Two agency veterans—Fred Schuster and James Sanderson--are teaming to launch a company that will advise and provide content and other services to in-house agencies. The new company, called InnerGroup, is part of EKCS, founded more than two decades ago by in-house experts Robert Berkeley and Tariq Husain. 

The duo say that the main idea is to make in-house agencies more potent by resolving what's slowing up creative workflow. In part that will be accomplished by providing AI operations tools, and fielding a global content organization through parent EKCS, which provides content on demand for major brands like Hilton, Starbucks, and DraftKings. 

InnerGroup’s secret sauce is an approach that the founders call “Adaptive Marketing Operations” that includes two interconnected practices – InnerGroup Advisory and InnerStudio.  

InnerGroup Advisory applies a proprietary diagnostic tool to identify and analyze friction points in eight areas, then delivers recommendations to bolster the client’s marketing organization. 

InnerStudio is an offshore content creation and production unit that utilizes a proprietary AI workflow system to generate briefs from notations on a company’s workflow system. Then the platform quickly assembles teams to generate content at scale. 

“Brands need to treat the in-house agency as their primary Agency of Record,” said Schuster, InnerGroup’s CEO. “By aligning operations, we allow the in-house agency to adapt faster, more continuously to evolving demands so marketing stays relevant, and brands stay resilient.” 

The new firm has tapped Sophie Von Pflugl to serve as senior vice president-client services. Previously she led client service for Havas, Publicis, TBWA/Chiat Day and most recently Indicia Worldwide. She’ll be co-leading business development. Meanwhile the company has been doing some informal advisory work for some of the parent company's clients as part of the proof-of-concept process. 

Schuster is credited with founding McCann’s Craft Worldwide, Ogilvy’s Redworks (the predecessor to Hogarth), and Madras Global, now part of Deloitte Digital.  

Sanderson, who serves as Global President is credited with founding Wunderman Thompson Inside to help clients bring pieces of their marketing and advertising operations in-house.  He also led Havas Studios’ Prose On Pixels in the UK, an AI-driven unit designed to create content at scale. He was also the Chief Operating Officer at Oliver, the in-house agency consultant that is part of Brandtech Group.  

More on the new firm can be found here.  

“Nearly 90% of clients have an in-house agency, but 100% of those aren't working as well as they could because they are agencies,” said Sanderson. “We can simplify and speed up marketing operations so the in-house agency gets stronger, more in sync, and more in control.” 

Headquartered in New York, InnerGroup operates globally in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, India and Australia and will serve a broad range of industries including retail, pharma, CPG, manufacturing, finance, hospitality, entertainment, media publications, and more.

Pictured above (l to r): Sanderson, Von Pflugl, Schuster.