Reinventing Marketing Services for Global Brands Through AI Agents

Overview

Global brands like Coca-Cola and Heineken trust Link to bring their marketing visions to life. In an industry demanding both precision and speed, we partnered with Link to develop an innovative AI solution: a suite of specialised AI agents that handle everything from instant design generation to effectiveness evaluation—available 24/7 for their staff and clients.

"Leverage AI helped us turn our vision into reality. Their expertise in both AI and user experience meant we could move quickly from idea to implementation, delivering a proprietary, bespoke solution that has truly impressed, and added huge value to, our clients and staff across +60 markets."

— Nick Wall, Chief Commercial Officer at Link

Who are Link?

Link powers marketing execution for some of the world's biggest brands, creating everything from branded merchandise to store displays. Their focus on sustainability and ethical supply chains has made them a trusted global partner for companies like Coca-Cola, Mars, Heineken, and L'Oréal.

The Challenge

The marketing services industry operates on a well-established model: design teams receive briefs, develop concepts through iterative rounds, and refine until finalisation. Link saw an opportunity to transform this model and deliver something better for their clients:

The industry's pace limited creative exploration. Traditional timelines meant clients often defaulted to "safe" choices—repeating proven concepts rather than exploring new directions. Link wanted to unlock the innovation their clients were asking for.

Research depth was constrained by timelines. Even skilled designers had limited time to research what would resonate in each market. Link saw potential to bring deeper, data-backed insights into every concept from the start.

The marketing ROI question remained unanswered. The industry's holy grail has always been measuring marketing effectiveness objectively rather than relying on gut feel. "This promo item might attract people"—but nobody could really say with confidence.

Link's leadership saw that AI could fundamentally change this equation. The question wasn't whether to embrace AI, but how to build something that would genuinely transform their service delivery.

Our Solution

We designed and built a suite of AI agents, each handling a different part of Link's value chain. Together, they create an entirely new way of delivering marketing services.

Product Design Agent

Our flagship agent uses state-of-the-art image generation and editing capabilities, trained on Link's brand guidelines and design expertise. For every brand and sub-brand Link works with, clients and internal staff can instantly generate innovative product concepts.

What makes this different: research comes first. When you request a concept, the agent deploys research sub-agents in the background to investigate what's likely to be effective—what other brands have done, what trends are emerging, what resonates with target audiences. The result is high-quality, well-researched designs in seconds rather than weeks.

This has been transformative. Clients can now explore multiple directions instantly rather than waiting for the traditional design cycle, which has driven real innovation. For Link, this capability has become a key factor in clients choosing to renew contracts and sign new deals.

Effectiveness Agent

Once you have design concepts, how do you know which one will actually work? Our effectiveness agent solves this.

It conducts deep research into every factor that could make a concept successful in a given industry and market: trends, target demographics, successful case studies, sustainability considerations, and more. The agent pulls from academic research, industry reports, and market data to produce a detailed, evidence-backed analysis of what's likely to make a product effective.

Evaluation Agent

Working alongside the effectiveness research, our evaluation agent scores each concept against criteria defined by Link's experts. It assigns a score out of 10 and provides detailed reasoning. When you have two or three concepts to choose between, the agent compares and contrasts them objectively—giving clients confidence in their decisions backed by evidence rather than intuition.

Baseline Miner Agent

Pricing and procurement are crucial parts of Link's business. Our baseline miner agent streamlines this in two ways:

For new product requests: It searches Link's historic database of invoices and orders to find the most relevant past work. Asked about keyrings with specific components? The agent surfaces similar products and suggests a reliable baseline price instantly.

For repeat orders: It identifies all relevant past orders for that client, establishing a procurement baseline. This helps Link evidence cost savings against previous orders—valuable for both internal efficiency and client satisfaction.

Site Visualisation Agent

Link does significant work dressing bars, hotels, and restaurants with promotional materials. We built an embedded agent that lets the sales team visit a site, take photos, and immediately visualise how different promotional items would look in that specific space.

Instead of asking clients to imagine what a branded display might look like in their venue, sales can show them—on the spot, in their actual environment. This brings concepts to life and dramatically shortens the sales cycle.

Results

The impact has been transformative:

For Link:

• Created a genuine competitive advantage as an innovation leader in their industry
• Strengthened client relationships with capabilities no competitor can match
• Empowered teams across the business—sales generating instant concepts in client meetings, designers focusing on higher-value strategic work
• Became a key factor in client retention and new business wins

For Their Clients:

• Instant access to high-quality, research-backed design concepts
• Objective evaluation of marketing effectiveness—no more guesswork
• Ability to explore multiple creative directions without time penalties
• Faster, more innovative marketing execution that keeps them ahead of competitors

A Partnership for Innovation

This project showcases how the right AI solution can transform a business. We brought fresh perspective and deep AI expertise to Link, helping them identify where AI could deliver the most value across their entire service delivery model.

After aligning on the right path forward, we led the build from initial prototype through to enterprise deployment—delivering a suite of AI agents that clients and staff now rely on every day across 60+ markets.