Joan Creative Show Us How To Be Kickass Women

They started out as a quartet working out of hotel lobbies and having bold ideas about shaking up adland. Now, Joan Creative is a 24-strong agency whose modern ethos and “irregular thinking” is luring global talent and big clients, and has led to sizzling work such as Rules for the Modern Woman for Netflix. Like its namesakes – Joan Jett/Dideon/of Arc et al, this shop is challenging the norm

It’s an adland truism that most people in the business love advertising but hate the industry. Hands up who hasn’t shared grievances that it has “lost its way” or “failed to move with the times” over a bottle of wine (or two)? Some soldier on, accepting the status quo; some leave to answer the siren call of Google and Facebook or to bake their own artisan bread. Others put their money where their mouth is and start a new breed of agency.

Step forward Jaime Robinson and Lisa Clunie, co-founders of the city’s newest creative boutique, Joan. Robinson, formerly co-ECD at W+K New York, and Clunie, COO at global lifestyle website Refinery29, had admired each other’s work for years before they met in 2015, and hit it off. “We started talking about what we’d do differently, how we believe people should be treated, the importance of empathy and kindness, how we could go beyond typical advertising offerings and effect positive change,” says Clunie. “Then, we thought: why not start our own agency together?”

But did the over-saturated New York market need another shop? The pair weren’t convinced. So they made a big list of all the industry’s faults. “Why does [the process] have to be so slow? Why is the client/agency relationship so tense? Why is all the talent fleeing to tech and entertainment? Why are margins so shitty?” says Robinson. “And we said, if we can address all of these [issues], then we’ll start an agency.”

The outcome was Joan (which isn’t an homage to Mad Men’s sassy redhead, but to various other Joans – from the Arc one to 70s punk rocker Joan Jett – who’ve shaped and changed the course of history). Launched in May 2016, the agency prides itself on “irregular thinking” and aims to provide clients with a more flexible approach to marketing, reflecting the trend towards project-based work.

Considering it only opened last year, Joan has already built up an impressive head of steam, securing cereal giant General Mills, Netflix, Booking.com and adidas as clients and going from a team of four working out of local hotel lobbies and Starbucks, to a 24-strong company with a cool space of their own.

It aims to keep this core team small and nimble but draw on a wider network of creative and production staff – a ‘rotating cast’ model – according to the client/project’s specific needs. Joan isn’t alone in this set-up, but what gives them a unique perspective, says Clunie, is the combination of traditional creative and publishing experience the founders contribute.

Dedicated to diversity

Robinson honed her craft as a copywriter at some of San Francisco’s top agencies, including TBWAChiatDay, EVB, and Pereira & O’Dell, where she led creative on high-profile campaigns like Intel/Toshiba’s The Beauty Inside, then moved to W+K New York as co-ECD. Clunie has an account strategy background and worked at Saatchi, BBH, and Ogilvy, before becoming interested in the changing relationship between agencies and publishers – once partners, now competitors – and joining the latter.

As the COO of Refinery29, one of the most successful millennial-targeted lifestyle sites around today, she was responsible for generating revenue through brand partnerships, as well as formulating specific content and distribution strategies to grow audiences.

“In today’s world, thinking about what the story will be is only one part of the equation; equally important is where it will live and how it will grow,” says Clunie. “We occupy that space between big brand thinking and the publishing knowledge of audience and distribution,” adds Robinson, “and our hope is that we’ll create wonderful, big-brand ideas that actually work for the ecosystem in a way that gets shared, sought out and really resonates with the audience.”

They seem well on their way to achieving that vision. Their Netflix spot Rules for the Modern Woman, aired during the 2016 Emmys, parodied one of those 50s educational films on how to be a lady – but juxtaposed advice like “taking pride in one’s appearance is your highest calling” with scenes from Netflix dramas depicting female characters “literally kicking men’s asses and being very unladylike”. Accompanied by a series of GIFs, it became a huge social success.

Another brand initiative celebrating women was their contribution to adidas’ Here To Create, campaign; a “runnable” art gallery in LA’s Griffith Park, with feminist-themed installations.

As well as promoting diversity, the agency runs a dedicated foundation whereby a percentage of time and proceeds is funnelled into enabling people from different walks of life to enter the industry. “If you look at the work over the past decade, it’s felt very similar. Is that because we have the same people doing it?” says Robinson. While many companies only pay lip-service to the concept, Joan “want[s] to be accountable. We want a report at the end of the year that you can point to and say, ‘We actually made these changes.’”

Joan’s fresh approach is drawing in talent from across the globe. In January, Dave Canning and Dan Treichel joined as co-ECDs from 180 Amsterdam. “I was reading about Joan,” says Treichel, “and thought, “Wow, that would be cool as a next step, but they’ve only just started out so obviously they don’t need anyone like us… Then, less than a week later, we got the call.”

With a “ton of work in the pipeline” for their founding client, General Mills, the team is confident that like its famous namesakes, Joan will completely change the game. “[Joan] is set up to be the best creative agency first in the city, then the country, then the world – nothing stands in our way,” concludes Canning.