The free ride on follower counts may be ending, at least in Kenya. At a Nairobi summit this week, marketing executives told creators that brands are moving more money their way, but they want proof it sells something. According to The Star, EXP Group chief executive Carole Abade urged Kenyan creators to formalise their businesses as companies push more of their ad budgets toward influencer marketing.

An invite-only room in Nairobi

The event was The Media Shift: Kenya Live, held on Thursday, October 29. As Citizen Digital reports, it was an invite-only summit hosted by Expressions Agency under the theme “Winning with Influence,” bringing together brand leaders, content creators and industry partners. Speakers included Expressions chief executive David Boon, Webfluential co-founder Murray Legg and Nfinity Influencer CEO Albert Makoeng.

The day also served as the launch of Expressions Influencer Agency, a new business set up under EXP Group to connect brands with creators. Organisers said a new technology tool for Kenyan marketers is on the way, though no details were shared.

“There’s money shifting to them”

Abade’s message to creators was blunt. “There’s money shifting to them. And they need to be responsible. They need to be responsible for the business and they need to be responsible for the brands that are trusting them to be able to leverage influence,” she said, as quoted by The Star.

She compared content creation to running a shop. “If you open a store and you say I’m selling the following items but you’re always out of stock you’re not in business,” she said, pointing out that creators need to hit deadlines and deliver the content they agreed to in their contracts.

The Star puts the push in a global context, citing Grand View Research data that projects the influencer marketing market could reach $45 billion in 2026, up from $34 billion in 2025.

Reach is no longer enough

The bigger theme was measurement. According to Capital FM‘s Phidel Kizito, Kenyan businesses are under growing pressure to show returns from influencer campaigns, and spending is shifting away from reach and visibility toward sales and customer engagement. Kizito reports that the industry is moving toward performance-based partnerships, where creators are expected to help with goals like customer acquisition and sales conversion.

Boon said creators need to understand the business goals behind the campaigns they promote. “It’s about trying to push it further now to really drive attribution for the brand. So what are the business outcomes that the brand can get as opposed to just awareness?” he said, per The Star.

Abade framed the new agency as an attempt to fix that gap. “We’re trying to figure out how do we fix that thing that’s broken and how do we make brands actually be able to say this is the amount of money I spent. This is what the return was. That’s the equation that we need to solve,” she said.

AI won’t replace trust, they say

Artificial intelligence came up too. Boon argued that it won’t wipe out the value of human creators. “AI will simply help us to do things better but AI will not replace trust and credibility. That’s what the creators have,” he said, as reported by The Star and Kenyan Business Feed.

Speakers also stressed that the creator economy is bigger than the people on camera. Citizen Digital and Capital FM both note it supports videographers, photographers, editors, talent managers, strategists and digital marketers.

The takeaway

This conversation is happening in Nairobi, but the lesson travels. Brands everywhere are asking what they actually got for their money, and creators who can answer with numbers, show up on time and treat their work like a real business are the ones who will keep getting booked. Whether you sell brand deals, subscriptions or fan content, a big audience opens the door. Being reliable and showing results is what keeps it open.

Featured image: “Nairobi Skyline from BBC Studios” by afromusing, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Resized.