Summary[edit]
Selfie Factory was an experiential retail concept founded and run by Will Bower, expanding from a single venue to four UK locations between 2019 and 2021, including a flagship at The O2. Its sister concept, Tikky Town, launched alongside it in 2021.[1] The parent company, Selfie Factory Ltd, entered creditors' voluntary liquidation in 2025.
History[edit]
People assume Selfie Factory started with a business plan. It didn't. It started with a honeymoon.
Bower spent two weeks in the USA watching people queue for colourful walls, giant props, and ridiculous photo opportunities. Everywhere he went, people were creating content, an experience Britain had barely anything like at the time.
He came home, met a friend in a beer garden, pitched the idea over a pint, and before long the pair were signing the lease on their first site. Neither had built an attraction before; they worked it out as they went. The business ended up co-owned and run day-to-day by Bower, his wife, and his best friend.
The first site opened in Brighton. Then Bluewater. Then Westfield Stratford. Then, somehow, The O2 came calling. Sets grew more ambitious with each site: a 20ft pink replica of a London Underground carriage became one of the venue's signature rooms, and at one point the ball pit alone held 40,000 pink balls.[2]
- Selfie Factory
- Tikky Town
- MAC Village, a pop-up experience created with MAC Cosmetics[3]
It was never really about selfie rooms. It was about building spaces people wanted to experience and tell other people about, arguably the root of Bower's later obsession with shareable ideas.
Gallery[add photos]
Press[full archive]
| The O2 (official) | Tikky Town launch announcement, naming Bower as Managing Director. [1] |
| South China Morning Post | International feature on the rise of immersive selfie experiences. [2] |
| The Sun | National feature on the venue. [3] |
| Retail & Leisure International | Trade coverage of the fourth site. [4] |
Locations[edit]
| 1 | Brighton (first site) |
| 2 | Bluewater |
| 3 | Westfield Stratford |
| 4 | The O2, Icon Outlet (with Tikky Town, 2020–21) |
Timeline[edit]
| 2014 | RecruitWill & the David Brent campaign |
| 2019 | First Selfie Factory opens |
| 2020 | Expansion to multiple sites |
| 2021 | Tikky Town launches at The O2 |
| 2022 | TikScript founded |
| 2026 | YouTube |
Related projects[edit]
- TikScript — the next chapter
- YouTube
- The David Brent Story
- Full Press Archive
