Sam Regan Asante Talks about Forming Creator Agency Native@AMV

All agencies go through change to keep up with the demands of clients, and AMV Group is no different. Recognising that the creator economy has leaped to the forefront of the minds of marketers as one of the most engaging ways to reach a modern audience, AMV Group has begun a restructuring, which includes the creation of a new division, native@AMV to support its clients. Heading that up will be former JOE Media CEO and UNILAD founding team member Sam Regan Asante.

Working alongside Asante, Matt Henry, AMV’s innovation lead, steps into the new role of head of innovation, and the content creators and community managers from within AMV and Redwood will form a dedicated creator-first social offer. The setup will see in-house creators collaborate with a select roster of partner creators to produce agile, authentic content built to unlock the algorithms.  

The launch is part of a broader restructuring of AMV Group under chief executive Xavier Rees, introducing three new specialist divisions designed to drive growth and innovation across high-impact categories. Including the launch of native@AMV, publishing arm Redwood will rebrand as Redwood@AMV under its CEO Colin Kenndy, and will work more closely with AMV BBDO following recent collaborations with clients such as Decathlon and Essity.

A dedicated B2B offering has also been formed; AMV Works, bringing together creative, content and ABM capabilities from across AMV Group, led by head of ABM Orla Murphy, founder of account-based marketing agency SeeBlue. The division already has a portfolio of clients include Google, YouTube, FedEx, Nokia, and Vodafone Business. 

Meanwhile, Redwood’s executive creative director of B2B Nick Duxbury, takes on a new role as ECD.  

AMV Stream will also relaunch as a dedicated branded entertainment division with Ben Padfield, most recently the head of Red Studios, becoming managing director. He will lead a growing client roster that includes Netflix and AppleTV+. Victoria Noble, former VP for Factual Programming at Warner Bros Discovery, has joined the team as head of long-form.  

As he takes on the role of head of native@AMV, Sam Regan Asante talks about the opportunity for marketers in collaborating with creators while offering his reasons for joining the Omnicom-owned business.

What was the incentive to make the leap into the ad agency world and join AMV Group?

Social is always evolving, but the biggest shift recently has been towards the interest graph. That change unlocks a real opportunity for brands who are willing to lean into it, it means they can engage audiences in ways that just weren’t possible in previous phases of social. Branded content has always played a big role in social publishing, but what’s interesting now is that some of the most talked-about posts are coming directly from brands themselves. When I caught up with Colin and Xav, we were totally aligned on the opportunity, vision, and ambition, which made the conversation genuinely exciting.

What does native@AMV bring to the agency and what is its differentiator from other creator agencies?

We tend to talk about native as a new place to start in social. AMV already creates great social campaigns - from big brand moments to clever paid activations. Native builds on that with a focus on always-on content, social media management and creator-led creative for specific platforms. We focus on working with creators because of what they can create, not just who they reach. There are plenty of good influencer agencies and platforms out there, but few creator agencies that combine platform craft, brand thinking and cultural relevance while working with content creators the way we do.

AMV is famous for its brand building, and Redwood for their content culture, so we’re really well set up for this new era of social. We can properly address that core tension. How do you create engaging content at the speed and volume social demands, while still building brand in a meaningful way?

What are marketers asking for most when it comes to partnering successfully with creators?

Without sounding too clichéd, you work with creators for their know-how, authenticity, and credibility, similar to publishers. Success lies in giving creators the freedom to create content in their own style and tone of voice. In this era, attention has to be earned. To be successful, you need to really understand platform dynamics, what works on them, and which creators are already speaking to your audience and can collaborate in a way that is still authentic. The goal is to land your brand message without it feeling forced or losing what makes the content resonate in the first place.

Is there a particular brand or marketer working with creators better than anyone else? Why do they get it?

There are lots of brands like Duolingo and Ryanair that have realised the power of in-house content creators to manage social handles, which is something we want to focus on – and already do for brands like Maltesers. Those more native brands have realised that content-led social media management can be one of the best opportunities for building mental availability and brand love if you do it right.  

What do you see that agencies should be doing better when collaborating with creators? What are the most common mistakes being made?

There’s a lot of overcorrection. Some agencies take all the native creativity out of the creators so they are no longer authentic; other agencies can get great influencer content, but don’t really land any meaningful attribution to the brand or it feels disconnected to the brand's ATL. You need balance - to work with creators in ways that feel native but also build brand.

You come from a media background at JOE Media and UNILAD, what insights and experiences do you think that experience gives you over rival creator agencies?

It’s about the culture and philosophy behind building a best-in-class content team, one that can deliver quick, reactive content, with a test and learn approach. More and more brands are behaving like publishers on social media and face similar challenges. As a social publisher, you’ve got to be audience-first. You’re not just competing with other publishers, you’re up against creators, footballers, movie stars, everyone in their feed. You have to be ruthlessly pragmatic about what your audience cares about, what they engage with, and then find a way in to land your POV. in the attention economy, if it's not engaging, you’re just adding to the noise.

What excites you most about the potential of AMV Group's offer for creatives and marketers moving forward?

I am really excited by the different combinations of AMV Group capabilities - AMV Stream has some really talented programme makers who have produced real shows for TV and streamers. Part of the plan is for native to work with them to develop creator-led shows for social, for instance, visual podcasts for YouTube. This was something we started doing at JOE and was one of the opportunities that initially drew me to the AMV Group offer. YouTube, for example, is the most watched app on Smart TVs and presents a huge opportunity for both brands and creators.