The New Wave ~ Jacko, Jacko & Jacko
The New Wave is Campaign Brief’s Q&A series spotlighting the next generation of independent creative companies and exploring how the indie model is evolving. From structure and speed to culture and capability, we unpack where these businesses are finding their edge and what’s driving client decisions today. Next up is Jacko, Jacko & Jacko.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
Jacko Jacko & Jacko is the team you need when you don’t need the full team.
After years in networks and indies, we noticed that bringing business, strategy and creative together often required a surprisingly large cast. Some clients still like that. Plenty don’t.
With Jacko Jacko & Jacko, you get experience across all three in one impossibly aligned team – helping you work out what the business needs, what the brand should do and how to make it matter to people.
All three founders, all of the time. Who else can promise that?
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
In terms of their number and influence, indies probably have become the norm. But prevalence doesn’t make you progressive. The real challengers are the ones still questioning accepted ways of working, following better ideas wherever they lead and evolving before they become the thing they set out to challenge.
The danger for indies isn’t becoming the norm. It’s becoming conventional.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Our advantage isn’t simply integration. It’s proximity.
We’d rather be inside the tent helping make the decisions than outside waiting for them to arrive as a brief. That means getting involved early, helping shape the direction and staying close as that direction becomes the work.
That’s where Jacko Jacko & Jacko sits: Closer to the business, closer to the decisions and closer to the work.
“Best of all, we got three Jackos in one: business, strategy and creative experience. That’s great for a brand like ours that doesn’t want the traditional agency model, but wants a trusted partner who can guide us.” – Ben Stack, CEO, Stacks Law Firm
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
Let’s ask our fourth Jacko. Meet J.ai.cko.
“I don’t just make this tight knit team faster, I expand what it’s capable of. I handle the heavy lifting across research, iteration and production, while the human Jackos provide the judgment, taste and direction. But AI is only useful when people know where to trust it, where to question it and when to ignore it. I’m not their competitive advantage. Knowing what to do with me is.”
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
The ones you probably want as clients, because they tend to see opportunity rather than risk. They’re not looking for an agency to simply take orders or validate what they already think. They want people prepared to get involved, challenge constructively and help build the answer with them.
It’s less about the size or category of the client than their appetite for a genuine working partnership.
“It was an absolute pleasure working with Jacko Jacko & Jacko. After 17 years, with a business spanning five global regions, our proposition had become broad and complex. The Jackos did an amazing job of helping us distill our brand, giving our teams the clarity and confidence to move forward. I couldn’t recommend them more highly, and I’m sure we’ll work together again soon.” – Mick Entwisle, Co-founder & CEO, Genero
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean or something else?
More freedom to do work we believe in, with people we like, in whatever form makes the most sense.
That already includes direct client partnerships, collaborations with people we admire, and ideas that might become products or businesses rather than campaigns. We recently helped our friend Karl create and launch Olivetta, Australia’s first luxury olive oil concept store, now open at the new Sydney Fish Market. Go and see it, it’s beautiful.
Check out the other New Wave Q&As below:
Read Chimera Project’s Q&A here
Read Today The Brave’s Q&A here
Read Tightknit Studio’s Q&A here
Read Bastion Australia’s Q&A here
Read We Are Different’s Q&A here
Read SICKDOGWOLFMAN’s Q&A here
Read Kill Boring Dead’s Q&A here
Read Oblong Creative’s Q&A here
Read The Many Australia’s Q&A here
Read Bureau of Everything’s Q&A here
Read Art of the Possible ANZ’s Q&A here
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