BLK J’s Joji Jacob: We are not run by somebody sitting in an ivory tower in a far distant land
BLK J has only been around for a couple of years but the agency quickly became the fastest growing independent agency in Singapore, winning a bunch of new clients in its first year – most recently picking up StarHub.
Co-Founder and Creative Partner Joji Jacob (pictured left) has just been appointed as an Executive Judge at Ad Stars 2018. He spoke to Campaign Brief Asia about how things are going at BLK J and his long-term vision for the agency.
BLK J “exists to make brands famous – but never with advertising”. How did you arrive at your vision for the agency?
Appropriately enough, it was our youngest partner, Lester Lee, who articulated something we all felt was a vision that would guide our work and everything we did at BLK J. People have no time for anything that looks remotely like an ad. More often than not, it’s an interruption and intrusion. Our ambition is to create work that people will welcome into their lives; work that people find interesting, inspiring, or useful.
Why do you think clients have responded so positively to your business model?
Clients know that we are an independent agency run by people for whom the work is everything. Even our CEO Rowena is a champion of the work. Our decisions are not determined solely by the bottom line. We are not run by bean counters or somebody sitting in an ivory tower in a far, distant land. We are a full-service agency but we have no silos. Or multiple profit centres that have to compete with each other to the detriment of the work we do for our clients. We work single-mindedly and as a single entity, so we work faster and smarter.
What are your long-term goals for BLK J?
One: to create work that makes our clients super successful.
Two: to create a place and a culture that makes our people successful and fulfilled professionally and personally.
BLK J often highlights issues that are unique to Singapore for clients like StarHub and the Ministry of Education. Do creatives have a responsibility to apply their talents to solving local problems?
My partners Rowena (pictured left), Khalid (pictured second right), and Lester (far right) were instrumental in creating those pieces of work. I was fortunate enough to be their ECD at that time.
But yes, I feel very strongly that advertising can be a very powerful force in making the world a better place. In fact, I’d say that we have a moral obligation to help brands create work that improves people’s lives.
As an independent agency with an emphasis on tech, what is the technology you’re most excited by (or scared of) right now?
Our emphasis is not just on tech. The truism that tech is just a medium is one I agree with. We are excited by whatever the consumer is excited by. Right now, that happens to be technology.
Technology has an edge over other media in that it can connect brands and consumer in ways that are empowering for both parties. It’s not a passive medium. And that is the reason why we lean more heavily towards solutions that involve technology.
What is your proudest achievement?
I’m probably the luckiest man alive. All my life, I’ve had mentors, friends, bosses, and teammates who have chosen to close an eye to my limitations and build me up instead. So whatever I may see as milestones in my career aren’t mine alone to take credit for.
What are you expecting from your time at Ad Stars this year?
I’m curious to see what a relatively young awards show like Ad Stars will be like. And since it’s free to enter, I imagine most agencies will be entering work in spades and I will be exposed to more work than at most shows.
Besides it’s a rare opportunity to catch up with friends like Guan Hin, Toby Talbot, Richard Yu, Woon Hoh, and Kok Keong: folks I haven’t met in ages. And it’s also a chance to make new friends.
Equally importantly, I’ve also heard that Ad Stars take really good care of their jury members.
6 Comments
Ivory tower? Distant land?
https://cloudflarecdn.commercialcafe.com/images/331ED6E3-87A2-4A1A-B7C2-F4F604075526/9462.jpg?height=542.
The Omnicom Building on Madison Avenue
Their vision is nothing revolutionary. The thinking has been around for years and years. Not the first CEO to be the champion of the work either. Nothing to shout about. Before you see this as a trolling on a so called “independent agency”, let us judge by the work they had been producing and let it speak for itself. Nothing comes to mind? Exactly. It shows that they can’t deal with a real brief. They don’t have any work that is work class. Not surprising.
Good luck to you Joji.
Holding companies will come knocking – probably are already.
My prediction is BLKJ Dentsu with Dentsu in Singapore rolling in to BLKJ
Come on lads. We know the ivory tower is Da Dodge Ball and it ain’t far away.
Having run and sold my own agency to the boys in an ivory tower, I would have expected Joji to roll out something less predictable about being an independent agency. But no, he rolls out the standard blurb about the bloody obvious. We all know that being independent means clients deal with the owners of the agency, they have to, because being small means everyone from the CEO down actually has to do the work until in a few years time, some bean counter from a large holding company will write out a cheque that they’d be insane to refuse, and they will once again become part of the ivory tower syndrome. It’s the way it rolls Joji. Alas, you haven’t told us what make your new agency unique. I fear you haven’t because you aren’t. Stating that EVEN the CEO is a champion of the work is insulting to Rowena… You had a golden opportunity to tell us what makes you guys special but sadly you’re just another wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I heard DDB buying them soon.