The Work That Made Me: James Kirkham
James Kirkham is CEO and founder of ICONIC. Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost industry speakers, James comes from a wide ranging career in social, digital, advertising, sports and music marketing. He was previously on the board at Defected Records as its chief business officer. Before that, he was CBO at football media business COPA90, working with brands that included Uber, Budweiser, Nike and Pepsi.
James had founded his own digital marketing agency Holler, when he was just 23. Holler was acquired by Publicis Group in 2010, after which he was appointed global head of social and mobile at Leo Burnett. ICONIC is a full service agency and entertainment company which aims to give brands a unique insight into how they can harness the power of popular culture. In a new era of marketing, ICONIC underpins all processes with a network of creative cultural talent, and AI.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
I was born in 1977, so a child in the '80s. The spot that feels synonymous with my early childhood memories was a brilliant little cartoon for Weetabix. They kind of played on a Ska, Madness style theme, anthropomorphising the Weetabix into a tribe of characters, swaggering and dancing their way round the kitchen table with a sort of skin head look (Doc Martens, white t-shirts, thick rimmed glasses and braces) playing off the music from the era.
A surreal little gem, which feels like it was scripted by Guy Ritchie or a touch of Parklife’s Phil Daniels, but compressed into the tasty wheat snack.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
James> In 1993 Dunlop’s spot 'Tested for the Unexpected' hit our screens, directed by Tony Kaye. I was 16 years old, and it changed everything. I was loving art and quite good at it, but had no concept of the creative industries, no understanding how you could get into them or what you could even do.
This advert triggered something deep inside me. The soundtrack, some brooding atmospheric soundscape which I later realised was The Velvet Underground with ‘Venus in Furs,' hit me between the eyes. I used to wait for it, watching the ad breaks of all the TV shows because I so wanted to see that advert again. And again.
I was mesmerised. It was mesmerising. The bald Buddha guy. The piercings. That snake in the sand. The fire. I knew it was for Dunlop but frankly, who the hell cared? It felt like a cinematic masterpiece in our living rooms and I realised I needed to get into this world, somehow, one day.
LBB> The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…
James> I keep revisiting ‘Ladies and Gentleman we’re floating in space’, the LP by Spiritualised. It manages to take me back to a time, giving me warm nostalgia, whilst feeling spacey and epic and widescreen, so it accompanies many of my ideas sessions and moments to think.
LBB> My first professional project…
James> I made an online banner for Microsoft, at my first agency Zinc. I was a junior designer there and worked on their key accounts like Microsoft, Virgin Atlantic and Vodafone. We made all their web stuff but having left art college it felt insanely constrained and limiting to be making online banners which we had to get under about 16k so that they could load on the dial-up modems of the time.
It’s hard to even explain to people what designing for web was like in those days. It feels like something from deepest history, not 1999.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
James> Anything clichéd still does this. With the Euros coming up, you’ll be guaranteed to see spots which attempt to align to football but which fly so far wide of the mark. Fandom might be expressed only as a red or blue shirt, with supposed ‘fans’ waving their scarves in unlikely ways, supporting their fictional sides.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…
James> Jonathan Glazer’s video for Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” still bangs. It pops visually, you see it today and still people wonder how it was done. The fact that this was made at that time alongside the likes of Radiohead’s Street Spirit (who remembers the snarling dog in slow motion?) shows what insane talent Glazer had then, and still does - just recently being recognised for his latest movie by the Academy.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
James> At university, I created a project which started a career. Myself and a friend (who became my business partner) made a one-off final year project to showcase all the students’ work in the multi-media course. Called ‘Holler’, it was a visually arresting touch screen sound installation.
We were heavily inspired by Antirom, Audiorom, Tomato and the likes - these pirates and pioneers who changed digital completely, who were part art house - part musicians. They played in this new space and made something truly inspirational and infectious. 'Holler' was an ode to this work, and itself got into Creative Review on their ‘cover disk’ which shone a light on new talent in 1999. Our agency Holler would have been nothing without these inspirational first movers.
LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…
James> It’s hard not to consider the most successful campaigns amongst the work we’re most proud of. For example my agency, Holler, was the first in the world to market a TV show using social media. ‘Skins’ on E4 was a cultural phenomenon and we had newspapers talking about this ‘new marketing paradigm’ that we’d somehow stumbled upon.
I guess that should be the source of most pride, as the project seemed to kickstart a whole new space, community building, coalescing fans around bespoke properties, building audiences in spaces where they exhibited most passion—all these things are now commonplace, but in 2004 it was genuinely new.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
James> I don’t have anything that makes me cringe, honestly. I’ve tried so hard to remember but I can genuinely say the output has always been something you can defend. I remember a moment, though, which makes me cringe, when we were working on music projects for Universal Music whilst at Holler. We came in to meet this new band, Razorlight, and were asked to pitch them our thoughts and thinking.
I was pretty young at the time, and maybe a little full of it in terms of what online interactive experience we could be making for them. But Johnny Borrell, the Razorlight lead singer, was a rock 'n' roll star. He had no interest whatsoever in listening to this 20-something blonde guy telling him about flash and digital interactive microsites and data-capture mechanics. I’ve never experienced hostility like it. And now I look back, I think I agree with the Razorlight boys, why SHOULD they have given a shit about me?
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
James> Am I allowed to say our own magazine? ICONIC MAG is one of my favourite creative moments in the year, beautiful, arresting and visually impactful. It feels part David Carson typography, part fanzine, but super lush and premium. I can say all this as it’s down to our most wonderful creative brain Ben Wrigglesworth; I just get to sign off the visuals and spreads alongside Ellie Farrer. Oh, and like any good magazine, it smells GORGEOUS.
