KARACHI: Pakistani content creators bagged awards this week in the country’s first-ever Pakistan Influencer Awards 2026 in Karachi, hoping the initiative would pave the way for more recognition in future.

The awards were organized by the Pakistan Influencer Awards team, in collaboration with independent technology, research, audit & validation and jury partners. The event was curated by Talha Aslam, who has an experience of over a decade in strategic leadership in brand marketing, digital ecosystem development and campaign execution across diverse industries. The director of the program was Zeeshan Mianoor, the chief executive officer of Pakistani mobile manufacturing company Inovi Telecom.

With five nominees in over 30 categories, the award show held at Karachi’s Expo Center recognized content creators on digital platforms YouTube, TikTok and Instagram in fashion, lifestyle, technology, automobile, fitness and food and other categories.

“The major idea behind the influencer awards was to recognize that it’s a serious industry and there is a huge potential,” Aslam told Arab News on the sidelines of the event on Saturday.

“Content creators are a big economy. Just on YouTube, 135,000 accounts are monetized in Pakistan. A lot of brands are launching with influencer faces with immense budgets for influencer marketing.”

Aslam said that out of 110 million Internet users across Pakistan, 63 percent fall under the age of 30 who spend eight hours on their phones every day.

He explained that organizers used an approach to select influencers that combined findings from data and the opinions of jury members to determine the winners. Aslam said the top 20 candidates in each category were identified through data, which were shortlisted to 10 by a Creative Jury.

After that, the Executive Jury, comprising people from brands and advertising agencies, assigned the influencers a weightage out of a score of 5.

“After that came public voting,” Aslam explained. “We received four million votes in just 15 days, which is actually a big number.”

In addition to picking a specific genre, said Aslam, the creators need to be consistent with real people following them. That is exactly what was kept into consideration, he said, during the selection process.

‘BRINGING TO THE ECONOMY’

Digital creators were also of the view that their success is no longer based on popularity alone but rather on the impact they’re able to make through their content.

Adnan Zafar, popularly known as “Ken Doll” who is a lifestyle, skincare and fashion influencer, said one should take into consideration what influencers bring to the economy of the country.

“When it comes to judgment of an influencer, it should show what I’m bringing to the economy of the country, how am I helping the brands to flourish when they work with me, how many sales I’m generating when it comes to one reel or one story,” Zafar said.

However, Hasan Rizvi, who served as a member of the Executive Jury for the awards, said popularity and impact both play a key role in the influence of a creator.

“If an influencer has 40 million followers, it’s not an easy feat or else everyone had those followers,” he said. “You have to give that person the due respect for the kind of attention they’ve managed to grab and how they have managed to entertain their 40 million audience.

“Whereas there are people with lesser following but have made a very, very big impact.”

Maryam Raja, who won in the Voices and Perspectives category, said it is high time Pakistan recognizes influencers.

“It’s a very big and positive initiative as you promote influencers and do something for them,” she said. “We have always seen awards for actors and films but for the very first time we’ve heard of Pakistan Influencers Awards.”

However, she said it was very hard to pick influencers to awards as there weren’t many of them.

Raja shared that she started creating content to inspire other women to follow their dreams. However, in a conservative country like Pakistan, content creation is still looked down upon particularly for females, she said.

Zarnab Fatima, who won in the lifestyle influencer category award on Instagram, agreed.

“My family has accepted me but it’s still a taboo for society that a good girl is one who stays at home and is suppressed,” she said.

“But the one who takes a stand for herself or wants to achieve something isn’t a good girl.”

She emphasized that awards like these pave the way for much-needed recognition.

“The responsibility of an influencer is huge. If they are making content or promoting something, that should be very appropriate because all kinds of people watch us,” she said.

“The youth follows us.”