Am I building a tool for brands or agencies?

Unilever, Verizon, Chobani, Pepsico, â€¦ the list of companies that are moving to some form of in-house marketing model is long. In fact, a recent report from the Association of National Advertisers shows that 78% of its members have some kind of in-house agency, compared to 58% in 2013.

At my company Kara we are talking about this trend quite a bit, because our platform helps to automate tasks that brands traditionally outsource to ad agencies. So you could say that Kara is competing with traditional ad agencies that take care of the marketing production for brands. However, we get many requests from ad agencies that are interested in Kara, asking if our platform is also available to them. Our answer: “It depends.” Let me explain why.

So is Kara a tool for brands or agencies?

The reason we developed Kara is to automate the development of marketing campaign material, which is often being handled by ad agencies. So it seems intuitive to think that Kara is a tool built for ad agencies.

But…it is crucial to us that Kara will also enforce a brand’s DNA by ensuring that visual cues, text and the overall tonality will always be the same across any campaign material for the brand. This, I believe, is the bigger challenge to manage, as the brand DNA with its vision, mission and values is usually deeply rooted in the company’s organization. When I used to work on CHANEL in China, I was fascinated by the level of control and stewardship coming from the CHANEL headquarter in Paris. Even though I often wished that we’ve had more flexibility in China in terms of how we could localize marketing assets, working on CHANEL as one of the most valuable brands in the world, taught me about the importance of brand consistency and governance in order to maintain the high level of brand equity that the brand has established over so many years.

Therefore, my answer for whether our platform Kara is a tool for brands or agencies, will always be that it is initially designed for brands. If a brand then decides to open up the platform to its agencies or any external teams, that’s totally fine.

Are there any exceptions?

Yes. We understand that there is no one-size-fits-all marketing operation model but rather many different marketing practices that companies have established. Like mentioned in the very beginning of this article, many brands have moved towards some form of in-house marketing. Capabilities and talent could either come entirely from within the company, it could be an agency team that is totally embedded within the company’s organization or it could be a hybrid model that takes elements from both brand and agency. A successful example of such hybrid structure is the agency group Oliver, which is known for building in-house teams such as Unliver’s U-Studio. According to a recent eMarketer report on the brand-agency relationship, the majority of brands are leaning towards bringing creative services and digital media in-house.

“The in-house agency understands the personality of Trunk Club, the tone of voice, the visual guidelines and can enforce those standards across the business. They are constantly working to not only carry those out, but also elevate them in the process. Speed and flexibility are also really huge benefits”, says Maureen Boyle from Trunk Club.

Reports show that the number one function of in-house agencies is ‘Creative Services’, with a strong focus on high-routine and high-volume tasks such as creative production. That’s why we believe that Kara is an amazing tool not just for brands but also for any kind of in-house agency.

“Kara will be an essential tool for large companies. It allows you to cut back on production dollars and produce marketing collateral faster, while shifting design talent towards the more complex creative challenges.” — Jason White, CMO of Cura Cannabis Solutions and former EVP Global Head of Marketing, Beats by Dr. Dre

So if you are working for an in-house team with the challenge to be efficient while controlling brand integrity, please get in touch here or via email (hello@getkara.co) to chat more about how Kara can support you.