Canna Campbell: SugarMamma’s ‘financial foreplay’ court battle with Rhondalynn Korolak

Sharing everything from her eating habits to money tips has made influencer Canna Campbell a fortune. But she isn’t so forthcoming about her battle with a Melbourne accountant who alleges she is something of a thief.

‘Finfluencer’ Canna Campbell faces a court battle over the use of the term ‘financial foreplay’. Picture: Toby Zerna

Canna Campbell, known to hundreds of thousands of her followers as SugarMamma, is a content machine.

Across two Instagram accounts, she pumps out posts, a smattering of financial tips and tricks alongside fashion advice, exercise information and even commentary on her dietary habits to help inspire followers.

Campbell, 42, laid out her philosophy in a video uploaded to YouTube two years ago. “People wanted to know how I shopped, how I built my wardrobe, how I styled my clothes, the food that I put into my body, the way that I exercise and I try and stay fit and healthy,” she told viewers.

“I took a decision where I wanted to be completely open and transparent, and by me sharing my story, sharing with everyone my fears, my challenges, my confrontations, I can hopefully help other people … So my viewers have watched this amazing journey and adventure in my life.”

Campbell – who snapped up a $10.5m luxury oceanfront home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs earlier this year – isn’t so forthcoming about her long-running conflict with Rhondalynn Korolak, a Melbourne accountant who alleges she is something of a thief.

In dozens of documents lodged with the Federal Circuit Court, Korolak is arguing that Campbell stole her trademarked term “financial foreplay” to promote her own podcast series, and has gone on to make a small fortune from it.

Campbell denies this. In her own filings with the court, she claims companies aren’t engaging her services because of the SugarMamma’s Financial Foreplay podcast; they are engaging her because of the name recognition of another product, SugarMamma TV.

The tussle between the two has been going for two years.

Melbourne accountant Rhondalynn Korolak. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

A court hearing is scheduled later this month over the trademarked wording “financial foreplay”, which Korolak’s lawyers argue isn’t Campbell’s to use.

Korolak told The Weekend Australian that she had a “David and Goliath battle” on her hands.

“(Campbell) has enormous influencer clout and she has made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the use of the term financial foreplay – it’s tough,” she said.

Korolak first became aware of Campbell’s podcast series, SugarMamma’s Financial Foreplay, when she was told about it by someone in the industry in late 2020.

That prompted her to do some of her own research.

She didn’t know who Campbell was or why she was using the term that Korolak owned as a registered trademark.

Court documents show the first podcast episode of Campbell’s SugarMamma’s Financial Foreplay was available for download on June 26, 2020, and the final episode was uploaded in March 2021.

Before Campbell launched her podcast, she said she searched for the term “financial foreplay” on podcast platforms and couldn’t find anyone using the phrase.

Her search did not take her to Korolak’s book, which appeared under the same name.

Financial Foreplay: Whip Your Business Into Shape was published by Korolak and small-time publisher Imagineering Unlimited in 2009.

“Poor financial management is as fatal to your business as a photo of your parents on the bedside table is to your libido,” the book’s marketing blurb reads.

“Financial Foreplay is the antidote to these lethal killers.

“If you can become a master at finding and keeping cash in your business, tracking and managing your key numbers and using these insights to drive business improvement, your success is inevitable.”

It is unclear how many copies the book has sold. For her part, Campbell says it wasn’t until she appeared on Nine’s Today program with Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon in January 2020 that she had her “light bulb moment” and went on to name her podcast SugarMamma’s Financial Foreplay.

Canna Campbell, known to hundreds of thousands of her followers as SugarMamma. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

In the court filings, Campbell writes: “The theme of the (Today) segment was money and romance. Before going live, Mr Stefanovic said that finance was a dull topic for couple.

“That gave me my light bulb moment”.

By March 2021 Campbell had announced to her followers on social media she was changing the name of the podcast to SugarMamma’s Fireplay. She made no mention of the dispute.

“Initially I named my podcast around the word ‘foreplay’, because I wanted to show how the investment of your time and energy upfront, on your financial #goals would clear the way for more love, joy and pleasure,” Campbell wrote in a March 2021 Instagram post.

“It was a name I created myself.

“However as we all evolve and grow to be more #respectful, mindful and aware of our power and ability to make changes in our lives, I don’t want to be a part of the people who misuse or degrade the world of ‘foreplay’, especially around the sacredness of sex, in particular, for women.”

Campbell has been wildly successful. She has landed lucrative deals with a range of financial service firms including ANZ, ING and Athena Home Loans, Honey Insurance, Woolworths and Subaru, and has been the face of Swedish buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna.

She’s also partnered with second-hand selling website Gumtree, Google and Bosch vacuums, Tip Top, Maybelline and Thermomix. In a YouTube video she told her followers: “When a brand invests in me I want to make sure they get an amazing return on investment and they are happy and they can see the value that I’ve added to their own brand.”

So-called finfluencers ­– some of whom have financial qualifications while others who do not (Campbell is licensed) – boomed on social media platforms until the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, earlier this year launched a crackdown and warned that people giving advice without qualifications faced five years in jail or a $1m fine. About a third of 18 to 21-year-olds followed at least one financial influencer on social media, ASIC said earlier this year, while 64 per cent of young people reported changing at least one of their financial behaviours as a result of following a finfluencer.

Among the most successful has been financial adviser Victoria Devine – whose She’s on the Money podcast has been downloaded more than two million times – along with My Millennial Money hosts Glen James and John Pigdeon.

In the court documents, Korolak argues she had registered several domain names including financialforeplay.com in December 2009 and financialforeplaypodcast.com in January 2021, and has been the operator of the Financial Foreplay YouTube channel since May 2011.

Two years in, the Campbell v Korolak stoush is finally set to be heard in court on November 22. Campbell’s lawyers were contacted for comment, but declined.