After careful consideration, market research, and observing what happened to HBO Max, creative agency Big Spaceship announced it is officially returning to its original name after a brief experiment as SPCSHP.
“People just kept calling us Big Spaceship anyway,” said CEO Taryn Crouthers. “Internally, externally, everyone defaulted back to the full name. And after extensive A/B testing, we discovered people overwhelmingly prefer being able to pronounce the brand they’re working with.”
The decision follows a simple realization: removing vowels from your name does not make you more modern. It just makes it harder to explain in meetings.
There was also a practical reason for the reversal. As part of MSQ’s international creative network, the agency needed a name that could travel across markets and languages. SPCSHP, it turns out, does not translate in any language. At all.
When informed of the change, one client responded, “Oh, thank goodness. We love the team and the work, but that name…” Another admitted they’d been writing “Big Spaceship” in emails for two years, hoping the brand would eventually catch up.
While the shift may appear cosmetic, the return to Big Spaceship reflects bigger changes underway inside the agency.
Business Rationale
Since its founding 25 years ago by Michael Lebowitz, Big Spaceship has operated at the intersection of innovation, creativity, and strategy. The agency’s approach to culture and growth has been studied twice by Harvard Business Review, examining how it scaled by pairing creative ambition with operational rigor.
“Today, creativity needs to flex in real time,” said Crouthers. “This moment demands more than a predictable campaign and matching luggage. Brands need partners who can deliver integrated, native storytelling at scale without sacrificing craft. Big Spaceship is designed for exactly that.”
Over the past year, Big Spaceship and MSQ have invested heavily in a tech-enabled infrastructure designed to plug directly into client operating models. At the core is a “creative spine” that learns, adapts, and improves with each project.
The agency has also introduced Explore Pods, short, focused sprints that bring together strategy, creative, production, and technology in a single unit. The model replaces traditional linear workflows with faster, more efficient collaboration, delivering solutions in weeks instead of months. It also has the added benefit of costing less than a rebrand. Keeping your original name, after all, is free.
A New Creative Frontier
The return to Big Spaceship also comes with a leadership update. Longtime creative leader Steve Street has been named Chief Creative Officer. Street has been with the agency since 2016, most recently serving as SVP and Executive Creative Director, leading some of its most ambitious work. He was on PTO at the time of the SPCSHP rebrand launch.
“Steve has been shaping Big Spaceship’s creative vision for nearly a decade,” said Crouthers. “He’s building a tech-enabled creative organization while fostering a culture where ambition and kindness coexist. That balance is rare and exactly what this industry needs.”
“Under this new infrastructure, we can bring ideas to life in ways that simply didn’t exist before,” added Street. “The agencies that will lead the next decade are the ones that can see around corners and move faster. That’s where we live.”
Big Spaceship also continues to operate two proprietary cultural listening tools: Internet Brunch, a daily newsletter read by more than 10,000 marketers, and Reveal, a generational insights platform that identifies cultural shifts before they become obvious.
The agency’s updated brand platform and website launch at BigSpaceship.com.
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