In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Danielle Pederson, CMO of Amaze, a creator-powered commerce platform that transforms viral moments into revenue. Amaze uses AI-driven intelligence to anticipate and capitalize on content spikes, converting fan engagement into sales for creators across all platforms and verticals. As the creator economy matures beyond traditional monetization models, Amaze is positioning itself at the intersection of real-time commerce and AI-powered merchandising, helping creators monetize their moments faster than traditional e-commerce platforms allow.
Topics Discussed
- Building marketing strategies around creator identity versus consumer behavior
- Developing AI-driven lifecycle marketing for diverse creator segments
- Creating productized storytelling to explain complex platform value
- Executing impactful brand moments through strategic event activations
- Leveraging UGC-style content where creators speak to their peers
- Structuring small marketing teams around strategy versus execution
- Positioning category shifts rather than product updates
- Building community-focused experiences in the creator economy
Lessons For B2B Tech Marketers
- Reject Traditional Consumer Assumptions for Non-Traditional Audiences: Amaze discovered that traditional marketing tactics failed because they assumed creators behave like consumers when fundamentally they don't. Creators aren't looking to buy something—they're looking to share. This insight led them to abandon high-volume paid campaigns with generic messaging, traditional linear onboarding flows, and one-size-fits-all email approaches. The takeaway: When your ICP fundamentally doesn't behave like typical buyers, don't just adjust your messaging—rebuild your entire approach around their actual motivations.
- Build Strategy Around Experiences, Not Channels: Rather than organizing marketing around channels (paid, email, social), Amaze structures everything around four pillars: storytelling, intelligent lifecycle marketing, impactful brand moments, and community. This experience-first framework ensures every tactic serves a larger narrative about what's possible for creators. For B2B marketers, this means asking "what experience do we want to create?" before asking "which channels should we use?"
- Use Productized Storytelling for Complex Value Props: When launching Amaze Moments at Adobe Max, the team created a fictional creator narrative that demonstrated exactly how the product works and its value. This "productized storytelling" approach transforms abstract platform capabilities into concrete, relatable scenarios. For B2B companies with complex technical products, embedding your value proposition in a story format makes it immediately understandable versus listing features.
- Leverage Peer-to-Peer Content Over Brand-Led Messaging: Amaze found that UGC-style content where creators speak to their peers significantly outperforms the company trying to tell creators something directly. In B2B contexts, this translates to customer-led content, user testimonials in their own voice, and peer case studies. Let your users explain your value to other users in their language, not yours.
- Market Category Shifts, Not Product Updates: For 2026, Amaze is explicitly positioning their AI Moments product as "a full category shift, not just a product update." This framing changes everything about go-to-market strategy, messaging, and timeline expectations. When you've genuinely built something that redefines how a market operates, don't diminish it by calling it a feature release or product enhancement.
- Build Teams Around Strategy Capacity in Disruptive Markets: Amaze intentionally built their marketing team around strategy-focused roles (growth marketing specialists, brand marketing strategists) rather than channel specialists. In fast-moving, disruptive markets, the ability to think strategically and pivot quickly matters more than deep channel expertise. This structure enables rapid iteration when traditional playbooks don't apply.
- Segment Aggressively, Then Personalize Ruthlessly: Working with creators from all verticals and at all stages required Amaze to build sophisticated segmentation into their lifecycle marketing. They recognized early that the diversity of creators coming through the door meant one-size-fits-all approaches would fail. For B2B companies serving multiple personas or use cases, the lesson is clear: segment first, then build tailored journeys for each segment rather than trying to serve everyone with generic flows.
- Position AI as Amplification, Not Replacement: Amaze frames their AI not as replacing creators but as "that intelligence layer that powers core KPIs" and "the bridge between engagement and revenue." This positioning matters—they're not automating creators out of existence, they're giving them superpowers. B2B companies integrating AI should adopt similar framing: AI as the layer that amplifies human capabilities and accelerates outcomes, not as a replacement for expertise.
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