Superimpose

0:04[Applause]

0:13right. So superimpose is a new world creative agency challenging brands to go further independently independent culturally rooted and globally active we push the limits of experience but meaningful conversation.

0:26So yeah obviously every agency has to appeal but we worked quite hard on this and over the three and a half years we've been ruining it's changed a little bit.

0:35But I guess what's really key in this one is you know the new world agency that's really speaking to that new consumer you know we don't really try and you know okay this this briefs up we're going after Millennials or it's gendered it's really just you want to speak to as many people as possible and then yeah coach really rooted is really important globally active and yet meaningful conversations throughout this presentation you'll see lots of case studies about you know it's not just the campaign but it's the conversation we can push around that so here's a picture of us in our first office it's a little basement in Hoxton with one window which we couldn't see the sky from a lot happened in there a lot of ideas so a little bit about us I'm from graphic design and art direction background I've worked with clients such as Palace skateboards 80s originals converse boiler room bleach London and quite a few bars and restaurants in the Boston area said my ice died in trend forecasting actually like many over ten years ago.

1:52And then that led me into content strategy so as you know. I was really always interested in the way before we got to any any finish like why where did that come from and yeah I bounced around lots of global agencies some brands channel four was that for a few years.

2:08And then yeah a DDoS before we set up superimpose yeah I guess how we kind of started these conversations we've been friends for quite a while we bumped into each other a lot at kind of various nights out drinking more drinking more drinking and then you know we we always kind of knew we were in a similar kind of area in our work.

2:37And we always kind of you know we'd see each other one night next morning we'd bump into each other on the way to work Pablo's kind of you know frustrations and conversations and we yeah just just again a couple of drunk conversations later we we thought it might be worth it was really understanding that the position we were both in whether it was working a you know directly for big brands or within a big agency it was you know that we just didn't feel like that setup was for us at the time we had no idea with that you know it could you know come become something like this.

3:19But it really was those frustrations Toby was like one of the only guys I knew who was out on the piss with me. But also the next morning having to go do serious briefs so yeah those conversations led to superimpose doing things differently so we both saw an opportunity to start something that was independent culturally rooted and visually against trends one of the main focuses was to create a company that could flex up and down depending on workflow so we luckily between us we have the skills to kind of start doing things and you know making projects without having to really reach out any further than done between us so you know the kind of strategy and then working into creative and design we could keep this quite a small kind of close-knit team yeah there are guests as well there's always been a kind of desire with the companies to keep it quite open-ended we didn't want to get pigeonholed as I just doing strategy or just doing creative or just doing design we kind of you know we attack each brief with almost a naivety as we can do it but you know we always managed to put it off.

4:36And I think that's something that we've done from the get-go yeah and I think he's going back you know the reason we sell together was we both were at the different ends of the spectrum for the creative I guess offering you know I'm my background being more brand positioning content strategy Toby's more designer direction. So in the middle we met as creative directors and yeah this this tagline doing things differently really was about okay cool let's see if we can set up an agency and all those frustrations we had if there's the other way that we think the right way what would happen and you know fortunately it's worked out a dream and now lots of our clients come to us and you know all of the staff we have on the team really have that mentality about doing things differently it really you know a lot of the time we're saying yeah that's just the way it is you know we got used to hearing that previously but it really isn't you know. And I guess just keep pushing forward and have that confidence to deliver with something that why you know doing things differently is something that will stick with us.

5:37So we're gonna go for a few projects from are kind of you know early days through to few more things were a little bit more current but still stop this one we were lucky enough to you know we had links to adidas which you know was very beneficial to us start.

5:54But this was our kind of first brief as superimpose there's a global campaign to relaunch a Stan Smith adidas Originals biggest selling trainer ever so no pressure we had to develop a 360 strategy and creative campaign to work across every phase from retail social at home.

6:17So this was kind of a key visual I think there was only a few markets that bought into it.

