The digital landscape can be a daunting place. There are algorithms to navigate, new features to capitalise on, new rules to abide by and ever-increasing competition. Sarah Keeble is the New Business and Marketing Director at VERB Brands, a digital marketing agency with a data-driven approach to creating visually inspiring campaigns to reach high-net-worth audiences. From a background in social media, Sarah combines her digital know-how with her love of the luxury industry to think up strategies that improve the customer journey across all touchpoints. We caught up to talk about Gucci’s recent ‘Twinsburg’ fashion show, the reasons why a brand should work with an agency and the value of having a sense of fun.

Can you briefly describe your career background and how you came to start at VERB?

After I graduated, I started freelancing building websites for a number of companies in South Africa, where I was based at the time. I suppose that was my first trajectory into digital after doing a digital-focused course at university. My first proper career break was actually on a grad scheme at a big PR firm called The Red Agency. I worked on the digital team where we looked after blogger activations and social media for big FMCG brands. One of my first clients in that role was Adobe so I’d be writing the content calendars, speaking to bloggers and running competitions online. I also did a lot of work for Boots UK, Carling and Centre Parcs to name a few, so my career did really start out marketing to the masses with the goal being impressions and reach, rather than commercial performance (as my focus is now).

From there, I was headhunted to join VERB to launch their social media offering. The role appealed to me because it was a challenge to really grow something and it was an opportunity to work more in the space that I feel passionate about, which is luxury.

We started out working with Creed Fragrances, looking after all of their social channels and we grew the business organically from there, building on strong results, and client referrals. I grew the team running hero accounts such as Quintessentially and Bugatti and essentially progressed from there. My role has shifted since; now I look after business development and marketing at the agency and I am in the background on some of the key accounts to support with strategy. I’d say the last six years have really been a journey in terms of business growth and evolution but it’s exciting to see the development and to count some amazing clients as part of our progression.

What brands do you remember being drawn to growing up?

When I first started at VERB Brands, Boodles Jewellery was a brand I really wanted to work with and when we actually got a meeting with them it was a slightly surreal moment. We ended up winning the pitch to work with them, which was really exciting.

One brand that really stood out to me when I was at university was Free People. They did a number of really gorgeous, high-production hero videos, which were all about relationships, love and freedom of spirit. They’re still on YouTube to this day and they made me fall in love with the brand, to the point where I bought several items from their range over the years. I think the brand’s marketing has shifted slightly in recent times but those early campaigns really stick with me.

My hero brand which I’ve always loved, and still do to this day, is Anya Hindmarch. I have always admired what she’s done and how she operates her business and how she adds a sense of fun to what could be regarded as quite a formal product; the handbag. I have actually had the pleasure of meeting Anya once and she is as inspiring as you think she is.

For me, it’s one of those brands that feels familiar too because my mum bought a couple of her bags – when the price point wasn’t as high as they are today! – so I’ve had Anya Hindmarch on my radar since I was little. I’d say a sense of fun and playfulness is definitely in Anya Hindmarch’s DNA and she really embodies those values in her designs and installations. I love how she’s also quite British-led and her designs tap into nostalgia and conjure a very specific look and feel.

How does VERB help brands reach new audiences?

It’s a mixture of understanding who we’re trying to reach, having a very strong audience strategy, and having a thorough understanding of the brand. There are a lot of performance agencies out there who can launch a campaign and use it to engage with audiences effectively but I think what makes VERB stand out is that we really have that brand and creative understanding in order to essentially, protect the brands we work with. Especially in the luxury sector, we have to almost safeguard the brand while considering how we build relevant creative assets to support the various different campaigns we’re running. We approach each new project with the big picture in mind and consider the consumer we’re reaching along that purchase journey.

Beyond that, we’re also looking closely at how we can reach those affluent and high-net-worth consumers. We have data to support this piece of the puzzle: we take various learnings from the different sectors we work in within the luxury sector as a whole, and then apply that to our clients’ campaigns.

Can you explain some of the opportunities and challenges luxury brands are currently facing when it comes to digital marketing?

