How KUAMP’s Authentic Approach Can Invigorate the Ad Industry

Antonio McDonald’s college nickname, ‘Tronic’, (taken from ‘electronic’) is a representation of the creative leader’s innovative forward-thinking. He’s the founder, executive producer, chief creative officer and live-action director at creative production house KUAMP (pronounced ‘kyamp’), which is an acronym for his and the business’ philosophy, ‘Keep Up and Make Progress’, and a nod to people coming together for collaborative efforts in a ‘camp’. 

“[It’s about] keeping up with life and continuing to move forward,” says Antonio. “Sometimes it looks like you’re standing still, but then you get that opportunity that propels you to the next level. So it's all about that - steady work, rolling up your sleeves, getting shit done.”

Antonio’s first brush with creativity came through still photography, training his eye with a Polaroid, before graduating to a video camera and making backyard TV shows with friends. Music was also a passion, as he grew up surrounded by the hits of the ‘80s as well as classic rock, the beginnings of hip-hop, and his Caribbean family’s reggae favourites.

During high school, he joined a TV production course and began editing, creating highlight films for the different sports teams - skills that then transferred to his communications degree at the University of New Haven.

After building a reel making and editing original shows for the college stations, Antonio landed an internship at a local ABC News Station, before joining MTV and eventually being offered a full-time position. Focused on editing, he proved himself by making himself familiar with, and useful to, MTV’s senior editors, burning time code into beta tapes and taking opportunities to work on promo spots for air whenever possible.

However, Antonio really got his break when he picked up a Canon XL1 and went out to Harlem to film a hot new dance trend in New York’s up-and-coming hip-hop scene - the ‘Uptown Shake’. Editing the footage after-hours, his boss saw the film and decided to air it, kickstarting Antonio’s career as a producer/director/writer at MTV’s promo department. 

“At the time, it was a world-renowned department and a lot of great directors still working to this day came out of there. Brian Beletic, Matt Lenski, Laura Murphy, Melissa Silverman… a lot of amazing talent. I was fortunate to learn under them.”

Around 2005, Antonio helped usher in an era of co-branded content for MTV, notably working with Sprite to connect the drink with hip-hop fans and MTV viewers alike. “Sprite had already done a lot in hip-hop. It was one of the few brands early on that really understood hip-hop and where it was going, so it was already kind of part of the culture,” he says. “What I attempted to do was to take a piece of work, and say, ‘OK, here's an opportunity to really showcase hip-hop, at a higher level’.”

The result was two 60-second spots, one of a graffiti artist painting an ornate canvas in the middle of New York’s SoHo district, and the other of Sprite cans being used to create a sculpture of MTV 2’s ‘two-headed dog’ logo. This project, which garnered press and even a Telly award, gave Antonio the confidence to trust his intuition and voice in the industry for the first time. It also gave him experience in wearing multiple hats at once -  a skill he says has become even more important today.

“Now people are like, ‘Can you do everything?’. Everyone now - brands and agencies - are all going in-house and they're handling the conceptualisation all the way through to finishing - it's kind of become the norm,” he says. “In MTV’s promo department, we were really innovative, in that sense, way back when - and being able to do a lot with so little has been serving us well, these days.”

“We still like good budgets, of course,” he adds, “but being able to deliver all of those deliverables with not a lot of time is not something that we really sweat about these days because it's foundational for us.”

Reflecting on how branded content has changed since those days at MTV, Antonio says that the work has become less heavy-handed, with brands taking a more organic, entertainment-forward approach. “They lead with content that actually emboldens people to make change and do things, or just simply be entertained and laugh.” He highlights Mattel’s recent success with ‘Barbie’ as an example, calling it a “cultural movement” that entertained first, and sold Barbies second. 

“That's always the treat, when you can just be intrigued and entertained by something and then find out that actually the brand had their hand in it. That's probably the pinnacle of where you want to be when it comes to branded content.”

With all that said, KUAMP wasn’t originally set up for branded entertainment - instead starting out with music videos for the likes of Kanye West among others. But after seeing the scene changing with artists wanting to take creative control and budgets shrinking, Antonio and his team decided to pivot into the commercial space around 2011. 

The move wasn’t an immediate success, as adland was yet to embrace the new wave of branded documentary content and KUAMP’s authentic approach - something that changed by 2019, where Antonio says the ball finally got rolling for them.

“I always thought ‘Why not speak to [the consumer] like a person?’ - that was a simple concept to me, but I thought that people didn't do it for a reason. I guess it was a bit of impostor syndrome, where [I thought] you're not supposed to be real, because that's not what people want or what sells. It was a bit of naivete, with me actually believing the industry.”

