Superimpose: the small studio packing a mighty punch
As a part of our Annual 2019 coverage Rachael Steven meets Superimpose, the East London creative agency that counts adidas, Childish Gambino and Burberry among its clients
Ollie Olanipekun and Toby Evans founded Superimpose in 2014. Frustrated with the set up at larger agencies – where they felt creative output was dictated by the skills available in-house – the pair set out to create an alternative model: one that wasn’t limited to a particular format or medium, but could call on a global network of young creative talent to produce anything from events to brand identities, installations and digital experiences.
It was a big ambition for two creatives in their 20s. But it seems to have worked out well: in the past 12 months, Superimpose has created campaigns for adidas’s much-hyped collaborations with Stormzy and Transport for London, immersive installations for Childish Gambino’s Pharos festival and digital experiences for Burberry and Zalando, as well as an ‘anti-corporate’ identity for adidas’s Los Angeles basketball pop-up, 747 Warehouse Street.
The agency’s first project was a global campaign for the launch of adidas’s Stan Smith shoe. (Evans and Olanipekun had worked with adidas before launching Superimpose, and set up just as the brand was going through a marketing reshuffle.) The pair created visuals which rolled out in 18 cities, and Stan Smiths became the must-have trainer of 2015.
The project’s success led to more work with adidas Originals – including innovative campaigns for the brand’s collabs with Parley for the Oceans and artist Daniel Arsham. Alongside its work with adidas, it has been expanding its client list and is currently in talks with gaming and tech brands as well as global fashion labels. It’s also set to open its first studio in Los Angeles later this year.
The agency has a small core creative team that works directly with clients from concept to execution. Unlike bigger organisations, it doesn’t have large teams of account managers handling the process, and recruits specialist creatives and producers on a project-by-project basis, a model that allows it to work across a range of mediums. For adidas and Stormzy’s collaboration, it worked with a specialist producer to put on an events programme spanning lectures, surprise college drop-ins and live performances featuring local youth groups from across the capital.
While it’s common for agencies to recruit freelancers and independent creatives, Superimpose has a more flexible model and a slimmer core team than most. “Should [a project] need a specific skill set, we’ll go find that,” says Strategy Director Jenny Zhang. “It allows us to make sure we’re hiring the best people – that’s really important I think, and that’s the model that [traditional] agencies are struggling with.”
Should a project need a specific skill set, we’ll go find that. It allows us to make sure we’re hiring the best people
Alongside its commercial work, Superimpose explores new ideas through experimental offshoot, Services Unknown. This has resulted in online think pieces, products and conceptual projects, from essays exploring the future of AI and our overexposure to information to the agency’s own hot sauce. Another project, Emoticash, reflected on the rise of Emotional Detection Recognition technology with a concept for a new kind of virtual cash which could be used to reward consumers for sharing their feelings with brands.
Services Unknown was founded as a way to secure new business and catch the attention of potential clients. “We launched it as a platform where we could work free of creative constraints: an idea can come from any member of the team and we’ll build products, events, anything we think is relevant,” says Olanipekun. It was Emoticash that caught the attention of Donald Glover, and Olanipekun says several brands have got in touch with the agency after seeing its self-initiated projects.
It also provides an outlet for Superimpose’s team to flex their creativity and learn new skills outside of client projects. “I think one of the big problems we found working in big agencies in the past was that you were working on projects day in, day out and that was it, unless you had the purpose and drive to do something outside of work,” explains Zhang. “We knew the team had so much more to bring. We all have our own passion and our own interests and [with Services Unknown], it’s about enriching people and letting them test themselves in different ways,” she adds.
While the world of commercial creativity is changing, most agencies are still known for their strength in a particular area – whether it’s TV ads, social campaigns or brand identities – with larger brands often working with different agencies for different outputs. Superimpose, however, has actively resisted this approach, preferring instead to try something new with each project. This can present some challenges (Olanipekun says the agency has lost pitches as a result of “thinking too big”) but in the long run, he and Zhang believe it has led to better work and better clients.
Over the past year, Zhang says more clients have come to the agency with open-ended briefs: “More and more, we’re being brought in almost as creative consultants, so before we even get to a brief, we’re shaping the opportunity and what that proposition could be. It’s great for us because we’re getting higher up in the chain, and being brought into conversations earlier in the process, and at the end of it, the work that comes out is better because everyone knows what the objectives are,” she explains.
It’s about telling a story or landing a message in the most powerful way and reducing the amount of hoops that a consumer has to go through
One of the agency’s biggest challenges now is communicating the range of projects it can offer. As Zhang points out, the diversity of its output has been key to Superimpose’s success, but with so many projects on the go, it can be difficult to sum up what it does.
At its heart though, the agency has a desire to create work that people want to engage with, rather than creating something just for the sake of it. “It’s about telling a story or landing a message in the most powerful way and reducing the amount of hoops that a consumer has to go through. It takes a lot to get someone to like something these days,” says Zhang.
superimpose.global, @superimpose.global; View all the winners of The Annual 2019
