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The Secret Little Agency Announces New Leadership at JUNK

13/01/2022
Creative Agency
Singapore, Singapore
296
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Fabian Jan joins as partner to head up the team

Growing its prowess, The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) has announced new leadership of JUNK, its strategic insights agency and cultural bureau, naming a new partner to head up the team. 

JUNK was first launched by the creative agency back in 2018, as an editorial and research desk to better understand the vibrant cultural landscape of Southeast Asia for readers and brands. 

Three years on, JUNK is expanding into a full-service cultural strategy agency to ensure deeper regional foresight & fluency for clients across Southeast Asia. 

Where cultural economics meets speculative design, JUNK starts with helping clients achieve deep understanding of Southeast Asia’s unique and diverse cultures - often superficially understood or overlooked - to unlock sharper strategies that can achieve desired business outcomes. 

Leading the charge is TSLA’s latest hire Fabian Tan, partner, head of JUNK (pictured above). An insights expert, Fabian is trained as a qualitative researcher and brand consultant with Quantum Consumer Solutions, first in Singapore and eventually moving to Shanghai to set up and co-lead its China presence in 2017. 

Fabian adopts a method-agnostic approach to applied human sciences, and believes in reimagining conventional research ‘rules’ to deliver interesting yet useful outcomes for clients. As such, he has applied his specialisation in cultures and insights for brand strategy, innovation, purpose-building and communication across various verticals, including Personal Care, Beauty, Food and Beverage, Nutrition & Supplements, Alcohol, Social Issues and Sustainability. His experience and partnerships are anchored in Asia and the Global South. 

“Asian Excellence - that’s how I’ve always seen TSLA. And I’m thrilled to now be a part of this mission focussed agency and to work alongside some of the brightest, most daring, and passionate thinkers, creatives, and problem solvers,” said Tan.

He added: “JUNK will further deepen this ethos, as we fortify our offer by studying Asian cultures more deeply and empathetically. We want to tell cultural stories that are real, raw, nuanced, and inspiring, and have set our sights on decoding the complexities and excavating the (thus far) inaccessible aspects of our region. I’m excited to be on this journey, and to see the magic and impact we can create with JUNK’s robust cultural insights function within the TSLA ecosystem.”

JUNK has already begun work for a variety of client brands, including most recently the Potato Head Group, and currently has open roles & is actively hiring curious, inquisitive cultural thinkers. More announcements for JUNK to come.

 

WHAT IS JUNK?

As a cultural strategy agency, JUNK is a cultural compass that decodes cultural cores and futures, unravelling insights and foresights that can help readers more sharply understand the whys beneath the what's in culture and phenomena, and help clients better embed themselves within cultural meaning systems. JUNK goes deep and studies cultures from ground up and on the fringes, making sure what is learnt can easily translate to action - actionable outputs that clients can make use of, to partner clients not just in understanding but designing strategic pathways for their business. 

JUNK also works to imagine futures that provoke thinking and facilitate conversations about where we’re headed and how we might respond, marrying speculative design with the extensive creative network of TSLA, spring boarding from research-based foresights into future scenarios, principles, and codes that will help clients plan for their future.

JUNK’s capabilities include: providing deep cultural insight and fluency; understanding meaning systems and material culture; determining core culture codes, shifts and subcultures; strategy catalyst, definition and activation; actionable insights in the form of cultural playbooks, category toolkits, opportunity mapping, idea and concept creation. 

Credits
Work from The Secret Little Agency
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