It’s not easy for smaller or mid-size agencies to compete for business with massive holding companies (which are only getting more massive).
But the Omnicom-IPG deal “also creates opportunities for the rest of us,” says Remy Stiles, North America CEO of programmatic agency Kepler, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
What would be considered a small client to a holdco is “big to us,” Stiles says.
The Fortune 500 aside, there are many midsize brands that want “a more high-touch client/agency relationship,” she says, and to be “bigger fish in a smaller pond.”
Consolidation in the agency world will also “challenge us to continue pushing forward,” Stiles says, “particularly on the tech side and from an innovation perspective.”
Kepler, which was acquired in 2018 by Kyu (pronounced “cue”) – a Japanese collective of marketing, consulting and design companies – still operates largely independently. Although its headcount is now at more than 600 people, “we still have a lot of our startup DNA,” Stiles says.
“We’re nimble, we’re fast, we’re flexible and we don’t have layers and layers of approvals we have to go through to get things done,” she says. “We work really transparently with our clients in all senses, not just from a fee and model perspective.”
For example, clients can log into any platform directly to see the setup firsthand and put hands on keyboard if they want to. In some cases, Kepler even has buyers embedded with clients, sitting beside them and managing media as de facto members of the marketing team.
“That spirit is very aligned with the independent agency spirit,” Stiles says. “And it’s incredibly important in how we operate with our clients.”
Also in this episode: Kepler’s origin story (it was spun out of MediaMath in 2012 to be an independent agency), an update on the in-housing trend, practical AI use cases and Remy’s love of running.
For more articles featuring Remy Stiles, click here.
