ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, JULY 18, 2012: What if you had too many ideas than what is needed for a project? Or what if ideas kept coming to you in a day, unsolicited? What would you do with it?
This concern led DDB Group Singapore to launch, Degree, a creative merchandise division that brings product ideas from agency staff to life and merchandises them.
The company’s 120-strong creative team had more ideas than they can use, which “leap out unasked while brainstorming”. Group executive director Joji Jacob and creative director Thomas Yang, both from DDB Singapore, saw this as an opportunity to turn their ideas into commerce social.
The process is simple. The production, sale, and shipping of any idea that the agency thinks has potential are funded directly and the profit is shared with the staffer who came up with it.
Already on sale, with some items even sold-out, are posters and life-sized alphabet furniture that can be assembled and look extraordinary. Although the site is not selling like eBay yet, the company’s first sales have been made from Oslo to India, which is already a good start.
The merchandise – ranging from quirky shirt designs to paintings – is already available on www.degree.bigcartel.com.
A truly creative agency would make the briefs, ideas, and products themselves. And that’s exactly what DDB Singapore is doing – turning ideas into reality.
