The Trailblazers
basement27 Founders on Creating a Marketing Agency, Designing for Gen Z, and Disrupting an Industry
basement27 is an independent creative agency designed to help brands with social media, marketing, and content geared toward Generation Z. Determined to change the advertising world, these Boston University students saw the shelter in place as an opportunity to start an agency centered on the generation they know the best.
We sat down with basement27 founders Angie Wijaya, Melissa Chan, Maura Munaf, and Pearl Zhong to discuss their experiences building a marketing agency for the most diverse and tech savvy generation.
Tell us the story behind basement 27.
Pearl: We all met in this class called Fundamentals of Creative Development. The course is run like an advertising agency and we all partnered with each other. We all felt this rare chemistry, like we all kinda knew, hey, we work well together. At the end of the semester, I turned to Melissa and said, “What if we start our own ad agency?” This is back in December 2019. Then the quarantine happened. Melissa said, why don’t we reach out to Maura and Angie to pitch the idea of starting this agency because now we have ample time to work on it? So we met over Zoom and started on March 24.
Melissa: After that, we started brainstorming our whole agency idea. We did some research and realized, we’re at such a young age and that's an asset that we should be able to use for our business model. That's how we came up with being a Gen Z agency.
We know the audience because we are the audience.
We’re from that age range that Gen Z is considered. For our name, we came up with a list and consulted our fundamentals professor. He really liked basement27 because it related to his class.
In the spring semester, I had a class with Maura. It was a portfolio development class and I asked Pearl if we should pitch this idea to our other classmates in fundamentals. I first told Maura, she liked it, and then she contacted Angie as well. That's how everything just came together.
Why Gen Z? How is Gen Z different from other age demographics?
Maura: We've done a lot of research and looked into ourselves. We’re still changing and it’s an ever-evolving kind of generation and so much research is being put into that. One of the things that make us [Gen Z] different is brand intimacy. Brand intimacy is so important because it really touches upon rituals and habits. Our habits based on research is so different than what millennials do or what boomers do.
We’re definitely a different kind of species. We’re digital natives and our brains work so much differently.
Brand intimacy builds longevity. The more intimate you are with a brand the more money you are willing to spend and the less you are willing to live without that kind of brand. That dependency is what makes the Gen Z audience special.
Angie: We wanted to see how beneficial it would be for brands to explore the Gen Z economy. Social media can be such an important aspect. Brands today need to tap into the [Gen Z market] and as basement 27, we are the audience, so it’s a perfect match.
Maura: I agree we are so inside the world of Gen Z. We use the apps that are changing every day and because we're so in touch with these platforms.
To predict the future, listen to those who are shaping it.
What's amazing is that we're still growing and everything is organic. Everything is really raw and we’re just a part of this movement. It is really important to be a Gen Z agency to do that.
One of your projects, Jump For Change, incorporates technology and physical movement. How did you come up with this idea and will you continue to experiment with interactivity like this?
Maura: Its main challenge was to inspire the next generation of female explorers and we thought that there were so many conventional ways of promoting it through posters or on Instagram. But here we have North Face, an outdoor brand, and it’s about movement. It's about going outdoors, exploring, and actually taking part in the activity, so why not include that actual exploration and the activity? What we were aiming for originally was supposed to be a static billboard, but we incorporated that movement aspect and made it like a motion sensor experience.
We wanted it to be more than just an ad.
Melissa: We wanted the participant to be able to interact with what we’re trying to say, which was to encourage young women to go outdoors. We thought that it would be good to layer on this charitable aspect to it because we want the participant to feel like they’re creating a change in the community and they’re actually benefiting young girls.
Maura: Seeing North Face donate for us to the organization is something so selfless and something in itself that can be a start to brand loyalty. That's what we saw as the main takeaway from the North Face campaign.
Melissa: The funny thing is we shared it with our professor and she told us it was a bit weird. (laughs)
Maura: We talked with everyone who’s our age group and they were like, no it's not weird at all. So sometimes when we are asking for feedback, we really shouldn’t shun away from asking our own peers and people our own age because they are the people we are essentially targeting. It’s definitely 100% good to get feedback from people who are older and more experienced, but they’re not us and they’re not buying the product, so best to look towards the people who probably will.
What was the most challenging part of creating basement 27?
