CB Hot Suit Takes: Jake Ford, CEO and Co-Founder, Reconnected
CB Hot Suit Takes is our new Q&A series for extremely busy CEOs and senior leaders across the industry ~ covering careers, creativity, challenges and the song that sums it all up. Next in the hot seat is Jake Ford, CEO and Co-Founder, Reconnected.
1. What made you get into advertising?
The Big Ad by Carlton Draught. That’s the short answer.
The longer one reflects, advertising has always been a happy place. It sits right at the intersection of business and creativity and I’ve never found anywhere that feels more like home.
My dad ran a radiator shop with a radiator character in the TV ads. In year 11, I drummed in a gorilla suit in front of the school for a chocolate drive school fundraiser. I was the guy at Uni and the sporting club coming up with hair-brained creative events to fundraise / ‘socialise amongst.
Looking back, there’s always been something in me that gravitates toward the idea that entertaining people can actually move a business forward. Advertising just made that instinct a career.
2. Which piece of work are you most proud of, and why?
Meet Graham. meetgraham.com.au
I was in my account service nappies on that project relative to the talent around me. I built the box Graham sat on. Literally the arse end of the project.
But watching Sonia von Bibra, Stephen DeWolf, Evan Roberts, Matt Pearce, Kate Joiner, Naomi Goringe and Nicola Patterson (amongst many others) all operating at their absolute peak was a career highlight.
What it taught me is what excellence actually looks like and what it genuinely takes to get there.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role right now?
The science is getting clearer on where the value of marketing actually lives. That part’s exciting.
The harder question is how we deliver that value as the how of marketing completely changes. Technology is redefining how we create. Which means agencies can’t just be an echo of what worked in 2020. You have to be fit for 2030.
Those who work that out will be well rewarded. Those who don’t will just be louder versions of something that no longer fits.
4. What’s the most recent thing you’ve learned – professionally or personally?
As the value of the human is being redefined professionally, I’ve become genuinely curious about which levels of humanity we can understand, develop, and lean into more deliberately.
That’s led me toward the science of energy and consciousness and how it flows between people. Sounds hippie. Isn’t really. The more the professional world gets reshaped by technology, the more I think the depth of our humanity becomes the thing worth mastering. That’s where I’m putting my curiosity right now.
5. What song best sums up your career so far?
I’m Still Standing. Elton John.
My kids love the ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ part.
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