Semi Permanent launches new creative services and experience design agency: SP Brand Studio
Semi Permanent, the biggest and longest-running creativity and design festival in the southern hemisphere, announces the official launch of its creative services and experience design agency: SP Brand Studio, with founding clients KPMG, Microsoft, Heaps Normal, Perion, and Sea Forest, who join ongoing retainer accounts Rare with Google, and Highsnobiety.
Built on the foundation of two decades of creative collaborations with the world’s leading talent and brands, SP Brand Studio brings together the strengths that underpin the success of Semi Permanent’s global festival business, working to unite innovative brands and creative audiences through the lens of contemporary culture, and physical and digital experience design.
Offering services in strategy, creative, curation and omni-channel production, SP Brand Studio taps its unrivalled network of global talent to deliver first-to-market concepts and unique ideas for partners and owned IP, driving cultural connection, audience engagement and relevance for modern brands in the luxury, lifestyle, design and technology sectors.
Says Murray Bell, founder and CEO of Semi Permanent: “We know that an experience has the profound ability to directly connect with and immerse an audience in a brand’s story, and never before has that level of cut-through been necessary in gaining a competitive advantage. After nearly 20 years of creating some of the most engaging and well-attended events across the globe as well as online, Semi Permanent is uniquely placed to share this success with our brand partners.”
The studio’s most recent projects include a multi-day creativity festival in the Middle East, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism, featuring Oscar-winning musician Mark Ronson; a retrospective exhibition of the collaboration between Grammy Award-nominated musician Sia and director Daniel Askill, in partnership with Tourism Portugal; A Semi Permanent Hotel, an immersive omni-channel hotel takeover experience launching the Highsnobiety brand in Australia, with partners Polestar, Glenfiddich and RIMOWA; and the global launch of Wave Relic, a collaboration between surfboard shaper Hayden Cox and artist Daniel Arsham, comprising a pop-up store, content creation, partner integration and event series.
SP Brand Studio’s capabilities are bolstered by key hires, including former Esquire editor-in-chief and Thames & Hudson author, Mitchell Oakley Smith, as global creative and content director; luxury marketing and brand specialist, Natalia Sakowicz, as brand and partnerships director; former BBC and The Smalls producer, Kate Fagan, as digital and talent producer; and creative brand strategist, Tom Ryan, as brand and partnerships manager.
Joint venture partnerships with global street culture publisher Highsnobiety, and innovative UX specialists Nakatomi, extend Semi Permanent’s capability across media amplification and business transformation through technology and digital innovation design.