For Keith Pape, digital marketing is not about impressions, likes, or viral moments that fade as quickly as they appear. It is about selling products and building systems that can do that sustainably. As the founder and CEO of YellowPike Media, Keith has spent two decades refining an agency model that challenges clients as much as it serves them, prioritizing long-term business outcomes over short-term performance signals.

Founded in 2016, YellowPike Media is an LA-based creative and influencer marketing agency rooted in gaming culture, but increasingly active across entertainment, sports, retail, and experiential marketing. The agency works with the likes of Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Google, Amazon, Ubisoft, NASCAR, and Fox Sports, helping them reach digitally native audiences through integrated creator programs, experiential activations, and content systems built to perform across the full funnel.

“I like to tell people this is my seventh startup,” Keith says. “Which means I’ve successfully burned down six others, because the only way I learn is by doing things the wrong way.”

That trial-and-error path, spanning web design, mobile agencies, digital media leadership roles, and multiple economic downturns, ultimately shaped YellowPike’s defining philosophy: be willing to say no, build for resilience, and never mistake attention for impact.

A Founder Shaped by Cycles

Keith’s career stretches back more than 25 years, beginning in early web development and network architecture before moving into agency leadership roles across entertainment, gaming, and digital media. Along the way, he experienced firsthand how external forces (dot-com collapse, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19) can upend even successful businesses.

“Every time something went wrong, I learned what I was missing,” he says. “Sometimes, you don’t know how to run a company. Sometimes, you choose the wrong product. Sometimes, the world just changes.”

Those lessons crystallized into two principles that now underpin YellowPike’s operations. The first is financial discipline.

“The first thing I was told and ignored was you’ve got to have three months’ cash minimum in the bank,” Keith says. “And you need to build that in six months as soon as possible, because stuff happens.”

The second is relationship-driven growth.

“Your network is absolutely key,” he says. “The people you know and the people they know. That’s how real work happens.”

Together, those ideas laid the foundation for an agency designed to withstand volatility rather than chase scale at all costs.

Why YellowPike Exists

YellowPike emerged from frustration with traditional agency structures, where internal competition often overshadowed client outcomes. Keith and his co-founder had watched departments fight over incentives or credit, sometimes at the expense of what would actually work best for a campaign.

“Departments were always fighting each other over how much of the budget went to a campaign,” he says. “It was never about the product. It was about growing your department, your castle.”

YellowPike was designed to remove those internal incentives. The agency operates with a flat structure, cross-staffing teams across projects, and encouraging everyone to contribute beyond their job titles.

“If I can take out the trash, you all can take out the trash,” Keith says. “Nobody is too big or too small.”

That operational mindset mirrors YellowPike’s external posture with clients. The agency positions itself as opinionated, willing to walk away from misaligned work rather than optimize campaigns for metrics that do not translate to business results.

“You never take bad money,” Keith says. “There’s too much life to be had. There are too many opportunities to say yes to bad deals.”

A Gaming Audience Agency

While YellowPike’s roots are in gaming, Keith is careful to distinguish between being a gaming agency and being a gaming audience agency.

“I don’t care if you play ‘Monopoly Go’ or ‘Candy Crush’ or ‘Call of Duty,’” he says. “They’re all gamers. They all have a certain ethos.”

He believes that distinction allows YellowPike to work across endemic and non-endemic categories, translating gaming culture into relevance for brands that may not be native to the space. Past work has included projects with NASCAR, fast-food brands, airlines, and entertainment franchises, each using gaming-adjacent touchpoints to reach younger audiences.

When NASCAR came to YellowPike, the challenge was demographic. “The average age of a NASCAR viewer in the U.S. is 46,” Keith says. “They were asking, ‘How do we get younger?’”

The solution, he adds, was not simply influencer placement, but cultural alignment, i.e., connecting gamers who already engage with racing mechanics in virtual environments to the real-world sport.

“If you want people watching NASCAR 10 years from now,” Keith says, “let’s start interacting with them now.”

Events, Experiential, and Creator Activations

YellowPike organizes its work around three content pillars: events, experiential activations, and creator-led digital programs.

“You want to throw an event with creators, soup-to-nuts – we do everything,” Keith says. “Finding the venue, production, and livestreaming if needed.”

Experiential work often blends real-world immersion with long-form content creation. One example involved taking creators to Space Camp in Alabama for multiple days of astronaut training.

“We say we took them there to throw up for three days,” Keith jokes. “But it was creators, a camera crew, long-form content, live moments, the whole thing.”

The third pillar is traditional creator activations across YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram, designed to match product type with format rather than forcing uniform executions.

“Some products need affiliate marketing. Some need big branding,” Keith says. “Most are somewhere in the middle.”

Data as a Tool

Despite his skepticism toward vanity metrics, Keith is clear that data still plays a central role at YellowPike. The agency maintains a data science function focused on audience targeting, platform signals, and attribution, used to inform decisions rather than dictate creative.

“We don’t let data drive what we do,” he says. “But we use it to choose the right people, the right audience, and the right scale.”

For Keith, the most effective campaigns sit between pure performance marketing and pure brand storytelling.

“The sweet spot is targeted views at enough scale,” he says. “The people seeing it are already in the consideration set, so you get to be creative and effective at the same time.”

Platform Cycles and Creator Commerce

Keith has watched platforms cycle in and out of favor repeatedly, from YouTube’s early days to TikTok’s rise and the resurgence of long-form content. He sees current enthusiasm around TikTok Shop as both familiar and instructive.

“It feels very 1995 QVC Home Shopping Network,” he says. “It’s a different screen, a different generation, but the mechanics are the same.”

Rather than viewing commerce-led content as a threat to creativity, Keith sees opportunity in balance where direct selling coexists with lifestyle content and real-world experiences.

“My favorite time is when there’s a balance,” he says. “You sell when people are online, then on the weekend they’re at festivals, concerts, Comic-Con.”

The hybrid future, in which digital commerce is paired with In Real Life experiences, is where YellowPike sees continued opportunity.

The Risk of the Race to the Bottom

As brands continue to reassess how marketing budgets are allocated, Keith warns against pricing pressures that erode quality and sustainability.

“There’s a drive to the bottom line right now,” he says. “And it’s going to start affecting the quality of work creators can put out.”

That dynamic, he argues, creates a negative feedback loop; poor results lead to skepticism about creator marketing as a whole, rather than reflection on execution.

“You’re not giving it a fair chance,” he says. “You’re not playing on even ground.”

What Comes Next?

As the creator economy matures, Keith believes the next generation of audiences will demand more (both online and offline), and brands will need to meet them with greater intentionality.

“The next generation is going to demand more,” he says. “You’re going to have to be on your A-game.”

For YellowPike, that means continuing to build campaigns that balance creativity with accountability and being willing to walk away when that balance cannot be achieved.

“If you have real relationships and you’re smart about your finances,” Keith says, “everything else works out.”