London Immersions, Summer 2022
Why we carried out this work
Over the week of June 27-30 [2022], over 20 team members of WhatsApp and their agency BBDO spent time in London to immerse themselves into the identities and behaviours of the Culture Crossover through a cultural safari of the diasporas of London, to gain insights into using the city as a home-base for our strategies, brand-building and creative work. Not specifically ‘market research’ but rather a real opportunity to engage with users and uncover provocations to further explore through conversations and social listening. Over the two immersion days, the teams met with consumers of all ages and all backgrounds, carrying out conversations in groups, one-on-one or around cultural activities set up by London-based research agency PSEUDO.
From African drumming to Brazilian barbers to Bollywood dance lessons and nighttime Dominoes with members of the African and Caribbean diasporas, the teams went deep into the communities of London. They centered their long and exhausting [but exhilarating] days around the North, South, East and West areas of the capital city.
This website looks to bring to life the insights we heard for those unable to join and act as an inspirational reminder for those who came along.
Note: You can find more on the itineraries of the actual immersions here.
Why London as a hub?
Being a global brand that has to resonate with the world has its challenges. The biggest challenge with being a global brand is that we cannot resonate with everyone all of the time. We know this…
So, instead of being a brand from everywhere, we’re going to root our brand in a home base..
… And speak from that lens to the world.
That lens is London.
London offers us a hub of cultural richness and exchange that reflect the rest of the world and resonates regardless of the market.
For our Culture Crossover, London is the hub they use as a home.
As a city, it is a key catalyst for helping them to shape and seek out their own identities.
As a hub, it holds new and emerging cultures that the rest of the world can resonate with.
As a capital, it gives the audience the space for recognition, reconfiguration and definition as well as reflection, community and culture.
As a brand, we are London. We are a safe space where they can be themselves. Finding ways to reflect them back through our brand is what this website looks at in more depth.
““I’m a fig tree but upside down. My roots are facing the sky, so I’m displaced but not placeless.”
Melek, Tour of Ridley Road
Why London and not 'the UK'?
While ‘being British’ has negative connotations of failure, patriotism and nationalism, London is very much ‘not the UK’, just as New York is not indicative of Middle America.
There is also huge pride in being part of London’s narrative and in London being a part of their own narrative, whether they recognise that consciously or not.
They know that much of the magic of London is made up by them and their being here.
They are the magic that makes London a multicultural mecca for others and draws people in.
Their stories are London’s stories, intrinsically linked.
They are proud to be a part of London for the courage it takes to have London as their hub and their home.
For it takes guts to get here, guts to stay here, and grit to remain.
As said in our debrief, “They don’t feel British, but they definitely feel London.”
““I’m Jamaican… [pauses] well, my parents are from Jamaica, I’m a Londoner.”
Andre, 30, Author
““Being a Londoner provides me with a positive cultural exchange.”
Marco, Laylow Consumer Chat
Immersion Overview
Below is a short overview video of the two-day immersion, to give you both a taste and an introduction to the various activities we did, and the incredible people we met across the whole of London. From "Little India" in Southall, to "Little Portugal" in Southwark, we took an insurmountable number of buses, tubes, trains and taxis; it was a packed schedule. The video shows just how packed it really was...