Joint: “Independent and Staying That Way”
The Joint agency is obsessed with effectiveness and has always been driven by creativity. A happy collection of expert strategists, creatives and producers, Joint places their clients and businesses at the heart of everything they do.
“We relish a challenge and we believe relentless collaboration is our best chance of success.” This is the philosophy that Joint founders, Damon Collins and Richard Exon, harnessed when establishing the agency back in 2012.
Prior, the two of them led one of WPP’s most famous agencies from 2007 onwards as executive creative director and CEO respectively. Once they found the space and need to create Joint, they knew that it would use two navigation points to build its business - “Ego free creativity and an empathy-led culture.”
The agency’s earliest clients were TSB, Air New Zealand, Google and UKTV and the roster has now expanded to include giants such as Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Thatcher’s, Vue, Valeo Foods and U Switch.
With the human power of 42 people, 75% of the work Joint creates “runs internationally, as well as in the UK,” says the team. Recently, in 2022, Joint appointed Rowenna Prest as CSO and Algy Sharman as CCO, while Damon and Richard remained engaged in the business.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to the team at Joint to find out more about Joint’s journey and its hopes for the future.
LBB> Tell me about the recent growth at Joint, what prompted it and what it led to.
Joint> Joint is an independent agency with global reach. Recently we won the global brand brief for Amazon Web Services, and continue to work across the whole Amazon brand as well as launching new campaigns for new categories such as Amazon Insurance Store, Amazon Business and Amazon Prime Visa. Joint also recently won the premium diary brand - The Collective.
LBB> How would you define Joint's culture and how has it changed over time? How does this shine through the work that you do?
Joint> When ego free creativity and an empathy led culture are at the heart of everything you do, collaboration is the only way to work.
You also need an approach to hybrid working that balances the needs of individual Jointers and the business itself. Post-covid we took every hard earned lesson from lockdown and developed a set of ‘Ways of working’ principles that are as distinctive as Joint itself. We also refined our proposition to Joint creates ‘Emotional Edge’ for brands.
Luckily it’s not not just us that say this - System 1’s independent research across 94,000+ TV ads demonstrates that Joint’s work is typically 4x more effective at driving market share than the UK norm.
LBB> What kind of brands does Joint work with? Tell me more about your collaborations.
Joint> We work with brands across multiple sectors, with specific emphasis on tech, FMCG, finance and alcohol. We work successfully with clients through brand strategy, brand design, advertising and social.
LBB> What role does diversity, equity and inclusion play in Joint?
Joint> We want Joint to be a great place to work and for every Jointer to be proud, excited and challenged by the work we do.
We believe that everyone deserves to work in a place where they can do the best work of their careers, no matter their gender, race, age, religion or background.
How we achieve this in our work:
We believe in over-representation in front of and behind the camera, because that’s how we drive change. We choose our partners carefully, working only with those who share our ambition.
We fight against stereotypical and reductive advertising clichés and focus on positive, accurate representation. Take our Rapunzel advert for Amazon Prime - a traditionally white, patriarchal story, reclaimed as a tale of black female empowerment. Or our work for Amazon Echo featuring the story of a blind black woman.
How we achieve this with our people:
Every Jointer undergoes diversity and inclusion training run by Creative Access to understand key challenges like unconscious bias, cultural misunderstandings and discrimination in the workplace.
We also have The Joint Apprentice Scheme. It’s really important to Joint that we invest in talent from diverse backgrounds at entry level to help them learn skills that are adaptable and prepare them for the future.
Getting into the creative industry is competitive and we want to give people who are passionate about the industry and the work, but who may not usually get the opportunity, the best chance for success. When we recruit into the Joint Apprenticeship Scheme, we prioritise personal qualities above all else and we partner with the likes of Creative Access to ensure as broad a base of candidates as possible.
LBB> Tell me about your perspective on the cost of living crisis' effect on the advertising industry. How has Joint worked through it and how have you changed your creative output accordingly?
Joint> For an industry that is so London-centric, the cost of living crisis has forced us all to go beyond the M25 and really try and understand what matters to consumers across the UK- it’s not unrelated that there are now some agencies solely positioning themselves around understanding ‘real’ people. And this can only be a good thing as it’s what we all ought to be doing anyway.
Joint has always used data to try and get as nuanced an understanding of what matters to people as possible. However, we feel strongly that we need to remember that just because we’re living in some of the toughest economic times most consumers still want a bit of levity, a break from all the bad news.
LBB> What does the future look like for Joint?
Joint> Joint is fiercely independent and is staying that way. So in the future, as it is true today, we will be free to make the right decisions for our clients and everyone who works here.
