding. 'We respect your time' is a powerful message. Lucas: It is. And it's measurable. One brand I looked at — a skincare company — reported that after introducing a $75 pitch fee, they saw a 40% increase in the quality of pitches they received, and the conversion rate from pitch to paid post doubled. So the fee actually saved them money in the long run because they spent less time sifting through low-effort submissions. Luna: That's the kind of data point that might actually convince skeptical brand managers. It's not just a cost — it's an investment in efficiency. Lucas: Right. And I think that's the angle we'll see more of. Not 'pay creators because it's fair', but 'pay creators because it improves your ROI'. Because unfortunately, fairness arguments don't always move the needle in business. But a data-backed case for better performance? That does. Luna: So if I'm a creator listening to this, what do I do right now? Do I start charging a pitch fee tomorrow? Lucas: I'd say it depends on your leverage. If you have a decent following and inbound requests, you can absolutely start saying 'I charge a $50 pitch fee for detailed briefs.' You'll lose some opportunities, but the ones that remain will be more serious. If you're just starting out, you might not have that luxury. But you can still set boundaries: limit the number of revisions you'll do for free, or cap the time you spend on spec work. Track your hours — that alone can help you decide whether a deal is worth it. Luna: And for brands listening — I think the takeaway is: if you want the best creators, you need to treat them like professionals. That means compensating them for their time, even in the pitch phase. Lucas: Exactly. Because right now, the system is optimized for brands. But the creators are the ones producing the actual value. And if we want this industry to be sustainable, the labor has to be valued — not just the final post. Luna: Makes you wonder: how many great creators have we lost because they got burnt out on free pitches before they ever got a real break? Lucas: That's the question I keep coming back to. The next wave of influencer marketing might not be about the biggest creator — it'll be about the one who could afford to keep pitching the longest.