As part of an interview series in collaboration with ONE Asia, we’re speaking with independent agencies across the region about their local markets, how they are building their agencies, and the role independents play within the wider creative industry.
Next up, we speak with Eunice Tan, Group CEO of The Secret Little Agency, an independent creative company based in Singapore.
Over the course of our conversation, Tan discusses how the agency’s idea of what creative work can be has widened since its beginnings in ambient, guerrilla, outdoor, and PR-led work, and why it has kept a predominantly full-time team as agency economics have changed.
Tan also talks about what independents bring to the creative industry, the role they play in Singapore’s agency market, why originality is both harder to achieve and more important, what taste means when technology can generate almost limitless output, and why awards platforms that judge work within the context of Asia matter. She closes with advice for anyone building an independent creative agency in Singapore today.
The Secret Little Agency began with ambient, guerrilla, outdoor, and PR-led work. Today, that can mean creating a fashion collection, sourcing products, building an activation, or finding unconventional media spaces. How has your idea of what a creative agency should be capable of evolved?
We started with ambient, guerrilla and PR-led work, where the job was to get noticed without a big media budget. That mindset never left, but the definition of “the work” kept widening. A good idea doesn’t care what format it ends up in.
Sometimes it’s a campaign, sometimes it’s a fashion collection, a product we’ve sourced, an activation, or a piece of media nobody thought to use. So we stopped asking “what do agencies do?” and started asking “what does this idea need to exist?” If we can’t do it ourselves, we’ll find the people who can.
TSLA is made up predominantly of full-time creative minds. Why has maintaining that kind of structure remained important as the economics and operating models of agencies have changed?
Because ideas come from people who live inside a brand’s problems, not people who are briefed on them once. We don’t believe that our clients’ brands should be left to a rotating carousel of people. A full-time team builds shared taste, shorthand and trust, which is hard to recreate with a rotating cast of people, especially in a world and industry that is today, constantly in flux.
We stopped asking ‘what do agencies do?’ and started asking ‘what does this idea need to exist?’
On the surface, the economics might look tougher, but given that most of our client relationships span almost a decade, it pays off in the long-term for both client and agency. Our clients value this over time. We’d much rather protect the thing clients actually come to us for, which is the thinking and ultimately, our creative product. Our people grow with us, and the work gets sharper because of it.
What do independent agencies bring to the creative industry that larger network agencies may find harder to replicate?
Agility, real ownership and a point of view. At an independent, the people in the pitch are the people who do the work, and decisions don’t need travel up three layers of approval or lateral across disciplines with broken baton passes. We can say no to work that isn’t right for us, take risks that a global P&L wouldn’t allow, and put our name on something odd or different. Networks bring scale and resources. Independents bring laser focus. There has never been more competing for attention.
More content. More channels. More algorithms. More advertising. More AI-generated slop.
More brands are fighting to be noticed. We believe that great ideas don’t need more distractions around them. They need less getting in their way.
How do you see the independent agency scene in Singapore today, and what role do independents play within the wider agency market?
It’s getting increasingly small but increasingly potent. Independents here tend to be hungrier and more willing to experiment, and clients have noticed. We often act as the market’s R&D lab, trying new formats, new collaborations and new ways of working that the bigger players later absorb or respond to. A healthy market needs both scale and spark, and independents keep the spark honest.
Originality is harder because you have to resist the pull of ‘what’s worked before,’ and more valuable because it’s the only thing that can’t be copied on day one.
You believe in the importance of an original idea — something that becomes the reference rather than something built from existing references. Is originality becoming harder to achieve, or simply more important?
Both, but mostly more important. Everyone now has access to the same references, the same tools and the same feeds, so the easy route is to remix or over-reference what already exists. That’s exactly why originality and human intention stands out. It becomes the reference rather than drawing on one. Originality is harder because you have to resist the pull of “what’s worked before,” and more valuable because it’s the only thing that can’t be copied on day one.
ONE Asia Creative Awards is built this year around the idea of “Where Taste Matters.” At a time when technology can generate almost limitless creative output, what does “taste” mean to you, and how do you recognize it in a piece of work?
Taste is knowing what to curate, and what to leave out. When anyone can generate a thousand options in seconds, the rare skill is judgment: choosing the right one, and knowing why. I recognise it in work that feels considered rather than competent. It has a clear point of view, nothing is there by accident, and it respects the audience’s intelligence.
You can’t prompt your way to taste. It comes from experience, curiosity and a willingness to experiment, iterate and a willingness even, to be wrong.
How important is it for Asia to have awards platforms that judge creative work within the context of the region rather than primarily through a global lens?
I’m sure everyone knows by now that Asia isn’t one market. A lot of the best work here is rooted in cultural nuance, language, humour and behaviour that a global lens can overlook or misread. Regional platforms recognise work on its own terms rather than measuring it against a Western template. They also give Asian creatives their own benchmarks and role models, which matters for the next generation. Global recognition and universal truths definitely have their place, but it should not be the only yardstick.
For someone building an independent creative agency in Singapore today, what advice would you give them about creating something that can both stand out and endure?
Decide what you stand for before you decide what you’re selling. Services can be replicated and scaled but a point of view can’t. Be selective about clients and be generous with ideas. We tell our teams and our clients that we’re here to do the best work of our careers, so we treat every project as a chance to make something even our moms would be proud of, since that’s what builds a reputation.
And never, never forget to have fun.
To learn more about ONE Asia, go here.
