Social Square bets on AI and micro-creators to reshape influencer marketing in Bangladesh
Influencer marketing in Bangladesh runs on big names and bigger fees. Social Square wants to blow up that model entirely.
In Bangladesh's digital marketing industry, influencer campaigns often revolve around a familiar formula: brands partner with a handful of celebrity creators, pay substantial fees, and hope their content reaches the right audience.
For Mehedi Mahmood, founder of Social Square, that model is becoming increasingly outdated.
His startup is building an AI-powered platform designed to help brands work not with a few influencers, but with hundreds of creators simultaneously. The goal is to transform influencer marketing from a relationship-driven business into a scalable, performance-based marketing channel.
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"We were inspired by what we saw globally, particularly in North America," Mehedi said in an interview. "Brands there are activating hundreds of small and nano creators for a single campaign. We wanted to bring a similar model to Bangladesh."
From influencers to creator networks
Traditional influencer marketing relies heavily on creators with large followings. Brands typically pay fixed fees to influencers, who then produce promotional content for their audiences.
Social Square focuses instead on what Mehedi describes as user-generated content (UGC) campaigns.
Rather than allocating an entire marketing budget to a few high-profile creators, brands can distribute that budget across hundreds of smaller creators. The approach, he argues, produces a stronger collective impact.
"A topic doesn't become viral because one person talks about it," he said. "It becomes viral when many people start talking about it at the same time."
The strategy mirrors how trends spread organically across social media. While major influencers may initiate conversations, widespread engagement from ordinary users often determines whether a topic gains momentum.
Social Square aims to recreate that effect for brands.
Building an AI-powered campaign manager
The biggest obstacle to large-scale creator campaigns is operational complexity.
Managing relationships with 20 or 30 creators is relatively straightforward. Managing 500 or 600 creators is not.
To address that challenge, Social Square has built an AI system that communicates directly with creators through WhatsApp. The platform can introduce campaigns, explain requirements, negotiate participation, determine compensation based on creator performance metrics, and guide creators through campaign onboarding.
According to Mehedi, the technology effectively functions as a digital campaign manager.
The automation allows brands to activate hundreds of creators simultaneously without requiring a large operations team.
"We built a platform where AI can communicate with hundreds of creators and coordinate campaigns at scale," he said.
A different pricing model
Social Square is also experimenting with a business model that differs from conventional influencer marketing agencies.
Large influencers often charge fixed fees that can run into several lakhs of taka per campaign, depending on their audience size and engagement.
Social Square instead operates primarily on a CPM (cost per thousand views) model. Brands pay based on actual content performance rather than fixed creator fees.
The company argues that this performance-based approach lowers risk for advertisers and makes creator marketing more accessible to smaller businesses.
For creators, compensation is distributed across a larger network rather than concentrated among a handful of social media celebrities.
Revenue, funding and growth
The startup has moved beyond the idea stage.
Mehedi confirmed that Social Square is generating revenue and has secured external investment, although he declined to disclose the funding amount.
The company has attracted backing from investors connected to Bangladesh's startup ecosystem, including individuals associated with some of the country's most prominent technology ventures.
While many early-stage startups struggle with rising operational expenses, Social Square has adopted a lean approach to growth.
The company operates with a small team of roughly nine members and has deliberately kept overhead costs low. Mehedi said the startup currently uses his residence as an office space, reducing one of the largest recurring expenses faced by young businesses.
Several team members bring previous fundraising and startup experience, helping the company navigate growth while maintaining financial discipline.
According to Mehedi, the business is already generating sufficient revenue to remain cash-flow positive.
Betting on the future of creator marketing
As Bangladesh's creator economy continues to expand, competition among brands for consumer attention is intensifying.
Social Square's bet is that the future of influencer marketing will not be driven solely by celebrity creators, but by large networks of smaller creators coordinated through technology.
If that vision proves correct, AI may become just as important to influencer marketing as the influencers themselves.
For now, the startup is focused on scaling its platform and convincing brands that hundreds of voices can sometimes be more powerful than one.
