As the skill set of advertising creatives broadens, independent agency SuperBloom House is tapping into creative minds from outside the industry.
The New York- and Los Angeles-based agency has launched “House Players,” a roster of 35 non-industry creatives who will work on brand and entertainment projects with the agency that involve profit-sharing and early creative input.
The House Players include choreographers, reality TV producers, documentarians, AI artists, chefs, and other creatives from outside advertising. Each will take on two to three major projects per year and may share in profits or retain ownership of original work developed through the program. That often looks like continuing to monetize the intellectual property outside the original campaign—through licensing, adaptations, or extensions.
The 35 House Players come from SuperBloom House’s 300-member Creative Collective, a global network of filmmakers, musicians, chefs, choreographers, and other cultural makers. Notable House Players include Brazilian choreographer Sérgio Reis, known for his work with Troye Sivan and brands like Gap and Charlotte Tilbury and director and cinematographer Alice Gu, whose documentary The Donut King won critical acclaim.
“We wanted to focus our energy on the people we could give extra attention to—the ones approaching things in a completely different way,” Mitch Eisner, head of the Creative Collective, told ADWEEK. “It’s not just about the work we hire them for. We’re building a community and creating collaborations that might not even involve SuperBloom.”
House Players are embedded in projects from the earliest stages—sometimes before a brief is finalized—and paid for ideas as well as production. Rates vary depending on the scope, but members can earn for participating in pitches, licensing existing intellectual property, and delivering finished creative.
So far, House Player and reality TV executive Cooper Green worked with SuperBloom House to create Mystery Voyage, a murder-mystery competition series for Virgin Voyages. The roster has also contributed to Tyson Foods’ “Always Been Tyson” campaign, Tripadvisor’s “We’ve Been There” global brand film, and Topo Chico’s portrait series of Los Angeles artists.
SuperBloom promotes Collective members’ work through a quarterly print and digital zine and a bi-monthly newsletter. Each zine issue centers on a theme, with past editions featuring essays, photography, and art from Collective members. The current edition, which examines what’s real and what’s not in the age of AI, is distributed directly to brands and creative leaders and will also spotlight House Players’ work.
The House Players roster will remain around its current size with members rotating in and out to keep the mix fresh. “Every person in the program is someone we know personally and can give consistent opportunities to,” said chief creative officer Heather Pieske.