6:23But I think the brief was it was going into seven key markets and then because of the success ago I extended 18 key markets oh yeah these billboards were seeing across the world. And it was mad because I think this came of free months after we set up superimpose and you know but call it timing or whatever that I think when they gave us this brief it was a massive gamble that they took and we you know I remember it was just the two of us who did this and a lot of late nights but yeah it you know it turned out a dream after that we kind of you know we added us really liked us.

7:03And we managed to keep a good working relationship with them and for for a couple years we we did a lot of their kind of campaign art direction creative direction. And this is just kind of a snapshot into some of those projects ranging from you know the the end of light collaborations with Japanese brands through to some of the kind of kids stuff so it's quite a wide range that we were working on yeah and I think what was the the attraction for a ddos was and something that we've learned and you know included in our guests our proposal is that we are the audience you know lots of the agencies that are probably using before us were probably a little bit older and you know a bit further away from the audience we're trying to speak to so what we came in was like it wasn't this going at reading trend reports or hiring the young kids to tell us what was cool it was like let's just make what we're into you know our network of friends and yeah.

8:06I think this slide here at particularly ISM when we got brought under a DDoS they were very much that commercial brand Littlewoods catalog type of look you know. And I guess what they asked us and what we've helped them do over the three years was really figure out how they can present themselves as a bit more I guess caller and that was done through you know that was the way we cast the the confidence in the you know the angles you know cropping through the face lots of that sort of stuff so yeah this this page just gives you an idea of how we took added us on that journey in the last few years.

8:40So that kind of sets it up for you know how we've kind of continued that way of working into one of our latest projects that came out earlier this year spring kind of time so let Holly intro so yeah Burberry approached us because Christopher Bailey's last collection and they wanted to introduce the rainbow check for I'll be so yeah when they approach this and that. Basically they wanted to keep he wanted to go out with a bang and the weirdest thing for this brief was that when they approached us lots of the work in the brief was our work from my web Instagram this was before we even agreed to do it. So if we don't give it to us are you gonna give it to bum you know what was great was that they asked us to just be us it was that you know we want you to tell us how we can make a big bang in this space you know break the rules no guidelines no brand book or anything and yeah it for us it was something you know the whole team were really excited for and you know all skill sets jumps in yeah it was quite all hands on deck approach to this brief there was kind of various skill sets we had in the studio from you know senior art directors through to a couple designers that worked across this but a little bit of the creative process so this is one of the you know earlier visualizations when we kind of shot that assets and everything.

10:16But we wanted you know we we kind of did a bit of insight on this generation. And we kind of saw this idea that. There was no boundary to die or cross-pollination like and some subcultures to define their own as their own we kind of came up with the term non era because it was kind of unplaced this new kind of internet generation where you know everything's a reference point so this is a couple you know a couple of the shots that we got some of the collages we made we've got to make a rainbow check banana which was quite fun I'd never for that let us do that.

11:00And it definitely needed to be immortalized in internet history of you know Burberry official banana you could actually use it as a gift fee on Instagram for a little while but I think they took it down when Ricardo tyskie took over so yeah till that way here's a few more shots just had a lot of fun with it really it went out through hypebeast but then it you know when internally through all of Burberry's channels which was incredible with some dumb really well for us no it was just really one of those moments where again time in brand needed to have an injection of life. And sources I guess an agency that could break the mold kind of a dream brief and then since there lots of brands are coming to us for that it's like an ideal position to be in to be you know even if it's a one-off project just being able to really go wild and reinvent the wheel with each time. That's a busy side so services are known in the middle there is something that we came up with I guess maybe a year into superimpose and I guess what where it came from was we were at that stage where we might need to consider new business and I guess in the places we've worked at you know that old approach of you know getting a PDF together and going knocking doors cold calling was just wasn't gonna work for us we can do that I think we tried and so I guess the idea for services unknown was to create this platform that sits separately from superimposed you know superimposed for our commercial where the services are known really is an opportunity for us to have complete freedom from client requests be able to showcase our creativity you know and really challenge the industry we're in I think lots again the main reason we did it was because we didn't we didn't find places where we felt like we fitted in so with that were like maybe the industry needs to change so yeah through this platform is really about challenging what how it's meant to be but yeah really it's a great portfolio to showing for new business lots of clients come to us now ah you know that stuff you did for services and we want it for our you know brand campaign so yeah it's a great platform and it allows all the team to just be completely mad and we're gonna show you some of our so I'm gonna do my best at trying to explain this project it's been a few months since we put it out and yeah.

