Five questions with Richard Brooks

Richard is front and centre of everything at Kinase. He founded the agency in 2010 with Chris Dillabough, and together they have grown it from 2 people to nearly 50, working with many prominent retailers and brands including Dreams, Toolstation, Goldsmiths, Nisbets, Sharps and Lovehoney. The company culture of collaboration - with clients and with each other - is something Kinase prides itself on.

At a very changeable time for digital, we took a step back to discuss how Covid has impacted the agency, and what current trends Richard is watching in the second half of the year. What will happen next, and where will the agency go from here?


It seems that Kinase has fared well during the Covid crisis - what elements came together to make it work?

Well, digital agencies like us are well equipped for remote working in terms of pure productivity. But we’ve put a lot of effort in to make sure the switch to home working went smoothly, and that we put processes in place to replace the things you lose from being in an office together. E.g. collaboration, keeping everyone up to date, training. Plus the need to maintain morale in a trying period.

Then there’s our clients. We are lucky in that our exposure to the worst affected sectors is limited. However it was tough seeing a number of our partners, many of which we’ve been working with for years, struggling as the effects of lockdown hit. There was no single approach as everyone was affected differently. However the one thing they had in common was massive disruption and the need to pivot strategies and tactics very quickly. Luckily that’s always been one of our strengths but never before have we had to do it for every client simultaneously. 

Some more fortunate clients thrived as demand in their vertical increased. Others suffered difficult trading overall, but with a move toward increased web sales digital marketing was crucial to mitigate that shortfall. Even where demand was down there was lots to do making sure that we captured what pockets of demand remained as efficiently as possible.

What’s more, a crisis can be a great opportunity for innovation and we have seen a lot of this as businesses look to use digital in new and exciting ways to make up shortfalls elsewhere in their businesses, capitalise on reduced media costs and capture emerging areas of demand.
 

A lot of Kinase clients have integrated store networks, but store re-opening as lockdown eases isn’t simple. How are store strategies changing, and how is Kinase getting involved?

It’s a very mixed picture. In some respects a sale is a sale and store versus web are just alternative fulfillment mechanisms. With stores unavailable there was a big switch to web/delivery. However there will always be a subset of customers with a strong preference for the physical experience so we are seeing some pent up demand coming through now that stores are reopening. One important thing is adjusting optimisation KPIs. First we had the switch from multi-channel KPIs to web-only KPIs. Now we are moving back to multichannel again. However there are differences. Shoppers are returning to stores with far greater intent, so we need to factor in low footfall but high spend per customer to our optimisation. We will also need to strike the balance between capturing maximum demand in the short term, but not over investing in preparation for it to ease off after a few weeks once that immediate pent up demand is fulfilled.

There’s also the element of publicising store reopenings and giving customers confidence that they can return safely.
 

Of the changes to digital that have occurred in lockdown which do you think will stick?

For work in general I’m not going to surprise anyone by saying that homeworking is here to stay. The end result may not be as extreme as some are currently predicting - some things like training and relationship building are still best done in person. Nonetheless we will see a long term increase in telecommuting, and an increase in video conferencing with clients too which will free up a lot of travel time.

Adobe’s Digital Economy Index showed that online shopping in April to May was higher than in the holiday and peak season of Nov and Dec at the end of 2019. The big question of course is how much of the transfer from store to web is permanent. There will certainly be a rebound not only as shops open up, but also as people become comfortable visiting them again and the fun comes back. But some of the shift will be permanent. Groups of people who have been forced online for things they wouldn’t have previously have now overcome the initial barriers and discovered the benefits. In some cases this is older shoppers who were sceptical of web shopping in general, but more often it is people trying out new categories such as groceries. Even the most web savvy shopper might have discovered some new favourite brands during this period. 

The same applies in less obvious areas including services and entertainment. My children have been joining dance classes via Zoom and now they’re used to it there are a lot of benefits compared to driving around.

But not everything can or will move online and that is going to present a challenge for the already struggling high street; after the immediate impact of Covid, how can the high street remain relevant and financially viable in a diminished market?

Finally, the businesses that have been testing new approaches and new channels during this period have banked some valuable learnings. They’re now able to scale that success. In many cases this will lead to long term advantage in terms of market share.
 

Do you think we’re seeing the long predicted demise of traditional TV, or is it more of a transformation?

Nah. TV is still relevant. It plays a valuable role within brand awareness and we can see it’s positive effect on digital marketing. It’s taken a big short term hit but will bounce back from that. Nonetheless, it’s shrinking over time because there are just so many other options now.

TV needs to stay relevant. It needs to be priced correctly. It retains advantages of scale but needs to find an answer to the measurability of digital awareness channels like YouTube and Social. Maybe part of that is opening up TV inventory to digital buying based on audience and behavioural signals - which we’re seeing trials of now. I think that’s the future. 
 

What’s next for yourself and Kinase in the second half of the year? We hear it’s the 10th anniversary!

Well the good news is that we’ve continued to grow even during Covid. Many of our clients are growing both like for like, and through expansion into new markets, while we’re offering new services and new marketing channels. So there’s more to do than ever and we are one of the fortunate companies that has continued hiring. We’re currently looking for our next cohort of grads and expect some very strong candidates this year.

In terms of our services, Social and YouTube continue to grow fast and one of our priorities is ensuring a joined up approach across marketing channels. This also means ensuring that the wider marketing strategy is aligned and creative is optimised for those channels. We’ve also undergone significant international expansion and launched Amazon as a new channel now. 

And yes, almost 10 years old! We’ve got our best ever set of great clients and our best ever team at Kinase and it’s nice to take a step back and appreciate that sometimes. The plan was to have a party to show our appreciation. As with so much, Covid might have disrupted the timing but we will still make it happen when we can!