Ex-Amazon Ad Directors Form First-of-its-Kind E-Commerce Firm

Ex-Amazon

Network Brings Inside Expertise Directly to Brands, Aggregators, and Agencies

KANE is a new network of former Amazonians, specialists with decades of experience directing Amazon Advertising campaigns for hundreds of clients worldwide. Principal Mike Kazantzis was a creative director leading the CPG vertical in the New York office, and KANE Partner Steve Susi was the division’s first executive creative director, relocating from New York to London to lead all creative operations outside the US.

In contrast to so-called Amazon “expert” agencies, KANE leaders, while at the company, generated many of Amazon’s tools, best practices, and policies that third-parties rely upon today.

“Others read about Amazon. We wrote it,” said Kazantzis. “We have the institutional knowledge—how decisions are made, development cycles, acceptance methodologies, and of course, customer insights—to benefit brands of every size and business sector.”

At KANE, those insights drive upwards of 500% increased ROAS for clients, a 100% reduction in ACoS, and 3.2x time-to-market efficiency, saving brands thousands in agency fees and lost impressions.

“We started KANE after years of hearing our clients’ frustration that their agencies didn’t know Amazon,” Susi said. “After working with our teams, ‘I didn’t know we could do that on Amazon’ was the most common reaction.”

While at Amazon, KANE leaders and their teams handled more than 500 clients, trained 65 brands and agencies with the Trusted Creative Partner program, which they developed; created 16 new ad products; and earned an innovation patent with one more patent pending.

“We have a name for it: ‘Effortless Amazon,'” continued Susi. “Our goal is to offer brands painless, efficient access to Amazon’s full potential.”

“Amazon is so big and policy-laden that it can be intimidating for even the world’s largest brands,” said Kazantzis. “We help them navigate the Amazon universe to leverage its entire portfolio of services and offerings to drive sales, increase sales velocity, and acquire new customers quickly and easily.”

“Just like Amazon, KANE starts with the customer and works backwards,” said Susi, author of 2019 Amazon category best-seller Brand Currency: A Former Amazon Exec on Money, Information, Loyalty, and Time. “After years of creating successful campaigns, we decided to bring our institutional knowledge and data-driven methodologies to smart brands who want to make the most of their e-commerce and brand presence.”

Among KANE’s suite of offerings are E-, V-, and B-Commerce solutions—its labels for, first, e-commerce fundamentals and optimization, then e-commerce-optimized product videos, and ultimately brand-level content within the shopping environment.

“We like to say, ‘Don’t just move product. Move brand,” Susi said. “If you think Amazon is just a sales outlet, you’re missing out on most of its power—and your KPIs.”

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“A lot of companies claim to be Amazon experts,” added Kazantzis, “but their experience ends where ours begins. They focus almost solely on lower-funnel activity, like SEO and PPC. While important, they’re table stakes. The customer expects and deserves best-in-class content across all their devices and touchpoints. Amazon has so much more to offer at the brand level, but these off-menu offerings aren’t accessible without insider knowledge of how to unlock them.”

With the recent explosion of e-commerce and seismic shift in customer behavior defining the “next normal,” Amazon is a must-have for thousands of brands worldwide. KANE is excited to work with its clients to think big and take full advantage of its ecosystem of platforms, products, and services.

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