5 Minutes with… Jeff Dack
An experienced marketing services executive with over 24 years in the industry, Jeff Dack is the CEO of Funday, a fully remote branding and advertising agency. Having just joined this past month, he’s delighted to be working alongside a team of 50-plus industry professionals, delivering the perfect fusion of big agency experience, boutique vibes, and exceptional value across strategy, creative, production and media.
Boasting prior experience in multiple diverse industry roles, including serving as CEO of Wunderman Thompson Canada and Carat Canada, co-president and chief strategy officer of Lowe Roche, director of marketing communications for Jamieson Laboratories, and a stint in copywriting, Jeff’s unique industry path makes him the right man to grow the Funday business across the coming years.
While the agency already works with the likes of Microsoft, 7-Eleven, Arla Foods, and several other brands, he’ll be eager to build offerings and client listings further, all without compromising on what makes the agency special - the culture and the people who make it that way.
To discuss all of this, and explore the decision to join, LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Jeff for a chat.
LBB> The big news is that you’ve just joined Funday as its new CEO and partner - congratulations! What inspired the decision to join, and how have your first days been?
Jeff> I think today is day 16, and even though I've just gotten started here, it's all great. When my now-partner, Phil Leblanc, reached out last April, in full transparency, I had never heard of Funday. So I was intrigued, we had a good conversation, and I came to understand what the offering was and how it really was a full-service agency with a really strong group of practitioners on the team. So I asked, 'Phil, why haven't I heard of you? Why is this kind of gem under the radar?', and he explained to me the genesis of the company. It's been in existence for over 10 years, but it evolved into being an agency through the technology and product work,
Hearing that, I was excited. There was a strong foundation in place. And once I started to meet the people and do my due diligence, that's when I knew it was real. Big agency talent, delivering a high-level work product for clients who respect us, by a great group of people who know what matters, in a remote environment that is unlike any I've ever worked in. And so far, everything and everyone has delivered on that multi-layered promise.
LBB> Specifically, where are you trying to take the agency? What’s your vision for the future?
Jeff> What we're doing with Funday is an exercise in what I like to call ‘brand building 101’. The company has been quietly successful in North America, so now it’s time to turn on the awareness tap. We will build that over the coming weeks, months, and years. Broadly, we want to move from consideration to conversion with new clients and potential partners.
From a future vision perspective, the interesting thing is that Funday is already really strong at working with brands who want to speak to millennials, gen z and alpha. A lot of the work product is geared towards that cohort. It's my job now to help grow the agency to work with the types of clients who (of course) want to connect with a younger demographic, but who also want to appeal to gen x’ers, and boomers alike. We want to help companies of all shapes and sizes achieve their goals.
Interestingly enough, over the last year as I was figuring out my next steps, I met a lot of entrepreneurs and small agencies who were looking for me to help them do the opposite - to help them modernise. But at Funday, we've got modern on-lock. Our team moves at the speed of culture and is constantly staying ahead of where consumers are going with consumption behaviours, tech, trends etc. So now, it's about how we scale up by helping clients with creative work that's going to connect more broadly. Everybody's trying to get younger, but we're trying to get a little bit more of everybody.
So, in short, the mission is to scale Funday, but not lose what makes this place so special - the vibes, the culture and the people who make it that way. I have already heard from clients how much they enjoy working with our team. THAT’s the thing we can’t lose sight of.
LBB> Prior to this, you were at Wunderman Thompson, but you’ve been in the industry for over 20 years. So, tell us a bit more of your story! How have you gotten to where you’re at today?
Jeff> I started in 2000 as a copywriter. Then, I spent a little bit of time as an associate creative director, before I pivoted into strategy roles. I worked at great agencies like TBWA\Chiat\Day, Zig, Cossette, GWP Brand Engineering, and TAXI. So for my first 10 years in the business, it was an interesting creative-meets-strategy agency existence.
Then, I pivoted and went client-side. I got to the place where I felt my powers of persuasion starting to wane, and I wanted to understand what it was like to be in a non-agency environment. From my perspective, it is one thing to recommend decisions and promote certain ideas representing an agency, but it's a whole other thing to actually have to make those decisions and pay for them. So I got the chance to lead the marketing function for Jamieson Laboratories (now Jamieson Wellness), Canada's largest vitamins, minerals and supplements brand. This was an interesting experience. When I joined, the brand had been dormant in media and advertising and wanted to modernise, so we did that and helped build the brand up to a 27% share of the market, which was pretty amazing. And then in year four, it all came together when we sold the company to a private equity group out of New York. I got the chance to go through the acquisition, work with the new owners for a few months, and learn how the business operates from that perspective.
