Joybyte Named AOR For HOBO Bags

Influencer-led social-marketing agency Joybyte has won AOR duties for female-founded, family-run accessories brand HOBO Bags after a pitch. The agency will break its first work for the brand later this month.

Joybyte will handle social-media management for the brand and engage across IG, TikTok, and Facebook with Joybyte’s fully managed organic social media program. Duties will include the creation of an organic content strategy, weekly content calendars, static/motion graphics, UGC, and an influencer strategy along with management of inbound/outbound engagement, product fulfillment, performance insights/iteration, promotions, content quality control/approvals, and influencer discovery, outreach, and activation.

Influencer management duties include overseeing up to 40 activations per month, influencer payment negotiation and management, and content usage-rights negotiation and management.

HOBO focuses on handmade leather bags. Owner Koren Ray’s mom made sandals and other leather goods for 20 years, then cashed in her life savings to start the brand, whose name celebrates the legendary spirit of the American hobos who followed their own path and lived by a code of hard work and kindness in pursuit of the next adventure. She sketched designs on the family’s dining room table in Annapolis, Maryland, as Koren played with scraps under her craft bench. The company put down retail roots in Annapolis by opening its first flagship store in the heart of its hometown.

Joybyte presents its clients through social rather than traditional passive media.

“We connect brands where they’re already hanging out, so our campaigns don’t feel like ads—they feel like conversations,” said Ben Gerster, founder and CEO of Joybyte. “For HOBO Bags and all our clients, it’s all about building relationships, creating real engagement, and driving results that matter.”

Joybyte was acquired by TBA Worldwide one year ago.