Shanghai-born creative agency Push launches in Sydney

Paige Murphy
By Paige Murphy | 19 October 2020

Shanghai-born and Australian-owned creative agency Push has opened its doors in Sydney.

Push is a creative agency which helps Australian brands wanting to work to get a foothold in Asia or speak to a diverse youth demographic within Australia.

Push is headquarted in Shanghai and also has offices in Tokyo and Oslo.

The agency, created in 2014, has completed work for clients such as Beats by Dre, Nike, Adidas, Asics, Tuborg, Budweiser, Google, Absolut Vodka, The North Face, Vans and Tencent.

Most recently working with leading music media company 88Rising, the agency produced the global release of “Pretty Please” for Chinese mega star Jackson Wang including his music video, which attracted over 10 million views within the first week.

In June, after a two-year exploration into the Japanese video game industry Push released the documentary series Playing Fields in partnership with Red Bull which followed up from the feature documentary about the rise of Asian hip-hop Asia Rising with Red Bull.

Also under Push’s banner is PushFest. Driven by a passion for the skate community and making films, PushFest brings together 1200+ people to watch skate films, have a skate session and party.

Now in its fourth year and this year presented by Converse, PushFest will take place in Shanghai on October 24, Central Studios with plans to be held in Sydney in the coming months.

Jonathon Lim, co-founder and creative director of Push, will head up the Sydney agency and develop cultural marketing solutions for brands in the Australian market.

Lim has a background in directing. He returns home to Australia after spending the last ten years working in Shanghai and Los Angeles, including as creative director at 88rising.

“Growing up in country Victoria, half Malaysian-Chinese, I always wanted to create something here that would speak to people from diverse backgrounds," says Lim.

"Not being able to travel this year has given me the time and headspace to focus on returning to Australia to build on that vision. Living in China for seven years and working throughout Japan, Korea and SE Asia there is a ton of innovation and new trends coming out of the region that now impacts global youth culture. With youth in Australia being so globally connected there’s a need to bring that movement here.

“For us as a business, Australia has such close links to Asia, it was important to complete this triangle of Shanghai, Tokyo and finally Sydney. As activations are not currently possible, we see the opportunity for brands to make more content to engage their consumers with unique stories.

"On a personal level, there’s something about making work in your home country that feels more real and more gratifying than doing it abroad.”

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