“The brief is rarely about the brief.” That’s an assertion worthy of attention. It makes you ask, “Why?”, and makes you want to know the answer. It came from Dion K, founder of Singapore motion design agency, Ellie Motion, a specialist in CGI, motion design, animation and AI-assisted creative systems. The studio (“that thinks like an agency”) was born because Dion K kept seeing the same problem. Brands were investing heavily in content that was perfectly produced but quickly forgotten. Somewhere between the meeting room and the final frame, the idea lost its impact. Ellie was built to change that.  

Why is the brief is rarely about the brief. What is the thinking behind it?

Dion K: This came out of working with clients we’ve known for some time. They came to us to quote the usual campaign: video, key visual, the standard set of assets. During the call, they mentioned something else almost in passing, a parallel import problem undercutting their product’s price in the market. They weren’t asking us to solve it. It was just context they shared about what else they were dealing with. We noticed there was a way to help. Not just deliver the campaign, but suggest a creative system built to actually support what they were up against with the parallel imports. The result was that instead of pulling in multiple agencies to handle different pieces of this, they consolidated more deeply with us, which saved them time and resources over the quarter, and longer term. That information almost never comes through the brief itself. It comes up on the side, in conversation. We’ve learned to listen for it, because behind every creative brief, there’s a business problem first.

An example of how brands can move from one-off campaigns to scalable creative systems, please?

Dion K: Ellie Motion helped transform Kao’s brief for Attack ActivClean+ from a standard product demonstration into a CGI character system, turning a single campaign requirement into a more flexible and scalable brand asset.

The ask was straightforward: show the product’s 7-in-1 performance, demonstrate the features, they had a character that they shot previously. The question we asked was “How do we help them reproduce that character without spending the same resources reshooting every time, and turn it into a brand asset they keep for the long term, not something they rebuild from scratch for every campaign?” We also looked at what else was happening in the category. Most of it was functional, product in, features out. We saw an opportunity to build a world around the product and the character, not just repeat the demo. So we built a CGI version of the character, one production, reusable across every format, without having to reshoot. It’s part of how we work with clients now. We always ask whether a shoot is actually necessary, because what we specialise in can save them those resources. And what they get is a brand asset with no licensing fee and lock-in. They’re all fully and perpetually owned by the brand.

How can agencies continue to demonstrate their value and what capabilities will matter most in the AI future?

Dion K: If AI is only used as a shortcut to produce faster, it’s just a race to the bottom. The technology wins that race for everyone, so it stops being a differentiator. It changes the definition of what “being creative” even means. We think the ones who benefit most are the systems thinkers. This has to be the trait and outlook of a creative professional if they are to use today’s technology to get ahead. Agencies that document their processes well will get ahead exponentially, because nearly every granular task in a creative agency can now be systematised and automated, which frees up cognitive load for the people doing the actual creative thinking, enabling them to be even more ambitious creatively.

One of the examples that we have been using is building our clients’ brand knowledge. An accumulated understanding of the nuances in their preferences, their voice, what defines good versus bad for them. They’re drawn from every interaction we have with them. Each agency would have different insights and how they turn them creatively would depending on their discernment and judgement on what have been gathered to serve the client each time. That’s applied intelligence in service of better creative decisions, beyond just faster, automated output. Applied long enough, it compounds.

Ellie Motion’s work across APAC includes launching Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 with a landmark 3D anamorphic activation and bringing Dan Murphy’s trademark gaze to life, both with Clemenger BBDO. To launch KFC Singapore’s Oiishii Chicken Range, the studio turned travel FOMO into JOMO in the dream-like anime world of Chikin Land. And for ATx Summit 2026, it built the highlight film around one visual device that turned a full day of separate sessions into one connected story.