“I quickly realised the industry doesn't always know what they're talking about, and realised we were a bit ahead of the curve,” he continues. “So we decided to keep doing what we were doing, keep making authentic pieces that felt real, that people could actually connect with, that featured people that look like them, that were made by people who look like them behind the scenes, and it started to resonate.”

Now, Antonio says KUAMP has elevated this approach to be less Lo Fi, with nicely shot and lit visuals, working with the best colourists, DoPs and production designers, while still engaging with people on a relatable level. “We want people to realise that this could be them or their next door neighbour - it’s real and something that you can authentically connect with.”  This is a process Antonio describes as ‘turning the expectation of urban mediocrity into metropolitan distinction’. “It's really just finding the beauty in everything,” he explains.

Above: KUAMP's 2023 Google Fiber campaign

“There’s so much beauty in things that people don't necessarily always deem beautiful. You can find beauty with an angle, with light, with good music… You can make things beautiful. We really believe that we can take anything and shape and craft it in a way that connects.”

To ensure all of KUAMP’s work is authentic, the team for each project - from its editors to its designers and creative directors - is handpicked based on their understanding of and passion for the topic. In an industry with more frameworks, limitations and obstacles than ever, having the right team, says Antonio, is half the battle.

“The team needs to be diverse in thought, diverse in race, and diverse in all aspects of life. That yields the best work constantly - that's proven but for some reason we're having a hard time embracing that as a culture, but I think that's changing.”

For Antonio, there’s a beauty in being able to pair talent with contrasting interests, skills and backgrounds, and it’s this mesh of perspectives and approaches on each of KUAMP’s projects that he prides himself on. With a general feeling that new ideas are fewer and further between nowadays, he believes that KUAMP’s varied teams is a solution.

“We take limitations and use them as an asset… The key is really figuring out how you put a ‘super team’ together, and how they approach a task and solve a problem. It’s not rocket science, right? But how you assemble that is the key. And we like to believe that we figured that part out with 22 years of experience, so that's actually the secret sauce, I guess!”

Similar to his MTV days, Antonio still taps into youth culture and enjoys working with the younger demographics on projects - recently having collaborated with an illustrator that just graduated from highschool. Ultimately, his ambition is to create an incubator programme with brick and mortar locations that will help young people learn how to write, produce, direct, edit and more. “The goal is to equip them with the tools they need and expose them to this industry, because so many kids to this day still don't really know anything about advertising.” 

“It’s to give them an opportunity to see another path for their lives,” he adds. “That’s what we truly want to do, to find a way to organically mould that into what we're already doing.”

Providing these pathways, especially as a Black-owned and operated business, has been foundational for KUAMP, and speaks to the final two letters in the acronym: ‘Make Progress’. He’s also optimistic about this progress in the wider industry, looking forward to the day when being “Black-owned” is less of an identifier or differentiator - “it's just a company that does great work!” Already he’s seen the evolution from films featuring Black people being automatically described as “urban”, however, there is still work to be done.

“[We need] more Black companies, more Black directors, more Black cinematographers, more women, more people of colour stepping in and getting opportunities and being able to add something to the industry that helps it move forward,” he says. “If we're seeing budgets shrinking throughout the industry, why not do something to invigorate it? Why not do something that's going to bring people back to advertising and have consumers engage with what we're creating again? I think it starts with diversity. It starts with welcoming new, fresh, innovative ideas - that's the key. We can't just keep regurgitating the same thing and hoping for a different result.”

The other half of KUAMP’s acronym, of course, is all about ‘Keeping Up’ - something Antonio approaches in different ways. He stays up-to-date with the industry online, but also appreciates the benefits of unplugging too. He enjoys returning to “the essence of human behaviour” by immersing himself in nature, as well as doing his fair share of people-watching. Not only that, but he is still active and is an experienced snowboarder too. For him, it’s vital to show up authentically in all of these scenarios and find his own voice as a result of the amalgamation of interests and environments.

This attitude informs his professional life, helping him - and his like-minded team - see through different lenses and create work that truly connects. “It really comes from that personal approach, the humanistic approach, and just the way that we see life,” he says. “Because we love life, we're passionate about what we're doing here, we're excited for the future and we want to spread that energy and really try to invigorate the industry in that way.”

He adds, “Let's figure out ways that we can actually move the needle and move units, because that's what brands are paying us to do! Put asses in seats, you know? That's really what it's about. So let's all focus on that… Let's move forward, knowing that we all have one common goal: engage the end consumer.”