The Makery, the Bath workshop and party business that teaches crafts and creativity, has launched a creative experiential agency to help brands stage innovative events.
MakeryLIVE’s 35-strong team of creative professionals around the UK offers businesses the chance to tap into the ‘power of making’ through highly memorable experiences. 
It has already worked with an impressive list of clients including Warner Bros, Soho House, Hewlett Packard, W Hotels, John Lewis, Anthropologie, Good Energy and Stylist magazine on what it calls ‘immersive multi-sensory activations’.
Since launching The Makery in 2009, founders Kate and Nigel Smith have remained passionate about teaching people new skills, with more than 60,000 people engaging with the business.
The Makery’s Makeaway Craft Kits and haberdashery items are now stocked both nationally and internationally and it also has a creative hub in John Lewis’s flagship Oxford Street store where it stages workshops on skills from sewing, patchwork and embroidery to making clothes, lampshades, crochet and knitting.
The launch of MakeryLIVE takes this creativity into the events sectors. For the launch of W Hotel Amsterdam, MakeryLIVE created a fashion-focussed experience for guests attending the star-studded launch part. 
With a nod to Holland’s famous footwear, it staged a clog-customising workshop in the style of the latest catwalk trends.
Other events have included a sewing-bee style team building day for Pen Partnership, making flower crowns at a reader event for Stylist magazine, making festival headbands for 700 delegates at a major US tech firm’s European summit and helping Chippenham-based green power firm Good Energy create a new range of merchandise following their re-brand.
Kate Smith said: “It’s noisy out there for brands and they have to find a way to cut through and give their customers an experience they won’t forget.
“Nearly 100% of consumers feel more inclined to purchase after attending an activation and have a better opinion about a brand after an in-person event. Taking part in an activity, making something and taking home a new skill makes people feel good. 
“Our activations grab the attention of audiences who then can’t wait to share on social media. A well-executed workshop results in the strongest brand advocacy you could hope for.”
MakeryLIVE also has a high-spec video production suite and editing team for creating authentic short-form video content for clients such as Warner Bros.
