KSC Kreate agency serves nation’s biggest companies
Evolving from a retail and catalogue photo business, KSC Kreate in Hollywood now handles a wide array of visual content for the nation’s biggest companies and is even making full-length movies.
On a midmorning in a warehouse district off the interstate in Hollywood, there is a strange sight: lanky models so beautiful and ethereal they look inhuman, standing or sitting on the curb in a parking lot smoking cigarettes. Inside, teams of make-up artists, stylists and photographers are grooming, styling and photographing said models for up to 14 shoots each day.
It is strange for two reasons. First, this is not that Hollywood, but Hollywood, Florida. Second, this is not a cool warehouse district.
Ten years ago, photographer Brad Tuckman started a retail and catalogue photography business. But with too many ideas and customer requests for the confines of photography, he began to expand his business into the mini empire KSC Kreate, now housed in the warehouses that stretch from one sprawling building across the parking lot to a neighboring warehouse, for a total of about 55,000 square feet.
Today KSC includes not just photography, but all visual content and software for what KSC describes as a “creative, production and technology hub” for its clients. Among its clients are some of the nation’s largest companies: Wal-Mart, Ikea, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Gap, Burger King, Chico’s, White House/Black Market and YvesSaintLaurent.
It seems to have paid off. Since 2008, Tuckman said his business has grown 800 percent, generating over $10 million a year in revenue. “Everywhere I go, I see something we’ve shot,” Tuckman said.
Tuckman employs about 90 people with an additional 30 to 40 freelancers daily. In February, he opened a satellite office in Atlanta to be closer to customers and has already expanded from 4,000 square feet to 7,000.
Tuckman believes that his customers remain loyal because of his reliability and speed. For example: a catalogue customer once called on Tuesday and asked for a snow shoot (never mind that KSC is in Florida) by Thursday.
“So I found a house, got the model, got a snow blower, and then it rained. So I had to photo shop the snow.”
Innovation has also played a key to their success, said Lisa Cody, director of Creative Services for Jardin Consumer Solutions, a manufacturing company with 10,000 workers in 15 countries producing a vast array of products under brands like Mr. Coffee, Sunbeam, Oster and VillaWare.
“I’ve known them for years, from when they were just a boutique studio,” she said, explaining that over the years KSC has evolved to keep pace with the changing world of marketing, from print to online to interactive online. “I’m always looking for someone one step ahead. So when I ask about something, they say, ‘We’re already doing that.’ ”
In fact, Tuckman says that his business is driven more by his customers’ requests than any grand vision.
“Everything they’ve needed over the years, we just added,” he said.
When his catalogue customers asked for a better way to view online samples, he started working on Non-Flash 360 Degrees, a program that allows an internet customer to click on an item and view it from all sides. And when his staff needed a way to track the thousands upon thousands of items they receive for catalogue shoots, his team came up with a tracking program called Timetrack.
“If we’re organized, we won’t fail.”
For the catalogues, KSC doesn’t just shoot the models. They cast them, fly them in from New York, or wherever they are, and put them up in hotels. He also employs a team of stylists and make-up artists.
Inside the warehouses, Tuckman created several sound stages for shoots. Doing this allows him to control and cut costs. Just moving changing rooms closer to sound stages cut production costs by 15 percent, he said.
“I learned that from a manager at Starbucks, who was complaining about the coffee machine being moved and slowing down work.”
All photo shoots are also streamed live on video, so clients can watch and make suggestions as needed.
With half of his business in print and half online, Tuckman has had to hire an entire tech staff that in addition to helping clients build web sites also develops software like the Non-Flash 360 Degrees or an app that allows customers to shop from their phones. He has so much merchandise amassed over the years that he has fully stocked prop rooms.
“We have to be our own prop house,” he said. “We don’t have time.”
Tuckman said his business model is fairly simple.
“Everyday can be your last,” he said. “We’re not a publicly traded company. We don’t have an angel investor. We built ourselves up from nothing. It’s that attitude that keeps us pushing. Our biggest problem is we won’t say no.”
Tuckman, 38, started shooting pictures when he was in college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1993, he interned at a studio in New York City just as digital photography hit the industry and met someone working in Florida who offered him a job. When he graduated a year later, he took the job. In 1997, he started his own company — Studio FX — and landed Sports Authority as a client, growing quickly. Sports Authority eventually made up 80 percent of his business.
So when Sports Authority moved in 2001, the business was hit hard. Tuckman, however, said he was quickly able to land Office Depot and managed to not lay off a single worker. But he learned a valuable lesson: Today, no one client accounts for more than 30 percent of his business. That same year, Tuckman met his former business partner, who had created KSC, and teamed up. In 2003, Tuckman bought out his former partners but kept the name.
“I kept the KSC name because I didn’t want people to think we were going belly up. It’s all about image,” he said.
What makes the company unique, said Jason Arena, vice president of brand strategy and marketing, is its diversity.
“A lot of technology companies are doing bits and pieces. But we’re the only ones developing content with technology,” Arena said.
Tuckman won’t say how much, but estimates he spends in the millions each year on technology.
“You can’t have the technology without the creative. You could, but you’re not going to have the success. Then you become a commodity,” he said.
In a word, they try to do it all. Recognizing that time is money, they have shrink-wrapped all the needs of marketing into one package, from production to management. So in addition to the sheer production, they help come up with a company’s master plan which includes a suite of software to manage the project; the ideas behind the marketing; execution of the marketing, whether in print or online; and analysis of the campaign’s performance.
This year, KSC Kreate even added a new division for making movies and completed its first full-length film, Finding Joy.
“There’s no path to success. No anything. Some of it’s opportunity. Some of it’s luck.” Tuckman said. “It’s always what’s next.”
About KSC Kreate
KSC Kreate is a creative agency specializing in visual content. They create beautiful, informative and dynamic media that stimulates commerce and showcases clients’ products in the very best light. Driven by their proprietary business model, the Total Image Management Experience (TIME), KSC guides the image creation and deployment process from start to finish. KSC captures still photography, video, virtual-rendering and non-Flash, 360º product imagery all in house. Once created, KSC offers full digital asset management online via their unique content management system, enabling clients to output imagery to any file type and resolution for local market deployment. To learn more visit www.ksckreate.com.