At last year’s B&T Awards, Jaywing walked away with the Direct Response/Performance Agency of the Year trophy.
Our judges loved the agency’s refreshed approach to staff development with new training and development initiatives and its impressive roster of client wins last year, adding brands such as Myer, New Balance, a2 Milk, Bupa and Crocs to its roster.
Ahead of this year’s B&T Awards, we caught up with CEO Tom Geekie to find out what it’s like running an award-winning agency.
Are you at the top of your game? Enter the B&T Awards now!
B&T: Jaywing had a year to remember in 2023, picking up some huge new clients. What do you attribute this success to?
Tom Geekie: Last year was a big one for Jaywing. As the role of performance agencies becomes increasingly consultative, data, insights and measurement are becoming harder, so we reinvigorated how we manage these key elements.
We attribute our success to the strategic redefinition of our agency proposition, ‘Performance Marketing, accelerated by Data and Creative’, where we unlocked a truly fluid approach to client challenges and solutions. No fighting for revenue, no wasted efficiency. Just an agnostic approach to driving results and bottom-line growth for clients.
We won more work than ever, extending into bigger brands including Myer, New Balance, Perpetual, CashRewards, a2 Milk, and Crocs. And we fostered greater productivity, creativity, and employee satisfaction while maintaining our commitment to organisational goals that led us to drive new initiatives and enhance training, development and diversity.
B&T: You told us at the time that Jaywing was leveraging AI to maximise efficiency within the business. What’s changed over the last eight or so months as a result?
TG: You can’t move these days without AI being omnipresent. It will no doubt revolutionise our industry, but there is still some way to go until we see the extent to which it will.
We’ve been investing in developing our own proprietary AI technology across creative, media and measurement over the past three years. However, advances in technology and market adoption have accelerated adoption.
Focusing on leveraging AI differently has been key. For example, we’re enabling AI to drive greater business outcomes by integrating complex data sources into media platforms; investing heavily in consumer insights to inform strategy by focusing on first-party data collection, user testing and consumer surveys and we’ve expanded our creative capabilities to include animation; 3D motion; social content creation; video production and conceptual ideation.
It’s clear that more clients want to explore how AI can enhance their brands and business and that interest is only set to grow. We need to be ready for it and are well on the way to ensuring that.
B&T: How has the market changed since November last year? Is it more buoyant or is it serving performance agencies like yourselves better?
TG: AI is becoming an integral part of delivery across everything we do. It’s no longer nice to have, but an expectation now.
With the continued evolution of technology and the rise in AI, the agency landscape continues to drift towards an integrated, consultative approach.
Are you at the top of your game? Enter the B&T Awards now!
As the market continues to be pressured when it comes to media spend, performance budgets remain steady, however, businesses understand they need to take greater control of their own destiny and invest in their owned channels to deliver great returns on media spend.
B&T: What turns a great performance agency into an award-winning one, like Jaywing?
TG: First and foremost, it’s always down to our people. That may sound trite, but without the amazing team of hardworking digital, creative and strategy specialists we’ve built, who give their absolute all for our clients, we wouldn’t have been in the running for and then ultimately winning a B&T Award.
Performance marketing is constantly evolving, and as a leader in the sector, it’s incumbent on us to ensure we remain ahead of the game. That includes continuing to identify where the market is going and investing in developing our portfolio of services to meet the changing and increasingly challenging client needs.
Finally, it’s being able to attract and partner with ambitious clients who entrust us to deliver tangible outcomes for their businesses. Our success is due to their success and the B&T Performance Agency Award is a testament to that.
B&T: Why did you choose to enter the B&T Awards?
TG: We’re not in the business of entering awards for the sake of it.
We knew last year was a transformative one for Jaywing, which is why entered and was lucky enough to win. It’s important to have a story to tell, and we believed we had a good one.
There is of course no shortage of awards in this industry but in the realm of performance marketing, which is a big part of the marketing mix, there are fewer opportunities for this level of recognition from leading trade publications.
We’ve had another strong 12 months and will be back again in 2024 hoping to achieve the elusive double. Watch this space!
Are you at the top of your game? Enter the B&T Awards now!
