Kargo Launches Closed Beta of Project KERA, an Agentic Media Buying Platform Built for Creative Performance

March 31, 2026

Initial partners are The Hershey Company, travel media network Navigator, and Wpromote, spanning brand-direct, agency-led and hybrid-buying models.

Kargo today announced its closed beta of Project KERA, its new agentic media buying and creative engine, designed to transform how brands and agencies plan, create, activate, and optimize advertising across channels. Built as an intelligent orchestration system, Project KERA turns a single campaign brief into a fully executed, performance-ready media plan to unify creative, audiences, premium supply, and measurement in one connected platform designed for cross-channel, cross-workflow media buying.

From planning and creative development to activation and in-flight optimization, Project KERA continuously improves outcomes using real performance data and Kargo’s proprietary creative and contextual intelligence. 

“The future of media buying isn’t about more tools, it’s about better decisions,” said Harry Kargman, Founder and CEO, Kargo. “We built Project KERA to fundamentally change how ideas turn into outcomes, uniting creative intelligence, premium media and execution into a single system that raises the standard for how the industry plans, buys, creates and measures performance.”

Early partners are already using Project KERA to test and shape how agentic media buying works in real-world environments, spanning brand-direct, agency-led and hybrid models.

From Brief to Business Outcome the Kargo Way

At its core, Project KERA is built to solve one of modern marketing’s biggest challenges: turning an idea or brief into measurable business results quickly and at scale. Brands and agencies can upload a brief in nearly any form, from a PDF or spreadsheet to a simple sentence of intent. Project KERA identifies what is ready, flags what is missing, and collaborates with teams to close gaps before launch.

Project KERA brings intelligence across every step of the process:

  • Planning & Orchestration Agents interpret campaign goals, channel requirements and performance objectives, ensuring each downstream decision stays aligned to outcomes.

  • Creative Agents generate, adapt, and assemble high-impact video and display assets across CTV, mobile, social, and the open web, tailored to each surface.

  • Creative Insights & Scoring evaluates every asset before it goes live using Kargo’s Creative Science® models trained on decades of performance data, delivering predictive scoring and actionable recommendations.

  • Audience & Contextual Intelligence maps messaging to real moments of attention using cohort-based contextual signals rather than cookies or generic segments.

  • Measurement & Optimization Agents track live performance against brand KPIs and continuously optimize creative, inventory, and distribution in real time.

Built on Kargo’s Creative Science®

Project KERA is powered by Kargo’s proprietary Creative Science, which is a combination of creative automation, predictive scoring, and performance insights built from years of real campaign data across premium environments. Before a dollar is spent, KERA helps brands understand how creative is likely to perform, why it performs that way, and how to improve it.

Once live, the performance insights ensure that every impression, interaction, and outcome make the next campaign smarter. The result is faster time to market, stronger creative quality and better performance across channels.

Flexible by Design

Project KERA adapts to how teams work. Buyers can choose between different levels of automation and control — from full end-to-end execution to collaborative, human-in-the-loop workflows — all powered by the same underlying intelligence. Its modular architecture also allows partners to integrate individual capabilities or leverage the platform holistically.

Early Partnerships

Project KERA is currently being tested across CPG, travel, and emerging brands, representing brand-direct, agency-led, and brand-with-agency buying models. Initial partners include The Hershey Company, travel media network Navigator, and Wpromote.

“With today’s media landscape, it’s increasingly important to keep creative, media, and measurement working in sync,” said Vinny Rinaldi, Vice President, Consumer Connections, The Hershey Company. “Working with partners like Kargo helps create a more connected approach, so teams can focus on what’s actually driving meaningful results for the business.”

"We're thrilled to formally announce our first meaningful agentic buy in partnership with Kargo," said Steve Rowbotham, Founder and CEO, Navigator. "This reflects our conviction that agentic AI represents the largest period of innovation in media buying since programmatic. By combining our strategic positioning in travel and exclusive data partnerships with Kargo's creative intelligence, we've achieved exceptional results in early testing that we're excited to scale across our client portfolio.”

“What’s exciting about Kera is the potential to move faster without sacrificing quality. If we can streamline how campaigns are launched and optimized, we can spend more time on the strategic decisions that actually move the needle,” said Skyler McGill, Head of Video & Programmatic, Wpromote. “That’s ultimately what matters to our clients.”

Looking Ahead

Project KERA represents a major milestone in Kargo’s evolution into a full-platform company that is focused on creative-led performance, intelligent automation, and orchestration along with premium media experiences that deliver real business impact.

For more information about Kargo’s agentic media buying platform or to request access, visit Kera.ai

Francesca Bacardi