Julia Huang is the founder and CEO of Intertrend Communications, which prides itself on being “the most awarded Asian American advertising agency for results.” The company was founded in 1991, “before ‘multicultural marketing’ was even considered a serious growth category,” Huang said. Businessman. Here, he discusses starting and growing his company and how its success is built on a desire to connect with consumers on an emotional level.
Please provide an elevator pitch for your company.
Intertrend is a multicultural agency built on a simple idea: Asians in America are not just a demographic box to check. We’ve helped brands understand that culture isn’t a niche tactic. For over thirty years, we are still the most awarded store in the universe and still the most curious.
What inspired you to create this business?
My “aha moment” was realizing that multicultural marketing at the time just meant translating an English campaign. However, language without cultural understanding does not create connection. I’ve seen ads that technically spoke the language but said nothing emotionally. We realized there was an opportunity to bring creativity, strategic thinking and cultural empathy to a space that was mostly considered an afterthought.
What is the difference between your company and other creative agencies?
The differences are more subtle than people think. We all have smart people, talented creatives and access to useful data. I don’t think we’re necessarily comparing ourselves to other creative agencies, but we’re still challenging our own assumptions about the communities we serve because those communities are constantly changing faster than we feel content selling as “experts.” In the discipline of never ceasing to evolve, I hope, it makes a difference.
Can you share any lessons on effective marketing?
Data can tell you what people are doing. But the culture will explain why they do it. This is always where breakthrough ideas live. Audiences, perhaps especially multicultural ones, have been pandered to for so long that they can recognize a tick box a mile away. Shifting the marketing question from “How do we reach this audience?” on “What does this audience already believe that we DON’T know?” beat the whole time.
Please share a statistic about your business that you are particularly proud of.
In the world of advertising, it’s hard to survive a decade as an independent shop. Surviving three while remaining culturally relevant is even harder. But the stat I’m actually most proud of is our client’s tenure. Most of our top clients have been with us for over two decades. It’s this number that tells me we’re doing the job right.
What does the word “entrepreneur” mean to you?
I think “entrepreneur” has become one of the most overused business brands. To me, entrepreneurship is the ability to see possibilities where others see discomfort. It’s less about ambition and more about a specific kind of obsession. If you’re not a little obsessed, you’re not an entrepreneur — you’re just self-employed. For immigrant entrepreneurs in particular, it’s also about identity, survival, and sometimes proof that you belong in rooms that weren’t originally designed for you.
What is something that many new business owners think they need but really don’t?
Scale. More specifically, the tendency to focus on scale before we find out if what they are building is actually worth the scale. We live in a world where bigger is considered better. If we are “big”, we can get more, hire faster. But scale without a growth strategy isn’t growth, it’s inflation. Personally, I wished I had the luxury of asking myself, “What does the right size look like for the business I actually want to run?” when i started
Julia Huang is the founder and CEO of Intertrend Communications, which prides itself on being “the most awarded Asian American advertising agency for results.” The company was founded in 1991, “before ‘multicultural marketing’ was even considered a serious growth category,” Huang said. Businessman. Here, he discusses starting and growing his company and how its success is built on a desire to connect with consumers on an emotional level.
Please provide an elevator pitch for your business.
Intertrend is a multicultural agency built on a simple idea: Asians in America are not just a demographic box to check. We’ve helped brands understand that culture isn’t a niche tactic. For over thirty years, we are still the most awarded store in the universe and still the most curious.
What inspired you to create this business?
My “aha moment” was realizing that multicultural marketing at the time just meant translating an English campaign. However, language without cultural understanding does not create connection. I’ve seen ads that technically spoke the language but said nothing emotionally. We realized there was an opportunity to bring creativity, strategic thinking and cultural empathy to a space that was mostly considered an afterthought.