On the heels of designing the
lauded Cannes Lions 2017 ‘YouTube Beach’ activation and building a robust presence in Europe and globally for the last 11 years, WPP live experience agency SET Live has opened its doors in North America.
A sibling of experience design and strategy agency SET, New York-based SET Live North America presents a new offering for SET’s existing US client base, which includes other high-profile brands such as Verizon. “Our core capability revolves around world-class strategic thinking, inspired creativity and impeccable delivery to create effective live events,” SET Live North America Managing Director Alan Doyle explains. “By being able to pull together a huge range of different – and ever-changing – disciplines, we offer a complete service across projects that come in many different forms, from sponsorship activation to exhibitions to stage shows.”
Along with Doyle, SET Live North America’s leadership includes Technical Director and George P. Johnson alum Martin Szymanski and Global Executive Creative Director Guy Tremlett, who believes that the agency’s collaborative working nature sets it apart in a highly competitive industry. “More often than not, ‘events’ agencies need to work alongside existing client agency partners – and their clients in other departments. Many of our competitors struggle to embrace this – particularly the larger ones. We’re the opposite and have many examples where we’ve collaborated to the benefit of all parties and most importantly the client.”
With a focus on positioning itself as a creative and strategic partner renowned for its live executions, SET Live has applied its collaborative approach on events for high-profile brands including digital media company Oath, was a key part of virtual agency teams for Castrol, partners with several departments within Heineken on sponsorship activations and helps launch activations for luxury automaker, Bentley.
As SET Live North America establishes its New York base, Doyle says that the creative and commercial ambitions of the company are unified. “Every project we take represents a creative opportunity for us and we have a genuine hunger to deliver inspirational solutions for our clients’ problems,” explains the Managing Director. “We’re creative people, whose desire to innovate, to build something new and compelling is innate. It’s also because it’s this kind of work that is the most effective at meeting the client’s needs, that gets people engaged, talking and sharing.”
SET Live North America is eager to now leverage its extensive global experience and show that it’s well-equipped to handle new market conditions across the Atlantic. With oversight from a leadership team that draws knowledge from combined European and local expertise, Doyle adds that the opportunities in North America are “fantastic” for SET Live.
“We have the advantages of our heritage in Europe and a North American network provided by SET and WPP,” says the exec, who reveals that SET Live North America plans to expand its reach in the region by launching in Portland this fall. “Plus, we have a great story to tell.”