After that, I returned to the agency world as the chief strategy officer for Lowe Roche, which at the time, was a boutique creative powerhouse. A month after being hired, I was tapped, along with our head of account service, Mary-Lise Campeau, to be co-presidents of the agency. So all of a sudden, I went from being a client, to CSO, to co-president pretty rapidly. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience, and from there, that experience took me to Carat at Dentsu. At the time, Carat was a large but relatively sleepy agency, and it was my job to help wake it up. I had no media background, but that's what Annette Warring, the CEO of Dentsu was looking for. We had enough media practitioners, but needed somebody who could bring a different perspective. So, we went on a great run there, won some great clients, and we grew the agency to being a hair shy of the largest agency in this country.
At that point, it was time for the next thing, and that's when WPP and Wunderman Thompson came calling. J. Walter Thompson had just merged with both Wunderman and Mirum, to create a full-service customer experience agency, but they hadn't done anything in Canada. So, it was my job to bring the groups together, merge them, and make sure that the business made sense and operated accordingly. We did that for six months in person, and then we all went home for two years for covid-19. Unfortunately, at that point some things changed for me, and I took the better part of a year to figure out what I was going to do next. However, during that time, I met lots of folks… and that led me to the Funday experience which I'm having now.
LBB> Building on this, how have these experiences come together to make you the leader you are presently?
Jeff> The red thread I'd suggest for my career has been that I’ve been a fish out of water everywhere I've gone and I’ve made it work. I’ve been the ‘new guy’ at least 10 times now and it’s helped make me the generalist’s generalist. I know a little bit about lots of things in our business, and that has helped me develop a level of empathy over the years that I utilise to help work with others. I understand and vividly remember what it's like to be a 22-year-old copywriter, to be a 34-year-old client, and I know what it's like to be a 47-year-old first-time entrepreneur. So, I hold onto those experiences and use them to (hopefully) empower others. I’ve done all the jobs and I think it helps me relate to people whose personal experiences are completely different from mine, but professional ones are comparable (if that makes sense).
To this end, this Funday experience has shown me that this is the chance to use all the tools in the tool belt, which I especially appreciate. What often happens in positions of leadership in large agencies is you kind of get pigeonholed into doing one thing. Sure, in Canada, agency CEOs or presidents are also CMOs, but beyond that, there's really nothing else you need to be doing.
On the other hand, in a smaller entrepreneurial agency environment like this one, I've already had the chance to be involved in strategy sessions, operations, bang out a little bit of copy, get involved with new business, as well as do all that managerial stuff. At Funday, we’ve got a team of 50-plus and everybody's a multi-hyphenate, and I think I'm kind of the same where it's like, 'If it needs to get done, we're going to get it done and do as well as we can'. In that sense, I'm really excited to bring all the skills I've developed over the years together and use them to hopefully help our clients (and us) grow.
LBB> Of course, spending this amount of time working can’t be easy without ways to keep it fresh and exciting. So, what’s the appeal of the industry for you? And specifically, is there anything right now that you’re excited about?
Jeff> I recently learned about this notion called the 'anonymity heuristic'. And what the anonymity heuristic suggests is: imagine a goal that you have in your mind, and then imagine achieving it but never being able to talk about it. You have to ask yourself, did you enjoy the journey to get to that goal? Do you actually want to do the climb, or just talk about getting to the top of the mountain? Because the journey to get there is what matters.
I mention that because I love the journey and (roller coaster, if you will) of agency life. I'm in a very fortunate position that my family life is beautiful and stable, so the juice in my day-to-day comes from the work and our agency, and I love that! I love when we roll up our sleeves and pitch together. I love connecting with clients. I love coming up with half-baked ideas. The journey of agency leadership suits me well. It’s ‘what I do’ and I've been doing it a long time. Having been on the sideline for the better part of the year, I missed it a lot. So, I'm very excited to be back, doing what I do.
In short, what I'm excited about most is the blank page of it all. It's the 'What's next for Funday?', and all that builds upon that. I'm thrilled to be building on a foundation that's clearly a well-oiled engine, where I get the chance to give it more gas and see where it takes us.
LBB> On the theme of journeys, joining a fully remote agency must be a pretty new concept for you! How has this impacted the way you work, and what are the main benefits?
Jeff> So far, so great. The remote agency life isn't for everybody, but it is certainly for me.
What's been different is the silly stuff - in a good way - like me just keeping up with the technology. We use Slack as our watercooler, so I'm constantly being pinged, huddled, but I’m also receiving texts and I still get emails from certain people. So, I'm just getting used to that, but it's a nice problem to have.
Aside from that, the idea of working remotely, to me, makes a lot of sense for so many reasons. We've got people in New York, Calgary, Miami, Costa Rica, across Europe, but no matter where they are, it all functions beautifully. We’re all on EST or CST and I think you can develop a great culture online as long as it's based on trust, respect and accountability, which our's certainly is.
