Civilization Shanghai’s team takes off to Chiang Mai for their fourth birthday celebrations

Civilization Shanghai recently celebrated their 4th anniversary with a company trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Co-Founder and Resident Film Director Andrew Lok told Campaign Brief Asia they had come a long way since they established in 2012. In the beginning, they were an agency of four people.

“We rented a table in a friend’s production house in the early winter of 2012,” said Lok. “Our first project was to help create a 133-page PowerPoint presentation for PepsiCo, which they used to pitch for the Shanghai Disneyland account. Thank goodness they won.”

Since then the agency hasn’t looked back. Today, Civilization is more than 70-strong, working on brands such as Pepsi, Lay’s, Mirinda, 7UP, Doritos, Quaker, Master Kong’s portfolio of teas, Sedrin Beer, and e-commerce giant T-Mall. In a fitting tribute to their first client, their film for PepsiCo’s 2016 Chinese New Year campaign, “The Monkey King Family” garnered more than 830 million views spread across China’s slew of online video platforms, instantly becoming the most-watched piece of branded content ever created by a Chinese agency.

“Our agency’s offering embraces the characteristics of China’s marketing landscape,” Alex Xie elaborates, “Civilization creates brand content that fully leverages both the digital platforms native only to this market, as well as the entertainment and celebrity IP (Intellectual Properties) that dominate what Chinese consumers watch.”

Adding Chiang Mai to a list that already includes Hainan, Siem Reap and Southern Japan, what value do the founders of Civilization see in the time-honoured annual company trip?

“We travel all over the world all the time on shoots,” Lok said, “I still believe, however, it is imperative for everybody to get together and get away, if only just to take stock in what we have achieved together as a team, and perhaps fortify us for further adventures.”