TheSkimm Launches In-House Creative Agency, SKM Lab

After more than a decade of serving its audience of millennial women, newsletter publisher theSkimm now wants to offer its expertise to other brands looking to do the same as part of its efforts to diversify revenue.

The media company, which operated for years as a newsletter before branching into additional channels, announced the launch of its new in-house creative agency, SKM Lab, an evolution of the branded content work the publisher has long provided for its advertising clients. 

“Our recent State of Women survey found that 74% of women believe that brands don’t understand the real concerns of women,” said chief revenue officer Mary Murcko. “We have over a decade of experience communicating with women, and we want to offer that to brands looking to reach that audience.”

The company has hired a small group of new sales staff to take these capabilities to market, but it has not increased the headcount of its creative studio. It wouldn’t share financial projections for the business.

In addition to creating custom content, similar to its campaigns with Nike, Fidelity and Walmart, SKM Lab will also offer a full range of agency services to prospective clients, including strategy, performance marketing and cause mobilization.

The launch of SKM Lab, which also includes the debut of a bimonthly newsletter aimed at the marketing community called The SKM Report, comes as part of a broader push from the publisher to diversify its business. 

The privately owned media company has sought to stand up a number of ventures, such as podcasts, educational courses and events, that cater to its core readership of millennial women, whose needs and interests have matured since theSkimm launched in 2012.

The launch also reflects the growing value of first-party data and consumer insights, which have become sought-after commodities as signal loss has degraded brands’ ability to track and measure consumer behavior. 

On top of serving its targeted audience for more than a decade, theSkimm has launched other initiatives, such as its recent State of Women campaign, in hopes of underscoring its position as a thought leader in women’s marketing.

“The challenge is that this agency will have a lot of competition, including from other publishers like Condé Nast, who have bigger audiences and more resources,” said Erica Gruen, a principal with Quantum Media. “They are going to have to be small but mighty.”

SKM Lab formalizes an existing offering

Since its inception, theSkimm has generated advertising revenue exclusively through branded content, a strategy that lets its newsletter-centric model maintain a sophisticated design and net lucrative payouts. 

With SKM Lab, the publisher aims to formalize this suite of services and make it available to clients regardless of whether they want to advertise with theSkimm.

SKM Lab joins a saturated field of creative agencies vying for brands’ advertising budgets, but it aims to differentiate itself by leveraging its expertise in understanding and speaking to female audiences, Murcko said.

Outside of work for clients, theSkimm has also used its storehouse of insights for its own campaigns, including its recent Show Us Your Leave initiative. The publisher believes it can channel its experience into activating female audiences for other brands looking to do the same. 

The launch of SKM Lab also reflects a broader evolution in the efforts of publishers to meet the increasingly complex needs of their advertising partners, according to Whitney Fishman Zember, the former group director of consumer insights at GroupM.

“TheSkimm has a very specific audience, which has its pros and cons, but brands cannot underestimate the power of genuine immersive expertise,” Zember said. “There is a reason why certain digital publishers, such as theSkimm, have been able to cultivate such a loyal audience.”