One of the biggest challenges brands are facing is effectively understanding how various channels are contributing to their success. We’re often seeing brands working to a last-click attribution model, which means the brand is essentially assigning the conversion value to the channel the consumer clicked through from. The challenge here is that this does not assign value to the true consumer journey; which, particularly for luxury, may be a lot more complex. For example, search for something, land on the site, read a blog, see a social media post, and then engage with the brands product pages a few times before actually clicking through and buying. We’re working with brands to become more digitally mature; often by putting in place more data-driven attribution models so we can start to paint a more accurate picture of the consumer journey and thus marketing success. Looking at effective reporting metrics across different types of campaigns is also an earlier stage of this journey.

What makes for a bad client? And a good one?

A good client is one that recognises what they’re trying to achieve but they’re also open to testing and learning, and listening to an agency. We often see brands who are acting on a gut feeling rather than looking at their customer data and they want to run campaigns in a certain way. A reason why a brand should come to an agency is for strategic insight and to be open to testing knowledge we’ve acquired from working on campaigns for other clients in various sectors. Sometimes we have brands come to us wanting quite an executional delivery and it’s actually not the best way to get value out of an agency – it’s more about a collaborative process.

What’s a favourite campaign you’ve worked on?

A recent campaign we worked on was one we did for our client, The Ritz which was centered around Downton Abbey. Around the time the new film came out earlier this year, there was an increase in searches and hype for the show. In the series there was a scene where the characters have afternoon tea at The Ritz and as such, we created a paid social campaign around this. We used various assets and formats at different stages of the consumer’s journey, with the final stage being a call to action to book an afternoon tea. The campaign was so successful we had to switch it off because all the afternoon tea slots sold out. It was exactly the kind of result we wanted and it was interesting to take a cultural moment and see how we could take advantage of it to build a performance-driven campaign, while creating some beautiful creative content.

Which brand really stands from the crowd in its digital practices?

I fell into a bit of an Instagram hole looking at Gucci’s ‘Twinsburg’ show during Milan Fashion Week. From a social perspective in particular I thought it was really clever and really astute. They teased out a number of Instagram stories to give followers a sense of the theme of the show, which involved a couple of celebrity ambassadors. The show then happened and it was broadcast live on Gucci’s Instagram, followed by several Reels but they also tapped into the platform BeReal, using it as a direct reference to the ‘twin’ theme in such a smart way.

What’s a common misconception about digital marketing?

Sometimes I think there’s a misconception that you’ll always see a return on investment – overall across your digital investment you should be aiming for a return but for some upper funnel campaigns, the goal should be about awareness metrics. Sometimes it’s less about seeing an immediate win and more about investing in the brand.

Beyond this, I think there is also a misconception that we all think we know what works on social media because we all use it. I think there’s value in stepping back and figuring out what you want to achieve as a brand and the best way of going about it.

How do you think brands need to adapt as online retail continues to evolve?

I think it’s about bringing offline and online more closely together. Post-pandemic, we’re seeing the re-emergence of offline experiences and physical customer touchpoints but as a brand, how can you capitalise on that from an online perspective as well?

There’s also value in making sure your marketing is holistic and your channels aren’t working in silo. For example, we’re working with a few brands at the moment where we’re collaborating with influencers to create content for our digital delivery. The influencer activations typically sit with the brand marketing teams but we will be looking to seed out the content on paid media, which typically sits with the performance/digital teams. It’s about having a joined-up approach. A challenge we’re coming up against is that client teams are often so segregated.

What one thing most excites you about your industry?

How fast it changes! You have to stay on top of so many new developments and technology and while it can be a challenge to keep up with sometimes, it does also keep it exciting. Even looking back to campaigns we worked on four years ago would be so different to what we’re thinking about now. Social media is changing a lot but the media landscape is also going through huge changes with shifts in data privacy and AI. The industry is changing constantly but it keeps us on our toes and it keeps us honest about where we need to be.

You can follow VERB Brands on Instagram or head to its website to find out more about the work Sarah and the team do.