AKÏN

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the wordsmith at Bebop Asia, a PR agency. I create content and content strategy for our clients across our campaigns.

What challenge were you trying to address with AKÏN?

We needed help with social media marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AKÏN works with us on social marketing campaigns for our clients who range from government agencies to tech startups. The social media channels they run depend on the client. They do quite a bit of work on Facebook and Instagram. There are times we do work on LinkedIn as well, which involved more B2B content.  

One example was a nine-month campaign to educate the public and debunk fake news. AKÏN came up with the design for the mascot in order to appeal to youngsters and be accessible to the target audience. We created the voice together. From there, we also developed certain videos and infographics that we had on different sites. They also made brochures and different printed collaterals for schools. It was a pretty wide gamut.

We started with small projects where we took the lead and handled 80% of the work. There are different project cycles where AKÏN takes precedence and we’re the ones supporting. We’ve found it’s really easy to scale up what we needed with them. It can be as simple as we need a social media manager to handle the account and make one or two posts a week. It can be the point where we need an entire branding exercise and develop the entire website, brand guide, and colors.

What is the team composition?

The team is quite extensive, and everyone has their own specialty. For some projects, I may talk to the head of design or the social media copy person. If there’s something specific that I need, I know exactly who to go to. However, I primarily work with Arvin (Managing Director), and he’ll disseminate what I need to his team.

How did you come to work with AKÏN?

A friend had met Arvin through a networking event. We had a chance to work together on our friend’s startup and got to know each other better.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2015, and the work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They have a very data-driven approach that uses AB testing. It lets us have a pretty fast turnaround. If we have 8–10 social media posts in a month, they’re really good at showing us what worked better so that we can adjust what they do for the next few months. Even though we commit ourselves to a plan of action, they’re very receptive to changing it if things don’t go according to plan or things are going better another way.

How did AKÏN perform from a project management standpoint?

They never stonewall me. If something is going to be due in a month, they don’t wait for the last minute to get it done. They finish things way earlier. It’s unheard of for our clients to be waiting on us thanks to AKÏN.

AKÏN has people on their side that stay in contact with the clients to get what they need from them. Some clients are on the ball, and others don’t get moving until 24 hours before the campaign is supposed to be launched. I’ve never had an issue with AKÏN being late though.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand where the clients are coming from and what their pain points are. They’re also scalable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the team leads change from project to project, and I have to adjust to a new working style. There are also certain projects where I feel someone might need a bit more experience before coming in.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be willing to listen to Arvin and be open to what he suggests. It will go better.