13:40So this was entirely self initiated project which is what we do as services are known this came out or you know it's all kind of came from the time when Cambridge analytical scandal was happening and we were all starting to worry about our privacy settings also the surgeons Bitcoin worth and as a studio we would super busy and no one felt that they were given themselves a time to kind of you know think or unthink and kind of get their head in this in a good place so I'll go through the points and kind of take you through the project Emoto cash is a concept that raises interesting questions about technology surveillance privacy with consumer culture through launch in the hypothetical cryptocurrency we posed a question of how much a brand was willing to pay in exchange for direct consumer insight into their products services control versus how much consumers would allow into their lives for exchange on well-being products as a reward so it's all about that kind of exchange is a little bit black mirror as well in terms of you know doing something for credits to you know get something that could help you in your day to day life.

14:57So we launched a whole campaign with wellness experiences to run a run alongside we create a fake insight study on currency physical report industry-wide PR launched in a series of wellness events including Gantz and and doom yoga who we partnered with we had Nova whelming response to this a lot of emails from people asking us if we if they could buy the cryptocurrency we had a lot of people offering to make it for us sure there's some weird ones as well.

15:34But the most incredible thing which none of us saw us come in was we got contacted by this science museum and we were asked to submit it to their archive and it was one of the first crypto currencies to be put into their currency collection in London.

15:52So I think it should be there for a long time forever yeah we 3d printed one I haven't got one with me but one of those and they've got it on archive there which very cool the maddest thing about that project is it was concept 'add by our 21 year old junior creative and for myself and toby that was the moment where like yeah services and no really is that platform we wanted it to be you know come with your wildest ideas present it.

16:24And it's all yours you know you get complete autonomy so yeah we're really proud of that project and the doors it's open in terms of new people come in because they've seen it and they want us to create something like that it's just a testament to for sure so this one's a weird one so this was at the start of the year again and the services are known I was approached by political party and they you know knowing that they had eight months or left to you know get people to you know vote on you know speak to them MPs about me being able to push for a second referendum they asked me to come along and sit in this meeting and see if I could offer some ideal I guess as the youth it was weird because I was sitting there as I a table of about 25 old Wai men suits and I didn't know was going on.

17:18So I'll turn over my hoodie I was late listen to their idea I was actually sitting next to you know the round I'm Tony Blair's chief campaign officer he sat next to me and he was just like what anyway they asked me to contribute some ideas and yeah this was our idea it was you know the the approach was that you've completely lost trust of the British public no one knows that what you're saying your campaigns are all jogger and it's finger pointing in we need to break away from that.

17:47So we just fought about simple flying it to the max swindled is such a good word visualization is simple provocative no one wants to end up with a flat burger we had national billboard coverage in 15 cities the biggest one in the country on the m25 and an appearance on Sky News with Andrew Bolt and where.

18:11I had to talk about politics and obviously I have no idea what I'm talking about I just had to remind a little of a crepe director general I just came what would be the idea but again this was this went out under services are known and I think I just want to make sure that services are known really is about challenging the way things that don't we are you know a publisher a brand and an agency we really wanted to break the mold of how an agency should set up and again stuff like this just proves that I think we might be on to something yeah a lot of people think this is all Photoshop but they're real honestly this is very real and yeah just to kind of top that off we couldn't do a lot of what we do now without an incredible team around us this was taken maybe two months ago. And I think since then we've we're nearly up to about 20 people so as weird it's crazy these guys are so smart you know every day we come in we're just so inspired everyone bounces off each of them also entrepreneurial intelligent hard-working and yeah we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing opening offices in LA without this team some of them here today so also some of our t-shirts up there which thing we're doing another print run soon which you'll see on our Instagram d'azyr anyway thank you very much thank you very much yes [Applause]