Zodiac Global's Danny Agg: Budget Spreads, Usage Clauses and Long Deals

No creator post comes with a guaranteed sales number, and Danny Agg says anyone who promises one is lying. The CEO and co-founder of Zodiac Global builds his advice to brands around that risk — from budget splits to contract clauses to the creators worth committing to. "There is always an element of risk it might not work, but when it does work, it can work very well," he says.

Zodiac, founded in 2021, runs both sides of that bet from offices in Dubai and the UK. The nine-person company manages 40 to 45 creators exclusively across the UAE and UK while running influencer campaigns for global brands. Talent management accounts for at least 60% of the business, according to Danny, and brands booking one of Zodiac's creators are often pitched a full campaign afterward. When the campaign roster doesn't fit the brief, the team looks across the wider creator market. "We know when to push, when not to push, what levers we can pull to get the best possible results for the brands," he says.

He learned the trade from outside the industry. As a young financial advisor in Miami, Danny managed money for clients near his age, saw what some creators were earning, and concluded he could do their managers' job better. Zodiac now aims to bring a Western style of talent management to the UAE, a market he calls less mature but growing very fast.

How should a brand split an influencer budget?

Brands most often go wrong, he says, by relying on one big creator or celebrity. With a $500,000 budget, Danny would put $100,000 each into three large creators and spend the remaining $200,000 on 30 to 40 mid-tier and micro creators — roughly $5,000 to $6,700 per smaller deal. "That way you're getting a big spread of different audiences, and you're just diversifying any risk as well," he says.

Attribution drives the logic. Unlike Google Ads or Meta ads, creator campaigns resist clean return-on-spend readings. A tracking link captures some sales, but a viewer may buy two weeks after seeing a post, and 20 creators going live within a day or two can produce a spike no post directly explains.

The second mistake is control. "If a creator is just reading off a script, the audience can tell, and the content is going to flop," Danny says. Zodiac tracks cost per thousand views; when a post misses the brand's organic target, the brand can buy usage rights to boost it. Danny estimates up to 80% of brands now do.

Why have usage rights become the contract fight?

Usage barely featured in social ads deals five years ago. As brands learned whitelisting and dark ads, that changed. "You get a lot of brands that will discuss just organic usage, but they'll try and sneak in paid usage rights," Danny says. He also watches for out-of-home usage and unlimited usage on any platform, worldwide and forever.

Payment terms carry similar weight. Zodiac is more flexible on fees when a brand pays upfront, 50% on signing, or at least within 30 days. Terms of 60, 90 or 120 days cut the other way: "No one likes that, and it's going to affect the relationship and actually make the creator charge more," he says.

Do longer deals lower creator costs?

Danny's alternative to one-off posts is partnerships of three, six or 12 months, paired with face-to-face meetings at events, dinners or lunches. Creators with that personal connection are easier to work with and usually cheaper, he argues. "Try and avoid a one-off post as much as possible," he says.

Over time, fixed fees can become revenue share, equity, or deals running up to two years. In one structure Danny describes, a brand grants a creator $100,000 of equity at the current valuation, vested over two years, against minimums such as two posts a month and a co-owner label in the bio — a deal that moves from a call to lawyers running due diligence.

How does Zodiac value a creator?

He weighs creators like the funds he once managed. Audience size and engagement come first: "If someone's got a million followers and they're only getting 10,000 views a post, their page is in a bad way," he says. Uniqueness, work ethic and ease of working follow. Zodiac has no follower minimum — it has signed creators at 10,000 followers and turned down creators at 3 million. "I've made a lot of mistakes along the way by signing loads of people, and it's just been a massive waste of time," he says.

What is next for the company?

Zodiac is launching a creator ventures arm, separate from its management contracts, to build brands with talent, with ownership splits of 50/50 or 70/30 in the creator's favor. Danny traces failed creator clothing brands to talent treating their own brand like a deal; he points to the Kardashians and Haily Bieber as exceptions. "Someone might buy it once, but if it's not a great product that has a reason for them to buy it again, it will not work," he says. Zodiac aims to grow past 1,000 employees, targeting Saudi Arabia, Australia and the U.S. as the Creator Economy, in Danny's view, leaves its infancy.