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Creative, Efficient, Fast but Friendly: Why Jam Prioritises Personality over per Annum

25/05/2022
Creative Production Studio
London, UK
236
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LBB’s April Summers meets the global adaptation and content production agency that is demonstrating how a congenial can-do attitude is a sure-fire way to win business
The pandemic everyone is desperately trying to forget about, proved to be a “make or break” time for many businesses in the industry. As luck would have it, Jam were more than prepared for the global shift and able to hold their nerve. “We have always focused on really smart technology and brilliant people,” says managing partner, Neil Lane, “Covid has accelerated things for us because our business model is now in high demand.” 

“People weren’t able to go out to travel or shoot,” says Lucie Loughlin, managing partner, “This meant the demand for cloud-based services and the adaptation of existing assets grew and all of a sudden it didn’t matter where your base was, as long as you could work in the various time zones. We were already doing this through our smart tech.” 

Innovation and agility is in the bones of Jam, and maintaining dexterity is what the company set out to do when it was founded in 2017, three years before covid reared its ugly head. “Jam caters to this fast turnaround world that we live in,” Neil says, “We set it up knowing that the client would see cost-efficiencies and technology that allows for smart, quick production solutions. Slowly but surely the clients have caught up with that in the last two years since covid.”

When Neil co-founded the company with managing partner Lucie Loughlin and operations director Harry Lane, the trio knew they had to stay nimble and evolve at the same rate as the ever-changing industry. In order to achieve this, the Jam team employs an approachable and hands-on working style from pre-production to delivery. 

From covering all manner of content production, post production and creative conceptualisation, to specialising in creative localisation, transcreation, translation adaptation and versioning, as well as design and artworking, Jam has built a number of powerful partnerships across different sectors. With so many moving parts, their trademark agility comes into play everyday, and has allowed the business to grow in tandem with the changing content demands. “We can slot in and make ourselves as big or small as we see fit,” says Lucie, proudly, “We work holistically with our clients, as a partnership, and are capable of delivering on big projects.” 

“So many social channels continue to pop up,” Neil continues, “Presenting new opportunities and increasing the volume of content needed to feed those channels. We have seen a huge rise in the need for socially aware content, especially when it comes to adaptation.” 

Exceeding Expectations


While only one of their many niches, adaptation is considered the bread and butter of the company, with a great number of clients initially coming to them for help adapting content. “Rather than just taking that content and adapting it, we’re making it culturally relevant and adding a creative element to enhance the project we’re working on,” reveals Harry, who oversees operations across the business. “We strive for work to be creatively localised to ensure it is culturally relevant and we work closely with the agencies to deliver this. Amazon started as an adaptation client and things developed from there!”


Amazon, one of the fastest moving and most successful retail brands in the world, can be counted amongst Jam’s growing client base. Having won them over by presenting a case study of a well-executed campaign made up of 1700 multifaceted assets, the team has worked with Amazon on multiple projects, including the 2021 and 2022 International Women’s Day online campaign. Jam was responsible for remote event production, social campaign assets and landing page takeover, culminating in a series of videos which appeared across Amazon’s various channels. “If we look at Amazon, they’re a big global business that moves very quickly,” Neil says, “We can turn things around smarter and faster than most larger companies because we’re leaner, and with no hidden overheads to recoup, we are able to pass most of the cost efficiencies back to the client.” 



Harry attributes the long-term success of these partnerships to each team’s ability to go above and beyond traditional expectations. “We provide the added value of being creative with everything we produce. It’s about adding a point of difference which our clients don’t get from the big agencies. We continually streamline our ways of working, and the business in general, to avoid overcomplicating things.” 


Initiating a partnership with Amazon was just the beginning of a series of big wins, with other revered global brands knocking on Jam’s door for help with campaign work. “We are currently working with a lot of brands in the fast-moving tech, food delivery and retail sectors,” explains Lucie. Fifa Plus is one of these brands, and signifies a huge step in the right direction, as far as the founding partners are concerned. 


“In terms of added value, the work we have done for Fifa is a great example of that,” Harry reveals, “They came to us initially to create a hype film: what we created was only ever meant to be a sizzle reel to get the internal teams excited, but they really loved the work we did. We ended up having lots of work coming from them; they asked us to produce a launch asset, plus an additional trailer for a different programme.” Clearly, Jam’s ability to deliver far beyond the agreed upon brief, puts them in a strong position to win additional work. 

Reflecting on the success of their work with Fifa Plus, Harry says, “It has performed really well so far, the amount of views and feedback has been incredible. Every person involved in the process added value which is one of the advantages of being an inherently creative team.”

“We want to keep our staff hungry for the creative so they want to do these jobs,” Lucie adds. “What we delivered to Fifa is a perfect example of the main three things we offer, being cost-effective, being fast and being good… but being friendly too.” 

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Content Creators


Guaranteeing a friendly,can-do approach is all part of the Jam experience, and an area the founding members refuse to compromise on, having worked so hard to establish it within the foundational make-up of their business model. All three have witnessed, first-hand, the fallout from other production agencies who haven’t prioritised client relationships, and are determined to do everything in their power to avoid similar interactions. “A lot of other companies have a client/supplier attitude, but we don't see it like that, we see it as a team. We want to establish strong relationships with our clients and hold onto them,” Lucie asserts.

Neil wholeheartedly agrees, “For us, the personality and customer service will never leave us. As we get bigger we are hoping that the people that come aboard will pass on that DNA of ownership.”

And get bigger they will. The team has already tripled in size over the last two years - from five to 18 employees - making this an important time for Jam to make these assertions for the future. “Jam is a new age company with an old school mentality,” says Lucie, “We have an amazingly talented team, with no layers of management and absolutely no politics. It’s functional and self contained, and we enjoy each other’s company.”

Among their plans for the future, Jam is working on making progress in the area of automation. “Harry’s been working on finessing our automated processes which will mean the less creative work can be done via an automation system and become part of our new service which allows us to take on more,” Neil reveals, “Not everything can be or should be automated, just like any industry, you can’t replicate creativity. However, if you are dealing with 32 different versions in 100 languages, with the right assets, that can happily be automated.”

Jam has proven to not only offer a diverse range of content capabilities but also a memorable congeniality that puts them in good stead with clients. Lucie believes this winning formula gives them freedom to take on a range of work; “As we look towards a post covid world, Jam’s unique business model is thriving and perfectly positioned to deliver highly creative, integrated projects for brands and agencies.”  

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