From a value proposition perspective, there’s also a lot of upside. We're able to offer clients more, because we don't have those fixed costs that other places do. So, as obvious as it is, having a different way to have that conversation about providing real, tangible value is invaluable. In a day and age where there are around 150,000 agencies in North America, we have to look in the mirror and ask, ‘What are we providing clients with that they can't get elsewhere?’ Well, part of it is the way we're set up, and how we can offer that back to our clients and benefit them tangibly.
LBB> Tell us about your relationship with the other members of the leadership team at Funday! What’s it like joining such a strong group, how’s the dynamic, and how are you working together to bring out the best in day-to-day operations?
Jeff> Our team dynamic is unique in that we have five partners, located across Toronto, Calgary, Miami, and New York. And so far, it has been great. Everybody has their head on straight as far as motivations are concerned, it’s my first time investing in a business with others and it requires a very high level of transparency and trust, because we're talking about people's livelihoods and families.
Beyond being a partner, the leadership team of the agency has been exceptional. Everybody's really smart, genuine, authentic, and just interested in the right things, which, in my mind, are:
- Culture - Do people feel happy going to work and psychologically safe to speak up? If those things are true, then the culture is going to be strong.
- Work product - Are you creating work that you're excited about and that you want to tell other people about?
- Clients - Having been one, I can tell you that if they can do it themselves, they will. So how are we providing value beyond what they can do themselves? How do we become an extension of their team, and not just another vendor?
- Growth - It makes everything better, we're all seeking it, and we help our clients grow so they can help us grow.
As long as those four elements are in place and are moving along well, everything else kind of figures itself out, and that's the way we operate here.
LBB> Equally importantly, how are you ensuring that fun is had at Funday?
Jeff> Fun is had at Funday with a lot of Slack shenanigans. There are plenty of GIFs going around, there's a lot of celebrating people's birthdays, anniversaries and the work itself, and just different people posting things throughout the day. We also do a weekly standup where we get everyone together, and then I have different daily meetings with different folks. So, there's constant communication connectivity, and I think that's how you maintain culture and fun. It's the human side of things that keeps it light.
I also think, like any strong culture, it helps that we don't hire assholes. Everybody has to be having fun at work - that's the ethos of the company - but that only comes with trust, accountability, and professionalism. So, to make those things work together, we've got to hire the right types of people. And in turn, we maintain the culture by keeping up the energy and recognising that people are working hard. We give them their space and we don't work them to the bone. We want people to be at their best. That way, we can have fun, and we can try to be the most fun part of our client's day.
LBB> With all of this in mind, is there any advice you’d like to offer the juniors who still might be getting to know you? What are some of the biggest lessons of your career, and what would you like to pass onward?
Jeff> I don't know who said it, so I'm going to butcher the quote, but it's something like: 'When you're a junior, there's nothing more valuable than working for people with high standards'. I had the pleasure and privilege of working for some really strong mentors when I was coming up. So, I would encourage any junior wanting to improve to seek out strong mentors; people who have achieved what you are trying to achieve, who sweat the work and love the craft of what they do - they're going to help make you better. And to me, that is the most important part. In fact, I'm still doing it to this day!
Another way I look at it: every position in an agency is a talent, and talent only gets better when nurtured. It's like exercising - if you don't work a muscle, it will atrophy. So, whatever it is you're trying to do, do it as well as you possibly can, learn from the people around you, study those who have done it, read everything you can about that subject, and get as good as you possibly can. How does that account leader seem to know everything about their clients? How does that strategist constantly extract insight about people they’ve never met? How does that designer always seem to have a new way to solve problems? It goes on and on… Those who make it look easy are the ones who work the hardest at it. Keep asking the questions and keep seeking the answers.
To sum it up, my message to juniors is: whatever it is you're working on, work on it as hard and as well as you possibly can. Don't settle for mediocrity. Don't just do well, do great. And once you get really good at something, go do something else, learn that thing, put those tools in your belt, and keep expanding your skills. It's about pushing for improvement, learning from those around you, taking it in, and then trying to make it your own.
LBB> Finally, work isn’t everything. So, what do you like to do outside the job, and how do you destress after a busy day?
Jeff> Life outside the job is wonderful. I am very fortunate to have been married now for 19 years. Lisa is my rock, we've been together for 25 years, and we have three amazing kids (Sadie, Rachel and Dylan), and that takes up a lot of space (in a good way, of course). It's why we work, and I'm very lucky to have such an amazing family and also a great group of friends, many of whom I've known since we were kids. So, between work and all those folks, it's pretty busy, but I don't take any of it for granted.
Aside from that, having spent the better part of the last year on the sidelines, the other part of my day is about reconnecting and getting back to people who are on the sidelines themselves. I'm happy to communicate with anybody who reaches out. I will get back to everybody, even if it takes me a couple of days, because I think it's important in our advertising and marketing community to help each other out. So that's how I spend my days. It's work, it's family, it's friends, it's helping out folks and trying to get better myself.
