Small Agency Of The Year, International, Gold: We Are Pi

When Amsterdam-based We Are Pi held a dance party at the bottom of the world’s deepest swimming pool for Heineken’s tequila-flavored beer Desperados, it boosted brand engagement more than nine times. But that was just one of a series of jaw-dropping event experiences We Are Pi has created for Desperados, including a zero-gravity plane drop and a hot air balloon music festival. We Are Pi opened eight years ago (coincidentally on “Pi Day,” March 14– hence the name) when a group of four Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam staffers decided to set up their own shop further down the canal. CEO Alex Bennett Grant was just 28 at the time, but the agency already thought big: One of its first big pieces of work was the creation of founding client Lego’s Ninjago brand. In 2018, We Are Pi added work from WeTransfer and Netflix and retained all of its existing clients including Heineken, Nikon, Desperados, Lego and TED. Revenue rose from $3.2 million in 2017 to $3.6 million last year and is projected to surpass the $4 million mark in 2019. We Are Pi CEO Bennett Grant believes the agency is set apart by its “truly diverse output,” which includes events, experiences and product innovation and brand redesign (the shop’s most recent project is a logo flip for fashion brand Desigual). This year it also moved into entertainment and content creation with the launch of Pi Studios; its projects include the Webby award-winning “Migrant Sound,” a four-part documentary made with Boiler Room about Caribbean immigration’s impact on U.K. music, a subject close to Grant, who is of Jamaican-British heritage. Now 35-strong, We are Pi says it aims to become the “best international indie agency.” And while it will stay based in Amsterdam, where staff enjoy a company boat, the shop hasn’t ruled out expansion elsewhere.

Small Agency Of The Year, International, Gold: We Are Pi

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