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