Your creative agency and strategic partner, powered by AI.
Thirteen Degrees is an AI-native creative agency and consultancy. We combine senior strategic and creative thinking with our own intelligence tools to deliver campaigns, content and marketing that move the numbers.
We solve what brands hate about traditional agencies - slow turnarounds, bloated retainers and no visibility on results. AI handles the heavy lifting, clients see performance live, and senior people own the work.
Strategy first
Every engagement starts with the business problem. We diagnose the market, the audience and the brand before a single asset gets made.
Creative that ships
Campaigns, content, influencer and UGC programmes produced by senior creatives, with AI removing the busywork so budgets go further.
Intelligence underneath
Our own brand and market intelligence tools measure what works in real time, so every decision is backed by data, not opinion.
Senior people, no layers
You work directly with the people doing the work. Small, senior and accountable - no account-management layer in between.
Chae Francis is a Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 alumnus and entrepreneur, best known as Co-Founder of Ace Labs, a digital-first creative agency that shaped how some of South Africa's most recognised brands grow through technology, culture, content and commerce.
At Ace Labs, Chae built and scaled internal agency teams, led partnership and relationship management with TikTok South Africa, and developed the commercial frameworks behind the agency's expansion.
After his exit, Chae founded Thirteen Degrees to work directly with brands - bringing executive-level thinking, a sharp commercial eye and a builder's mindset to every engagement, from campaign strategy to creative production.
He brings what most agencies can't: a founder's perspective, a strategist's rigour and a technologist's understanding of what's actually possible.
Where that experience sits
- Brand, creative and campaign strategy
- Influencer, creator and UGC programmes
- Social, content and performance marketing
- Media, business strategy and commercial frameworks
- Applied AI for marketing and creative teams
How we got here.
- Ace Labs
Co-founding a creative agency
Chae co-founds Ace Labs, a digital-first creative agency shaping how some of South Africa's best-known brands grow through culture, content and commerce.
- Scale
Building teams and partnerships
Builds internal agency teams and leads partnership management with TikTok South Africa.
- Forbes
Forbes Africa 30 Under 30
Recognised for combining creative, commercial and technology thinking.
- Exit
Exit from Ace Labs
After a successful exit, Chae takes that experience directly to clients.
- Today
Thirteen Degrees
An AI-native creative agency and consultancy working with brands from Cape Town and London.
Small and senior, on purpose.
Behind the founder sits a senior team of strategists, creatives, producers and a network of vetted creators. You deal with the people doing the work, not an account layer between you and them.
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Bring us the problem, not the brief.
Tell us what the business needs to achieve. We'll come back with a clear strategy, the creative to deliver it and a way to measure it.