To acknowledge the balance of power and attention in today’s media landscape, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up efforts to represent and support influencers.

SAG-AFTRA announced on Sunday that the union’s national board members unanimously voted to establish an influential and digital creators committee in the organization’s latest two-day plenary meeting, as the ILO’s eyes extend beyond brand content, and the workforce group’s eyes extend into the digital performance sector.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the state executive director, said the committee aims to provide voice to digital creators and influential people in the ILO. “During the drama strike, the creators of influential people greatly improved our members’ strikes,” he said. “I think it’s really clear for us to consolidate the connection and connection there.”

In 2021, SAG-AFTRA proposed an influencer agreement and waiver under its advertising contract, making digital creators a way to join the union. However, these deals cover only the work in the brand’s content space, rather than the original creative content launched on platforms like YouTube and Tiktok.

Over time, “It’s clear that if we are going to continue to expand, especially outside the brand content space, we need to build a formal structure in the alliance so that members who do this work can unite and provide us with guidance and leadership,” Crabtree-Ireland said. The goal, he said, is to eventually find a means for unions to directly cover non-brand content.

New York-based travel and lifestyle influencer Patrick Janelle was hired as the new group chair, which will start with meeting the support needs of creators. Janelle said in a statement that he saw “the importance of establishing standards for this multi-billion dollar creator economy and the opportunity to create meaningful infrastructure and support the talent that makes up the foundation.”

Janelle added that the committee will include a variety of creators operating on each major platform. “Through our collective experience and unique perspectives, we will build tangible tools, provide resources and develop industry standards to provide meaningful support to creators at all stages of their careers,” he said.

SAG-AFTRA does not work as its primary work on the number of influencers calculated in its more than 160,000 members, or at least the number of short form content generated on digital platforms. But thousands of union members have introduced influential exemptions and agreements since a few years ago, Crabtree-Ireland said.

But it is clear that the nearly 100-year-old union - the Screen Actors Association was founded in 1933, decades later Aftra - sees influential people and the platform they work for as a key component of its future.

In Janelle's case, he believes the organization's experience can help regulate the field work of digital platforms. "I'm confident that with the weight of the organization … we can make a significant contribution to ensuring that creators can build a more stable, safe and sustainable career," Janelle said.