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Client Is a Family Affair for Knecht

Apr 9, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Karla Knecht’s work sometimes comes home with her.
As VP and strategy director at Starcom on the Applebee’s account, Ms. Knecht says agency and client work closely together and enjoy a pure partnership.
“We’re not just partners with marketing, we’re partners with their consumer insights group, we know their menu folks, and have really stretched within the organization. That’s what makes it very fulfilling to work with them,” Ms. Knecht said.
Ms. Knecht also has been known to visit the one of the casual dining chain’s restaurants with her family, including two young daughters.
One of those visits came when her older child was in the midst of potty-training. The girl wanted to go back to the restaurant to get another balloon.
When potty-training proved to be particularly challenging, Ms. Knecht played the Applebee’s card, promising her daughter that if she did her business on the potty, she’d get to go back for that balloon.
“Sure enough, within a week’s time, she was on the potty by herself and running and screaming around the house saying that we were going to Applebee’s,” she said. “Every time we go by Applebee’s, my daughter always tells the story. Now she’s actually telling my youngest daughter the story so we can go again.”
Serving on the account almost since it assigned its media business to Starcom in 2004, Ms. Knecht has found many ways to support the brand.
Ms. Knecht helped Applebee’s launch its Carside To Go program, which allows customers to order food from the restaurant and have it brought out to their car.
Primarily, the launch was supported by national television aimed at busy moms. But Starcom also supported Carside To Go with a multiplatform program with TV Guide, built around watching the season finales of TV shows last season. The TV Guide campaign used customized television spots to drive viewers online to sign up for a sweepstakes and get the word out about Carside To Go.
“One of the benefits of working with Applebee’s is trying new things and testing new waters,” she said. “We had the opportunity to create customized programs that are unique and are different and can break through to consumers, versus just going out and buying a general online buy or a general television buy.”
Starcom also has Applebee’s integrated into the NBC show “Friday Night Lights,” which despite disappointing ratings will be coming back for a third season thanks to a deal with DirecTV.
“‘Friday Night Lights’ has been a tremendous success for us and Applebee’s, and we’re thrilled with the partnership we have with NBC,” she said.
Ms. Knecht joined Starcom weeks after graduating from Northern Illinois University.
Born in Pittsburgh, Ms. Knecht’s family moved to the Chicago area when she was about 12. She thought she wanted to be a teacher, but this time, father knew best.
“For years he told me I should be in the advertising business, that it was right up my alley,” she said. But it wasn’t until her sophomore year in college, after taking a class with a professor who had been a media buyer, that she was ready to heed her dad’s advice.
“I just fell in love with the idea of working with consumer insights and ultimately getting into the business side of advertising,” she said.
Ms. Knecht’s first job at Starcom was as a media business coordinator, handling trafficking, billing and systems for the Maytag account. She later worked on Keebler and Delta—helping the airline launch its “Hate Lines” campaign, which won awards for its use of out-of-home media—before chowing down with Applebee’s.
At home, Ms. Knecht says everything revolves around her daughters. Despite having two children of the same gender, hers isn’t exactly a hand-me-down family.
Her older daughter is like the “son I never had.” She’s very athletic and into sports. “The other one runs around in her fairy-tale princess dresses,” she said.
The family likes to travel. They just got back from a trip to Disney World, and over the summer, Ms. Knecht and her husband, who has his own business in the education field, plan to celebrate their 10th anniversary in St. Maarten while his sister watches the kids.
Who Knew: For a seventh-grade science project, Ms. Knecht’s father helped her make a camera out of a cigar box. “Although I’m not a sophisticated photographer, that project sparked a passion for taking photos that I still have today,” she said.

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