Catching up; House of Greenland
Collective Temperance was a special chapter in Collective’s story. When it came to an end, some members took temporary offices whilst our new space is being prepared, others were looking for something more permanent. We’ve been busy chasing them around London being nosy. First, the wonderful House of Greenland.
They are a video agency founded by Camden residents Agathe and Martin. They’ve got a great new office in Islington filled with their growing team of creatives. On one desk we see the familiar faces of Camden Watch Company and have a weird paternal pride in seeing these guys working together beyond their Collective years. It turned out to be a pretty jolly reunion, with sword fights and everything.
Agathe and Martin give us a quick snapshot in to the workings of HoG, from starting out to growing an ambitious client list.
Why did you choose Camden Town to base your agency?
We’re locals, and have been living and working in Camden Town for over 5 years. It’s quite difficult to establish yourself as a creative business in London. So before we joined Collective, it was very much just us in our living room.
Camden is super buzzing. But it’s also pretty expensive. Because of that, we could be losing the possibility of having cool and creative companies come from, and start in Camden. If it wasn’t for Collective, we would have started outside of London.
All these amazing companies are created in Collective. But by it’s nature, these are temporary spaces. We need to ensure these companies are able to survive after being based in affordable coworking spaces.
As a small company, how do you go about grabbing the attention of major companies?
As soon as you have something that talks to people, they notice you. If you go to Samsung having worked with google, it makes more sense. If you go to the Barbican having worked with Tate modern — it makes sense! It’s all about having a few elements that you can show, be genuine with the companies that you approach, and present to them something that they will value.
Do you believe in ‘fake it till you make it’ to get where you need to be?
We do this all the time — every day. As a company, our first client was a global corporation and we had to convince them to work
with us.
As founders, we both started at different points. Martin had a big status at Google. I think faking it is something that has to be done to create this situation. I was a freelancer who had struggled for ten years in France — suddenly, I had to speak to and meet with clients. I was purely going off Martin’s instructions and somehow, had to believe I was credible enough to carry them out.
Any exciting upcoming projects?
We’re currently in conversation with Netflix. This is the type of company we honestly thought would never answer — but they did!
