Director – Product

Kargo unveils Project KERA closed beta for creative-led media buying. AUCKLAND, Today: Kargo has unveiled the closed beta of Project KERA, a new agentic media buying and creative engine built to simplify how brands and agencies plan, make, launch and optimise campaigns across channels. Designed as an intelligent orchestration system, Project KERA takes a single campaign brief and turns it into a live, performance-ready media plan. The platform is built to bring creative, audiences, premium supply and measurement together in one connected system for cross-channel and cross-workflow media buying. From planning and creative development through to activation and in-flight optimisation, Project KERA uses live performance data and Kargo's own creative and contextual intelligence to keep improving results. "Modern media buying is fragmented, reactive, and overly complex," said Robert Leach, GM at Kargo APAC. "Project KERA changes that by connecting planning, creative, media, and measurement into one adaptive system that ensures every creative decision and media investment is directly tied to business outcomes." Early beta partners are already using Project KERA to test and shape what agentic media buying looks like in the real world, across brand-direct, agency-led and hybrid models. At the heart of it, the platform is tackling one of marketing's biggest headaches, turning an idea or brief into measurable business outcomes quickly and at scale. Brands and agencies can upload a brief in almost any format, whether that is a PDF, a spreadsheet or even a simple line of intent. Project KERA then works out what is ready, flags what is missing, and helps teams close the gaps before anything goes live. "With today's media landscape, it's increasingly important to keep creative, media, and measurement working in sync." - Vinny Rinaldi, Vice President, Consumer Connections, The Hershey Company Project KERA brings intelligence across every step of the process: * Planning & Orchestration Agents interpret campaign goals, channel requirements and performance objectives, ensuring each downstream decision stays aligned to outcomes. * Creative Agents generate, adapt, and assemble high-impact video and display assets across CTV, mobile, social, and the open web, tailored to each surface. * Creative Insights & Scoring evaluates every asset before it goes live using Kargo's Creative Science(R) models trained on decades of performance data, delivering predictive scoring and actionable recommendations. * Audience & Contextual Intelligence maps messaging to real moments of attention using cohort-based contextual signals rather than cookies or generic segments. * Measurement & Optimisation Agents track live performance against brand KPIs and continuously optimise creative, inventory, and distribution in real time. Project KERA is powered by Kargo's Creative Science(R), which combines creative automation, predictive scoring and performance insights built from years of campaign data across premium environments. Before any spend goes out the door, KERA helps brands understand how creative is likely to perform, why it may perform that way, and what can be improved. Once a campaign is live, those performance signals feed back in to make each impression, interaction and result more useful for the next campaign. Kargo says that means faster speed to market, stronger creative and better performance across channels. The platform has also been built to fit around different ways of working, giving buyers the option of full end-to-end automation or more collaborative, human-in-the-loop workflows. Its modular setup means partners can either plug in specific capabilities or use the wider platform as a whole. Hershey's is one of Project KERA's beta test partners, alongside other CPG, travel and emerging brands using a mix of buying models. "With today's media landscape, it's increasingly important to keep creative, media, and measurement working in sync," said Vinny Rinaldi, Vice President, Consumer Connections, The Hershey Company. "Working with partners like Kargo helps create a more connected approach, so teams can focus on what's actually driving meaningful results for the business." Project KERA marks a major step in Kargo's shift toward becoming a full-platform company focused on creative-led performance, intelligent automation, orchestration and premium media experiences that deliver real business impact.

Kargo launches Spotlight to redefine high-impact display advertising. Advertising solutions company Kargo has introduced Spotlight, a display format that delivers ads at the precise moment users are most attentive. It combines behavioural signals, premium creative and exclusive publisher access to maximise brand engagement. Kargo's Spotlight ad unit is entirely triggered by consumer actions - or sometimes, inactions. Maximise brand engagement. Ads are activated by meaningful reader behaviours such as: * Content complete - when a reader finishes an article and hovers on the navigation bar * Attention shift - when a user switches tabs or leaves the page * Idle time - after 20 seconds of inactivity * Scroll up - when a reader returns to the top of the page Proven success with Westpac NZ. Westpac NZ is the first business in New Zealand to run Spotlight, achieving a click-through rate above 2%, far outperforming industry benchmarks. Westpac NZ chief marketing officer Sarah Williams says: "We are always looking for innovative ways to connect with our customers. "The integration of Spotlight into our digital strategy has allowed us to connect with our audience in a more impactful, timely and considerate manner, delivering ads when users are most engaged. "Achieving a CTR of over 2% for a recent marketing campaign demonstrates the strength of this approach," Williams adds. Good for brands and publishers. Compared to standard display inventory, Spotlight drives: * 2x higher viewability (72% vs 39%) * 10x higher click-through rates (1.25% vs 0.11%) * 50% higher attention scores For publishers, Spotlight drives up to 30% incremental revenue without adding clutter, thanks to consumer-friendly features such as oversized close buttons and a five-second activation delay. Rob Leach, GM of Kargo APAC, says: "With viewability at 70% plus and CTRs of 1.5% plus, Spotlight is perhaps the industry's most impactful ad unit. "But it does not just work for brands, it is also good for publishers, and consumer satisfaction scores are all 80% or above. Solving the 'when' for the very first time in display advertising is delivering incredible ROAS for our partners." Spotlight is now live across Kargo's premium publisher network in APAC.