Creative agencies hold themselves to a higher standard when it comes to experiences. Generic team building doesn't cut it when half the room spends their days thinking about brand storytelling and visual communication. So when Dentsu Creative brought Bearish in for a team building session with over 60 of their people, the bar was already set.
What happened was exactly what you'd want from a room full of creatives with paint in their hands.
The Session: 60 People, One Room, No Two Bears Alike
Fluid bear painting works with any group, but it has a particular energy with creative teams. The process invites experimentation; there's no wrong technique, no single correct outcome, and the unpredictability of fluid paint means even the most controlled person in the room eventually has to let go and see what happens. For a team that thinks visually every day, it lands differently. There's genuine curiosity, a lot of comparison, and real satisfaction in watching something abstract become something personal.
Bearish's four-person guide team ran the floor for the full session, walking participants through each stage of the process and keeping 60-plus people moving at a comfortable pace. Everyone painted their own bear. Everyone left with something unique.
The Centrepiece: A Custom 75cm Dentsu Bear
The element that made this event stand out was a commission Dentsu brought to the table before the night even started. They wanted a custom 75cm bear built to represent their company mascot, complete with their logo worked into the design.
This is exactly the kind of brief Bearish exists for. The oversized bear became the centrepiece of the room, a reference point for the night and a permanent piece for the office afterwards. It wasn't just decoration; it was a signal to the team that the event had been designed specifically for them, not pulled off a shelf. That distinction matters more than people realise. When employees can see that an event was commissioned with intention, they engage with it differently.
The custom bear now lives in Dentsu's office as a lasting marker of the session, a three-dimensional brand asset that also happens to be the result of a genuinely fun night.
Why This Works for Creative Agencies
The irony of team building in creative industries is that the people who most value original thinking are often subjected to the most formulaic events. A drinks function. A trivia night. A catered lunch that ends with a calendar invite for the next one.
Bearish activations solve that problem not by being loud or gimmicky, but by giving people something to actually do with their hands. Making something physical creates a shared reference point that outlasts the event itself. Months later, the bear on someone's desk is a conversation starter; it's proof the company invested in an experience rather than just an afternoon off.
For corporate event planners working with creative clients, that distinction is the whole pitch.
Setup, Clean-Up, Zero Stress
Dentsu's team arrived to a fully prepared space and left without having to think about pack-down. The Bearish team handled everything before and after, including managing the drying and labelling process so participants could collect their bears cleanly. Inside a busy creative agency, that kind of frictionless execution is the difference between an event people remember fondly and one that becomes a logistics headache someone has to debrief about on Monday.
Bring Bearish to Your Next Event
Bearish designs and runs bear painting activations for corporate groups of all sizes, with options for fully customised brand elements, mascot commissions, and bespoke event formats. If your team deserves something more considered than a trivia night, get in touch.