Pearl: Gen Z can see through bullshit very easily. We can tell when exactly when we’re being advertised to, right? So it's really important to be authentic. For example, Maura and Melissa just did a project with Billie razors. Billie is a razor brand that strays away from the idea of shaving as a bad thing. They embrace diversity through women with different body shapes and ethnicities. I think they speak to Gen Z well cause they are really unashamedly authentic in themselves. It’s difficult to be truly authentic but very rewarding when done correctly.
Our age is our asset.
Angie: Another hard part of making work for Gen Z is the idea of having to keep innovating because of the amount of content out there. Many brands are trying to do new things, trying to make sure the work we do is new and captivates our audience.
Pearl: I think millennials and boomers will still respond to more traditional advertising like print or television ads. I don’t watch cable anymore. I know a lot of my peers don’t watch cable anymore either, so we have to look at different ways to reach our audience. I feel like there’s a new platform every single year. TikTok, you know gaining so much popularity and as Gen Z, we have the benefit of noting these trends before the millennials and boomers catch on.
We notice these trends before other generations do and see which trends are gonna be successful in the future.
How has your heritage played a role in creating basement27?
Pearl: Coming to BU for me was a weird culture shock because where I grew up was pretty ethnically homogeneous. When I came to BU, I felt like I was finally getting in touch with other Asian Americans like me. When I started taking advertising courses, I learned a lot about the industry itself. A lot of the ads we see are not as diverse as they could be in my opinion. What we wanted to do with basement27 is shed light on diversity, especially because Gen Z is the most ethnically diverse generation and we are only going to get more diverse in the future.
It’s valuable for minorities to feel seen and heard in the content and advertising they see.
Angie: When I went to BU, it was my first time living in the states, so it was a real kind of shock. I was involved with Asian Student Union, which works to raise API issues and awareness. I was working in that lens of shining lights on different voices of our generation, and basement27 aligned with that as well, trying to resonate more with our diverse generation and diverse set of friends.
Maura: I’m from Indonesia, and I came to BU for college. There aren’t a lot of Indonesians in the advertising classes in my year, and that’s actually where I met Angie! Those moments of interactions of we have so many things similar, and not having to explain ourselves, not having to try to become anyone else — that’s how the chemistry probably came through. I was super glad that I found people who I connected with without trying. As an Indonesian, I was able to bring the things I learned back home and reframe them through this global perspective and experience this exchange of culture and stories.
Melissa: Like Maura said, this cultural understanding of one another drew us together and what helped us to be more creatively compatible. We don’t see many people like us in the industry — people of color, and especially women. Combining the two, there’s even less in the industry. Advertising is still very white male-oriented. What I’ve noticed is that a lot of men get more attention and traction for their creativity and ideas in the industry.
Us being people of color and women give us a new perspective on the industry because it’s something that it is lacking.
Having that insight in us already is beneficial on our part and will become a great asset for ourselves. Being able to have that cultural identity as well pushed us to create something. I’ve always wanted to start a business, and now here we are! I love that we’re all Asian women, and we created something together.
What is your advice to Asian female entrepreneurs who aspire to also make a name for themselves in the creative, advertising, and business world?
Maura: Creativity is a muscle. If you train it more, it’s going to get better, perform better, and win. Whatever you young Asian or Asian American entrepreneurs are doing, keep doing it. We’ve gone through harsh feedback, and it’s totally fine — it doesn’t mean you’re not good. When one person tells you that your work is not worth it, that’s just one person. Never stop creating, because creativity is that muscle you will always go back to in the future.
Angie: Finding creative partners is so important. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without any other group of people. Finding something that keeps you accountable and gives you that drive even in these weird times is so special. Being able to work together, especially in this industry, is so central. Finding partners to improve yourself and your creative work is the key to getting better and better.
Pearl: Trying something and failing is better than not trying at all. People have a lot of great ideas, but don’t act on them because of fear. It’s okay to fail, and you probably will fail, but keep pushing because the idea that you have will develop into something bigger and better. If you have an idea, take the plunge. It’s a commitment, but if you work hard, that commitment will be worth it.
Melissa: My advice for young Asians is that they shouldn’t feel guilty for not going into something science related or “a classic profession” like doctor, lawyer, engineer. There’s a guilt that goes onto Asians and Asian Americans who don’t follow these straight lined paths because it is so embedded in what we identify as and what our parents want for us. Going into something creative that you find a draw to, a passion to, is the best field for you to grow as an individual. There’s always a percentage of failure within every new venture, but getting over that and seeing the potential of its success is what is going to motivate you to keep going.
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