Create BV is a Dutch production partner for custom brand activations. We work with in-house marketing teams, with creative agencies briefing on a client’s behalf, and with brand experience studios looking for a reliable build partner. Pop-ups, experience environments, campaign objects and brand experiences: we make them stand on site exactly the way they read in the deck.
From our workshop in Beek en Donk, in the Netherlands, we turn a supplied design or creative concept into a physical build. Materials, construction, finish, transport, on-site assembly: we think it through with you from the first conversation onwards. You don’t want surprises on site, so we catch them in the workshop first.
Whether it is a single pop-up for a retail moment, an experience environment for a product launch or a touring campaign across five cities, the starting point stays the same. The concept stays recognisable, the execution holds, and one partner manages production end-to-end.
A temporary physical presence for your brand, whether at an event, on a high street, at a festival or inside a retail environment. We deliver the pop-up as a complete build kit: furniture, signage, finishing, all in. Demountable when the campaign tours, robust when it has to hold its ground for months.
Spatial brand environments that walk a visitor through a story, step by step. We build the physical world around the narrative: walls, set pieces, interactive moments, photo opportunities. Moreover, material and finish are tuned to the intended atmosphere and to the visitor numbers you expect on a busy day.
One striking object that makes a campaign physically visible. Think oversized packaging, a brand sculpture, an interactive installation or a mobile campaign element that travels from city to city. Built for intensive public contact, engineered to be transported.
You share the concept, the campaign goals, the location or locations and the schedule. From the first conversation, we stress-test buildability: does it fit the budget, does it fit the build window, does it fit the site. If there is no finished design yet, a moodboard or first sketch is enough to start the conversation.
The activation gets prefabricated in components in our Dutch workshop. Woodwork, painting and finishing happen in-house, which keeps quality control where it belongs: with us. Every project ships with a build book that lists numbered components, assembly sequence and mounting notes.
The design moves into engineering: drawings, material lists, load calculations where the structure calls for them. Here we translate the visual concept into components that can be produced in our workshop and assembled on site. In practice, this is where most of the practical issues get caught, well before a single piece of timber gets cut.
We drive the activation to location and build it up with our own crews. Alternatively, we deliver as a complete build kit if your own team handles the on-site assembly. For touring campaigns, transport and build are planned stop by stop. After the campaign, we take care of strike, return transport and storage in our hall, so the set is ready for the next outing.
No fixed catalogue, no rental kit that drags your concept into a standard footprint. Every activation gets tuned to the brand, the goal and the location. In short, we make what the concept asks for, not what happens to be on the shelf.
For a brand build, the detail matters more than it does elsewhere. A seam that is off by a few millimetres, or a colour that drifts a shade, shows up immediately in publicity shots. Therefore, we stay close to material choice, colour matching and finishing level, with craft painting done by our own team.
An activation takes intensive public contact: touch, lean, children, sometimes thousands of visitors a day. Our construction choices account for that from the start. At the same time, we keep on-site assembly as straightforward as we can, so the crew running build day finds no surprises waiting for them.
Some briefs reach us straight from a brand’s marketing team. Others come via a creative agency or a brand experience studio working on a client’s behalf. Both routes are equally familiar. On a direct brief, we are the point of contact for the brand. On an agency brief, the agency holds the client relationship and we sit alongside them in execution.
Temporary activations carry a sustainability problem: built, deployed, thrown out. Therefore, on every brief we look at what can be made modular, whether the base structure can carry several campaigns, and how the materials fit your CSR reporting. For touring campaigns this is the default approach. For one-off activations, we put the question on the table at the briefing stage.
Curious what we have built before? Browse a selection of realised projects and see how we turn a concept into an activation that holds up on location.
A brand activation is a temporary, physical expression of a brand that puts the audience in direct contact with it on location. Common formats include a pop-up store, an experience environment at an event, a campaign object on a high street or an interactive installation at a trade show. The goal is usually attention, recognition or a direct interaction with the brand. Create produces the physical side of these activations from a supplied design or concept.
Both routes are common for us. Part of our work comes straight from in-house marketing teams. Another part comes through creative agencies, brand experience studios or production companies briefing on a client's behalf. On a direct brief, we are the point of contact for the brand. On an agency brief, the agency keeps the client relationship while we sit alongside them in execution. Both arrangements are equally familiar.
A pop-up is a temporary, physical presence for a brand on one defined spot, usually with furniture, signage and finishing. An experience environment is a spatial setting that walks visitors through a story or an interaction. A campaign object, by contrast, is a single striking element that makes a campaign visible, for instance an oversized pack or a brand sculpture. Which format suits your campaign depends on the goal, the location and the budget. We think this through with you from the briefing onwards.
That depends heavily on the project, since scope, complexity and season all play a part. A simple pop-up needs less preparation than a touring experience environment with engineering, sampling and logistics across several locations. In the intake conversation, we map out a realistic schedule together, with the final drawings as the starting point for production. The earlier we get involved, the more we can help on buildability, material choice and budget. Last-minute requests are sometimes possible, and we discuss those case by case.
Yes. For touring campaigns and recurring activations, we build modular, demountable and transport-friendly. Moreover, elements designed to outlast a single run get a more robust finish than one-off pieces. For clients with sustainability targets or CSR reporting, we tune the material choice to match. As a result, reuse cuts production costs over time and feeds straight into the sustainability goals many brands now set themselves.
Yes. We drive the activation from our workshop to the location and build it up with our own crews. For touring campaigns, transport and build are planned stop by stop, in coordination with your production manager or site lead. However, if your team prefers to handle the build, we deliver as a complete kit with a build book and numbered components, so the on-site assembly runs without guesswork.
Yes. We deliver projects both in the Netherlands and abroad. Production always takes place in our Dutch workshop, which keeps quality control firmly in-house. For international builds, we either work with local contacts on site or send our own crews along, whichever fits the scale and the schedule.
Either works. Ideally, we receive a worked-up design from an agency or in-house designer, so we can move straight into calculation and planning. However, a moodboard, a sketch or a first concept is enough for us to start the conversation. Create does not design (we realise other people's designs), but we do think along on what is technically and practically feasible inside the campaign parameters. The earlier we look in, the more of the original idea we can keep intact within time and budget.
A first quote is built on a design or sketch, the intended dimensions, the material preference, the location(s) and the build date. The more concrete the input, the more accurate the calculation. Only have a brief or a moodboard so far? Get in touch for an exploratory conversation. From there, we can help you work out what is feasible within your timeline and budget.