By Shei, founder and talent manager · Published 2026-11-08
Who counts as a lifestyle influencer in Melbourne?
Lifestyle is the broadest label in the market, so it helps to split it by what the creator is actually known for. In Melbourne the useful split is story-led self-growth content, design-and-city content, and training and routine content. A brand that briefs "lifestyle" without picking one of those lanes usually gets content that looks fine and sells nothing.
Two of the three creators MANA manages sit in this space. Preston Young makes cinematic, story-led reels on life lessons, self-growth, day in the life, student life, fitness and Asian culture, and studies at the University of Melbourne. Kevin Chiang makes architecture, design and lifestyle content for students, young architects and creatives, and his audience interests are listed as fashion, architecture, health, student life, tech and running.
What does the audience actually look like?
Ask for the insights screenshots, not the follower number. These figures come from the two creators' media kits.
Preston Young, Instagram insights over 90 days, June to September 2026: 1.86 million views, 81,000 average reel views, 1.09 million unique viewers, and 86.6 per cent non-follower reach. Six reels passed 750,000 views in 12 months, and his most-watched reel reached 2.9 million views with 58,200 shares and 284,300 likes. The audience is 43.5 per cent aged 25 to 34 and 23.2 per cent aged 18 to 24, so two in three are 18 to 34, and it skews male at 65 per cent. Top markets are the US at 18 per cent, the Philippines at 16.1 per cent and Indonesia at 7.2 per cent, with Singapore the top city at 11.3 per cent.
Kevin Chiang, Instagram insights over 30 days, June 2026: 928,000-plus monthly views, 40,000 average reel views, 359,000 unique viewers and 92 per cent non-follower reach, with 34,700 saves and 12,300 shares in the same month. Eighty-eight per cent of his audience is aged 18 to 34, the gender split is even at 49 per cent male and 51 per cent female, and the top markets are India at 12.1 per cent, Australia at 9.2 per cent and the US at 6.9 per cent, with Melbourne the top city at 6.2 per cent.
The lesson for a marketer is plain: a Melbourne-based creator does not guarantee a Melbourne-based audience. If the campaign needs Australian buyers, ask for the country and city split in writing before you book.
What do brands book lifestyle creators for?
Four jobs, usually. Sponsored reels, carousels and stories on the creator's own channel for reach. UGC filmed for the brand's own feed and paid ads. Partnership ads and whitelisting, where the brand runs spend behind the creator's handle. And product reviews, where the creator explains something that takes more than one line to explain.
Saves and shares matter more than likes for the third and fourth jobs, because they show people filing the content to act on later. Kevin Chiang has 45-plus brand partnerships across design, tech and lifestyle on that pattern. If any of the content is going into paid media, agree the terms up front: see usage rights and whitelisting, explained for brands.
A worked example: one organic reel, 100-plus paid sign-ups
A design software brand booked one organic reel with Kevin Chiang showing its plug-in to architecture students. The reel reached 490,000-plus views, 17,000 likes, 29,000 saves and 12,000 comments, and the brand counted 100-plus paid sign-ups from it. There was no paid boost and no whitelisting behind it.
A smaller version of the same thing: a reel on tools for architecture students reached 161,000 views with 11,000 saves and added 25 sign-ups for a mobile app. The second number is the honest one to plan around. One reel can carry a product, and the result tracks how well the product fits what that audience already searches for.
What do they charge?
Lifestyle creators in this bracket price per deliverable, not per follower. The price moves with the format, whether you want a collaborator post, how long you want paid usage of the footage, whether you want a whitelisting window, and whether you want category exclusivity for a period. UGC is quoted differently again, depending on whether you take raw footage or an edited cut. Software, B2B, health and finance briefs usually carry a category loading because the content takes more work to get right.
MANA does not publish rates and quotes against a real scope instead, which is the only way the number means anything.
How do you book one?
Send the brief, get the media kit for the creator who fits, agree the scope in writing, then film. A common way it goes wrong is agreeing a reel and a date, then asking for ad usage after the content is live, when the rate and the exclusivity were never priced for it.
Put these in the brief before anything is filmed. There is more detail in how to brief a creator.
- The goal in one line: views, sign-ups, UGC for your own ads, or a mix.
- The product, and what the creator has to show on camera.
- Deliverables by format: reel, carousel, story frames, collaborator post.
- Where the content will run beyond the creator's own feed, and for how long.
- Whether you need category exclusivity, and over what period.
- Dates: shoot window, draft date, live date, and how many revisions.
- Who approves, and any line that must appear in the caption.
Related: Australian content creators, managed by MANA. · Work with Australian content creators.