The Work That Made Me: Jonah Ballow
For over a decade, Jonah worked as an on-air talent for the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks, where he also led their digital and social content strategy. He later moved to the agency side, where he has been involved in all aspects of content creation as a storyteller, producer, and director. Throughout his over 17-year career, Jonah has worked with notable brands such as Bvlgari, Fanatics, New York Red Bulls, Nike, Shiseido, and Toyota. He has a special interest in direct-to-athlete content and has interviewed numerous world-class athletes.
Among the highlights of his career, Jonah has interviewed Howard Stern and managed to sneak Conor McGregor into the Knicks locker room. A Colorado native, Jonah is a combat sports enthusiast and loves watching documentaries on various topics.
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Jonah> When I was 10 years old with dreams of becoming an NBA player, I’ll never forget the moment of turning on the TV and seeing the most influential athlete of our time paired with one of the most impactful ad campaigns of a generation. In 1991, Gatorade released the 'Be Like Mike' advertisement featuring, of course, Michael Jordan. Not only did the catchy jingle resonate with all age groups but shined a light on Michael Jordan as the biggest star in sports and pop culture.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Jonah> My path to owning a creative agency was a bit circuitous, so there wasn’t a specific ad, music video, game, or web platform that specifically got me into the industry. However, watching big brands influence consumers during my teenage and college years (2000s) certainly had an effect on my creative decisions today. Nike, Apple, and Pepsi are just some of the brands that I still refer to as creative inspiration in 2023.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Jonah> I will reference a documentary that I’ve probably watched 10 times. The Defiant Ones is a documentary about the parallel paths of music industry titan Jimmy Iovine and Hip-Hop legend Dr. Dre. The documentary perfectly tells the story of both individuals leading up to their collaboration and creation of Beats, which led to a $700 million deal with Apple. I love this film from a technical storytelling perspective along with all the marketing, business, and interpersonal learning lessons throughout the piece.
My first professional project…
Jonah> As mentioned above, my path to where I’m at now has been quite different since I started my career in broadcasting. My first paid project was a producer/engineer role for high school football games broadcasted locally in Lawrence, Kansas.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Jonah> I wouldn’t call out any specific ad but I think the collective marketing industry has learned a lot of important lessons regarding morality in advertising. I’m referring to the way big pharma used marketing materials to push opioids/painkillers and also how vaping advertisements were geared to the younger generation. Creative/production/marketing agencies must show restraint in taking on clients who are looking to target teenagers and children with harmful products.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Jonah> I wouldn’t say this incredible piece of content made me jealous but it certainly made me envious. Following the unfortunate Kobe Bryant death, Dr. Dre, Gibson Hazzard, and Jack Bannon created this video/music piece as a tribute to the legendary player. It was phenomenal. I still watch it at least once a month.
Dr. Dre Delivers An Epic Tribute To Kobe Bryant | All-Star 2020
The creative project that changed my career…
Jonah> When I worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves as an on-air talent and manager of digital, I created a piece with videographer Michael Siegel that significantly changed my career. A video was surfacing the internet showing Kevin Love missing the customary free throw handshake with Wes Johnson. This humorous moment sparked an idea. I wanted to create an SNL-style spoof where Kevin Love was trying to work on this handshake in practice and with his teammates but just couldn’t get it right. I pitched it to the PR team, Kevin, and his teammates. Everybody (amazingly) bought in. My videographer and I shot and edited the piece quickly and I’ll never forget the night before I was going to post it. I got cold feet and almost didn’t publish the video because I thought people wouldn’t get the joke. Thankfully, I hit the publish button and the next day it was an overwhelming success. The video garnered 1.2 million views on YouTube and was prominently featured on NBA.com, Yahoo.com, CNN.com along with ESPN’s Jim Rome is Burning and NBATV. I realised that this type of content is a great way to showcase the personalities of these players on the floor and a way to utilise my unique access to the team to create viral content.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Jonah> This is an extremely hard question to answer. Aside from some of the work I’ve created as a producer/director, I’m really proud of my on-air work in the past with the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks. I hosted panel discussions with the memorable 1999 Knicks team featuring Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, Marcus Camby, and Kurt Thomas. I also managed to interview my broadcasting hero Howard Stern along with Chris Tucker, Kevin Harlan, and Tracy Morgan. These interviews required me to react quickly with unscripted questions and responses. While I’ve moved on from the on-air work, I look back fondly on these interviews.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Jonah> I’m very proud of my on-air work as mentioned above but there are two interviews that stand out to me where I still cringe. One interview was with Amar’e Stoudemire. I’ve interviewed Amar’e probably 10-15 times but this one specifically, he was not in a great mood but I pressed to get the sit-down chat. We ended up not using the video because it was clear something was going on with Amar’e and the interview felt stilted. Another celebrity interview I conducted was with Louis C.K. He also pushed back a bit when I asked him and I would say 95% of the celebs I interviewed at MSG were great. However, Louis C.K. gave me one-word answers, and couldn’t have been less interested. It caught me off guard but I tried to continue my line of questioning and it got more and more awkward throughout the interview. I learned a valuable lesson in both cases – don’t press if the interviewee is clearly not in the right mindset.
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Jonah> We [Heartlent Group] recently completed a really exciting project. Our client, Sam Houston State University joined Conference USA this year and in collaboration with NNC Agency, we developed a new campaign titled: 'We Are One.' The University was in need of a national television commercial spot to air during its games. Along with Elevation Digital, we shot and edited a 30-second spot to shine a light on the athletic programs and the 'We Are One' campaign. The commercial was scripted and developed on an extremely short deadline. I’m proud of the incredible work of our team and partners in delivering a high-quality video for our client.
