The pop up agency pops up at BBH Singapore
The Pop Up Agency, an agency that arrives, fulfills a real brief within 48 hours – and then leaves – has popped up at BBH Asia Pacific.
BBH has invited the The Pop Up Agency to tackle a client brief, with the promise to deliver a concept or strategy within 48 hours.
The agency consists of 6 students from the Swedish digital university Hyper Island that travel the world to work on creative projects. The students came up with the model of achieving 15 projects in 15 cities in 15 weeks as a way to counter their three-month internship requisite at an agency or start up.
The way it works? The Pop Up Agency opens and closes for 48-hour projects. When they take on a brief, they fly to your location, work for 48 hours, deliver a concept or strategy and move on to the next destination.
The idea of a Pop Up was inspired by the prevalence of pop up stores, bars and events around the world.
Singapore marks the sixth stop and first in Asia in the Pop-Up world tour. Since March 2013, the team has worked on projects in Sweden, the Netherlands and France.
14 Comments
Since when is a ‘one-night-stand’ a sensible way to solve serious marketing challenges?
Since when is it not? Marketing is all about innovation and new perspectives. Addition from that: They’re from Hyper Island, you should look it up! One of the best digital institutes in the world. 🙂
Go pop-up!
Everyone knows Hyperisland is good.
But tweets from the team in Singapore such as (i didn’t edit a word) : ‘Singapore is summer storms, big buildings, lights and weird asian heritage. ‘ doesn’t build confidence.
New perspectives are good. But touristy impressions don’t.
Give me experience and depth any day.
ah, the fast food of ad agencies.
48 hours is just enough time to babble ideas off my head and flesh them out.
new perspectives and innovation seldom come in 48 hours, sadly.
then again, this is probably a novel idea for the students to travel the world, while clocking internship hours.
not so sure if they’re good for clients.
hypebeast, the phrase used to acknowledge individual superiority in the face of negative external accusations. Can be repeated twice for emphasis. Often accompanied by a strutting walk away from offending party.
Haters gonna hate, man. Haters gonna hate!!!!!!!!
love the concept!
Surely a laudable one-off initiative for the agency as a way of just experimenting with with new modes of working, fresh new experiments in ways that agencies work and a chance to get some quirky young international digital talent to offer a (short, yes) new perspective on a single client agency project?
I’m sure the BBH bods that do have experience in all the regional markets that they work for (not just Singapore) will be able to guide the raw thoughts in the right way…
Bit sad that the increasingly xenophobic trolls once again instantly hit on the negatives and argue against any innovation
Some of the comments here come from people with no manners. These (highly schooled) interns are not just guests of BBH but Singapore. Let us try and remember that….please show some grace and charm for a change.
I think this is a great experiment…would love to see a follow up that goes a bit more into the process and the results.
Well done Pop-up Agency and BBH for supporting them.
For those dismissive that anybody could possibly create something great outside of the old agency tradition of locking a team together in a room for a month and hoping something great comes out, may I suggest you spend one weekend less watching Mad Men and check out these guys:
http://www.upsingapore.com/
It’s amazing what can be done in a short amount of time with the right direction and some great collaborative minds.
As the guy who brought the pop-up peeps to Singapore, I thought I’d share my experience of the project.
Wham-bam!-In & Out! (it feels so personal calling you that) we didn’t look to this to get a complete answer to ‘solving a serious marketing challenge’. It started out as an experiment to explore new ways of working and to support some young people who are not only incredibly talented, but have the swedish meatballs to try something different.
As for the ‘sensible’ concern, I’m very much open to being less sensible on occasion if we really want to stay creative in our work and, indeed, the way we work. Exploring new ways of working is not only a necessity for most of us facing the business challenges of modern advertising (by some of the comments, there seem to be some lucky to still live in MadMenland) but it can keep us interested and excited about coming into the office every day.
We gave them a very targeted brief, some guidance and kept them caffeinated. They presented their 48 hour pitch last night and we were very impressed. Not only was it a fresh, well thought out and well executed idea but their outside perspective served them well as they hit upon a local insight perhaps a little too close for locals to even notice. I will be proud to present it to our client.
They also took us through the processes they went through to get there which were not only very constructive in getting to the work quickly, but some seemed quite fun. As this business is under increasing pressure to do more and more, faster and faster for less and less, I ask a lot of the wonderful/amazing/talented people of BBH so I’m open to anything that can help get us to better work quicker and do it with more smiles.
Everyone involved had a great experience and I would highly recommend it to any (open-minded) agencies or brands out there.
Scott McClelland (I know I’m supposed to hide behind a half-arsed pun but thought if anyone was interested to talk more about the pop-up agency they could get in touch)
Executive Creative Director
BBH Asiapac
Scott, I applaud your transparency – very few in the business have the balls or zest for discovery something like this requires. Hat off.
For the negative comments – a bunch of kids coming in and threatening your (fear-ridden) comfort zone? Suggest you take a long hard look in the mirror.
Not to sound negative (BBH folks seem very sensitive these days) but this idea of creative hothousing has been around for a long time. Now it seems to have ‘popped up’ (funny that) in the guise of a Pop-Up agency.
I have sat in these sessions and always found the ideas to be sub par. People always seem to agree too easily and quite often pursue the first thing that sounds remotely interesting. Sometimes focus and fear combine to create magic….luck plays a huge part too. But that is not a given.
There is a business in the US that charges a thousand bucks and delivers an idea in 24 hours.
To me this is the difference between those 24 hour suits and a nice handmade one which takes at least 3 fittings and adjustments.
Whether this method creates the best ideas is another matter. But it does make a good story.
I don’t mean to be a wet blanket.
But I agree with Glenlivet. They’re doing great work, I agree with that too. But some of the ‘negative’ criticisms/skepticism are not uncalled for. Those guys who’re defending the Pop-Up Agency, aren’t you guys a little over-zealous? And over-sensitive?
Kudos to Scott who cleared things up. I’m sure the team is good, and will succeed with the right supervision.
But this 48 hour idea thing… I think it should just belong in schools.