Inside the GenZ Marketing Agency that's Changing Influencer Marketing

How Abby Huang did it: Inside the GenZ Marketing Agency that's Changing Influencer Marketing

Abby Huang is the founder of Dime, a marketing platform that connects brands and Gen Z consumers through a network of student ambassadors, data-driven campaigns, and in-person events. Dime has worked with brands like ByteDance and Casetify. Her core conviction about her generation: this next generation is very moldable and malleable in terms of who they look up to and what brands they follow and purchase — it's no longer chasing after the loud luxury of staple brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci. For Gen Z, it's about what the brand does to make people feel special.

That belief shapes how Dime runs campaigns. Instead of focusing on the largest creators — who get a mountain of gifts from brands they might not even be the end users for — Dime runs mass gifting and mass ambassador campaigns aimed at the actual end users. Abby points to a Lulu's launch campaign that did mass gifting for people looking to buy going-out clothes: gifting the people who will actually buy, so they remain loyal consumers. She prefers the word "ambassador" over "influencer," a term she thinks gets tossed around now in a way it wasn't meant to be used initially, and lets clients decide who fits their brand image because they know their brand the best.

Getting the first client was an uphill battle. In the very beginning, when Dime was just an Instagram page and they were "poking in the dark," Abby did a lot of things for free or at an incredibly low cost — sometimes breaking even or losing money — because that was great market research and built the relationship that kept clients coming back. One of the really successful founders she'd spoken to recently, who runs a company doing crazy amounts on Amazon, told her to really get good at one thing: once you get good at your main focus, you can up-charge and do higher volumes, building a moat for yourself and your company.

Before Dime worked, Abby built something that didn't. Her bad MVP was a product that let companies find connections to ambassadors — a platform for ambassadors to join and connect with companies — but the largest creators have agents and wouldn't come on, and clients tied to their agencies wouldn't pick up a malfunctioning platform with bad UI/UX. She kept selling it anyway and got some subscribers, but ultimately, you can't out market a bad product. The real product, she realised, was herself, her team and the network. The lesson she keeps coming back to is the age-old saying of building something that people want — and for her, product-market fit isn't selling one thing one time; it's recurring clients coming back, asking to explore new campaigns and one-year retainer contracts.

What you'll hear

• Why mass gifting beats the mega-influencer — gifting the end users who will actually buy, rather than creators who get a mountain of gifts from brands they're not the end users for
• Ambassador vs. influencer — why Abby prefers "ambassador," and how clients decide who fits their brand image
• The XiaoHongShu scramble — how Dime ran a last-minute campaign for an Asia-based client during the impending TikTok ban, and why Abby doesn't see XiaoHongShu fully integrating into the US
• Advice for a tiny-budget brand — why so many marketing metrics end up untracked and ineffective, and how Abby advises smaller companies
• The first-client uphill battle — doing things for free, at a loss, as market research that builds lasting relationships
• The bad MVP that taught her sales — how selling a product that didn't work trained the sales muscle, and why you can't out market a bad product
• Being a non-technical female founder at Duke — and how being of this generation became her credibility

Key claims from this episode

Chapters

Quotes from this episode

Themes Abby returns to

• Reach the end user, not the loudest creator — making the people who will actually buy feel special so they stay loyal consumers
• You can't out market a bad product — selling a bad MVP trained the sales muscle, but the real product was the team and the network
• Product-market fit is recurring clients — not selling one thing one time, but clients who come back for new campaigns and retainers
• Free work as market research — doing things at a low cost or a loss early on to build relationships and learn what clients need
• Credibility as a young female founder — being of this generation, with peers who are creators, became the conviction she lacked at the start