New treats now stocked at The Shop

Independent Sydney creative and experiential agency, The Shop has undergone a series of strategic developments to its team and offering including key staffing expansions, the rolling out of a new digital and social division, and the addition of two new clients.

The Shop has acquired Robot Meets Alien (RMA), one of Sydney’s most reputable social media agencies.  RMA will cease trading under its current name as part of integration into The Shop’s Sydney offices.  This unique partnership allows The Shop to create a cutting edge digital/social media marketing division under the guidance of RMA founder and managing director, Barney Glover (above left), who will fill The Shop’s newly created role of digital and social media director. Glover brings an enviable understanding of the digital and social space as well as high-level activation experience with consumer influence and word of mouth.

“I’m thrilled to be working with the great team at The Shop.  They havean amazing body of work and the potential to do great things togethergoing forward is limitless.  My goal is to grow this new division tothe point where we are certainly the top of mind social agency in thespace.” Barney Glover – digital and social media director

RMA has delivered solutions for an extensive list of clients includingMidori, Xbox360 and Project Runway and currently handles the digitaland social media for Samsung Digital Imaging, a key RMA client thatwill join The Shop’s growing portfolio.  To further expand the digitaldivision, The Shop has supplemented the existing RMA team with twoadditional in-house web developers.

In line with expansion plans, The Shop has brought Robert Bergin onboard in the newly created role as strategic development director.

Bergin (above right) was the founder and managing director of PaperTiger, who’s stable included independent magazine for young women”YEN”, the Australian/NZ version of UK style bible “Dazed &Confused” magazine, cult design book & event series “CURVY” andAustralia’s “Young Woman of the Year Awards”. Paper Tiger also offeredcreative solutions for brands such as Sony, Puma, adidas, DC Shoes,Oakley, Billabong, Mazda, Microsoft, Levi’s, P&G, Apple and V.

Bergin is also founder of the CURVY Creative Conference – a creativenetworking expo launching later in 2010 that features some of the mostcreative women in the world. He brings a wealth of media knowledge,strategic thinking and creativity to the team, especially in the youth,female and fashion markets.

“We have a long history of sparking exceptional connections betweenconsumers and brands, having them get to know each other, and enjoy theexperience.  The new division and additions to the team takes ourcapabilities to the next level and allows us to deliver all aspects ofany campaign,” says Melissa Daniels, managing director, The Shop.

The Shop has secured The Galeries Victoria (TGV) as their newestclient. Briefed to construct a campaign that resonates with the young,fashion savvy consumers that frequent the center and its many leadingboutique retailers, The Shop has taken this further and overhauled theentire identity, including a renaming and rebranding of the shoppingcenter to ‘The Galeries’.

Via its expanded capabilities, The Shop has created an integratedcampaign which embraces all the relevant media channels including anextensive online social media presence and specific website, as well asthe more traditional advertising/branding ATL components, and will alsoroll out a series of experiential event activities within ‘TheGaleries’, the first of which is ‘Fixed Up’, an exhibition ofphotography, fixed gear bikes and the stories behind them.  

The event will feature artistic contributions and installations fromleading figures from within the movement including LA based artist MikeGiant who has fully customised a fixed gear bike with his artwork byhand. The bike is to be given away to a customer of ‘The Galeries’ aspart of the promotional plans.