LiveLab Founders Launch Brand Imagination Group
Above: Samuel Lucas Gove, Barry Krause and Rick Wayne
The award-winning creative team behind LiveLab, the pioneers of live social media, and the world’s largest producer of original YouTube content at the time, has launched Brand Imagination Group (BiG), a new hybrid creative and production agency built for the AI era of marketing. Breaking from the traditional agency assembly line, BiG operates like a symphony orchestra – strategists, storytellers, technologists and editors creating together in real time from assignment to activation.
“In an age where machines can generate ideas in seconds, imagination with purpose provides human advantage,” said Barry Krause, CEO of BiG and award-winning creative strategist. “We founded BiG to turn technologically fueled imagination into our creative product -- where every idea has emotional purpose, every execution has cultural meaning, and every campaign turns likes into brand love.”
BiG was founded by former Publicis CEO and originator of live social media Barry Krause, celebrated story and film director Rick Wayne, lauded photographer and design director Samuel Lucas Gove and a team of creative activists and technologists.
“We came together to launch another commissioned LiveLab content studio and something magical happened,” said Barry. “Despite different backgrounds and skillsets, we shared an obsession for the craft of crafting big loveable brand ideas and filled out our orchestra with like-minded people.”
The agency’s “symphony orchestra” model brings together a diverse team of strategists, designers, writers, filmmakers, technologists and editors all performing in harmony to craft work that connects both emotionally and measurably. This means tighter thinking, reduced production timelines, real-time optimising and big results. It’s an approach that has helped the founders’ past work for Nike, McDonalds, L’Oreal, Subway, and Progressive break through crowded categories and reframe how consumers affectionately experience brands.
“At BiG we believe imagination is data’s most powerful partner,” said Rick Wayne, executive creative director and cinematic director at BIG. “We’ve built a space where creative courage meets emotional intelligence. We don’t just want to make work that sells short term; we want to make work that sticks to people’s hearts.”
“I’ve worked with members of this team for nearly 20 years, and they have consistently brought big ideas and driven big business results for iconic brands like Sharpie, Graco, Craftsman and Pyrex,” said Kris Malkoski, CEO, learning and development, Newell Brands. “It will be exciting to see the results this collaboration of creation will bring.”
A Modern Model for a Modern Era
The agency operates from a new headquarters with history in Dumbo, Brooklyn — the same creative space that once housed Spike Lee’s SpikeDDB — in a neighbourhood that combines culture, creativity, and consumer prevalence. The steady stream of people feeds the agency’s consumer and culture centric Open Circle™ Research method, used to inspire imagination and validate intuition daily. BiG has other proprietary tools such as its SweetSpotter™ system powered by Emotion AI to identify emotional triggers that drive engagement and loyalty.
BiG was founded on the belief that creativity should be faster, deeper, and more emotionally resonant. The agency integrates in-house film, VFX, and AI divisions to enable rapid, end-to-end production, to make advertising more emotional and robust.
As AI reshapes creative industries, BiG aims to ensure technology amplifies—not replaces—imagination. “It’s about more than chasing trends or virality,” said photography and design chief, Samuel Gove. “It’s about creating enduring human connections. The best ideas don’t just show up in feeds, they show up in people’s lives.”
Ensuring the persuasive balance between humanity and technology, BiG has established a Luminary Board of Advisors helmed by Norman Muse, former chairman, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Company, author and instructor of film at University of Chicago.
BiG First Moves
Having already earned multiple awards for its campaign work, BiG is quickly proving that imagination is good business. The agency’s first major initiatives include creatively stewarding global brands such as Sharpie, Paper Mate, Graco and NUK helping them connect with modern audiences through emotionally intelligent storytelling and proprietary technologies. By uniting data with empathy, BiG is redefining what it means to build loveable brands in a performance-driven world.
To mark the launch, BiG will soon be hosting a private industry event in Brooklyn bringing together brand leaders, creatives, and technologists for an evening of imagination in action.
