Lisa Clunie is the co-Founder and CEO of JOAN while Jaime Robinson is the co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of JOAN. JOAN is organized as a holding company and contains a creative agency, production studio and media company with offices in NY, London and Berlin.
Prior to launching JOAN in 2016, Lisa was the Chief Operating Officer for Refinery29. Lisa has held executive level positions at Ogilvy, Saatchi and Saatchi, Fallon and BBH and has overseen the growth of clients as diverse as eBay, S&P Global, HP, Barclays, American Express, Unilever, Georgia-Pacific, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Starbucks, and Time Magazine. Meanwhile, Jaime has been named as one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” and on Adweek’s annual list of top creatives. Her work has won in every award show, including an Emmy for “Outstanding New Approach to Entertainment.”
First, thank you so much for saying that. We’re SO proud of this growing crew of crazy brilliant thinkers. OK, onto your question. Undoubtedly, the most interesting thing that’s happening in the industry is AI, and it’s fascinating to see how it’s causing the entire industry to finally deal with problems that have been brewing for far too long – value, relevance, differentiation, happiness of staff, focus on data vs data AND creativity, etc. Things that the industry now has the opportunity – and necessity – to finally fix. But what we at JOAN find so wild about all of the conversations around AI, is how so many people seem to be completely missing the point: sure, we can (and should) look at how this miraculous new tool can help us streamline and perfect how we do what we’ve done in the past. But what’s WAY more interesting to JOANs is – how do we use AI to supercharge our ideas and create a new future??? How do we use it to blow the doors off our creativity?? How do we use it to make nothing off limits at all?? Truly, I haven’t seen an innovation that’s got such potential to generate explosive creativity in my entire career. Maybe the invention of the internet?? And like the advent of the internet way back in the 90s, it’s still early days. I don’t think we know 1/1000th of how AI will open our world. We’re stoked to explore and pioneer here. - jaime
Before we started JOAN, we were very clear about why we were going into business, what problem we intended to solve and how we’d do it differently. I could not be happier that we took the time to lay out our true North Star. That has guided us through so much change and helped us show up consistently even when the day to day fluctuates. We also have always had a clear operating plan - both long term and short term. We try to keep our goals and KPIs simple. Simplifying is one of the hardest, but most vital jobs we have today. There are too many ideas, too many challenges, too many opportunities. If you’re not careful you’ll try to do them all and then succeed at none. – lisa
I really think we’re in an era where there needs to be more attention paid to differentiation. While we know what works on social, for example, there’s a serious threat to attribution when someone’s entire social feed looks the same. It’s also very important to build for both long term success and also short term sales, sign ups and cultural capital. Most early stage companies are great at short term, but when it comes time to weather an aggressive competitor or taste and styles change, they are no longer at the forefront. These companies need to ensure they’re paying attention to their longevity and building something foundationally strong. We’ve also been helping a lot of scaled brands regain their relevance in culture. This is wildly important too and requires a real internal rebel to push against the ways things have always been done. The new rules of cultural capital are completely different than even 2 years ago. – lisa
I really hope the conversation will center around creativity again. It seems like, even in pre-Cannes content, there’s more talk around ideas and human potential than in the past few years. Look, the industry is in an existential moment. Cannes can return hope and soul to all that we do by focusing the conversation on all that we actually do. My vote is that the conversation-at- large return to marveling and expanding on what we can create with martech/media/AI tools and the like, vs. just talking about how we can sell things to one another over a glass of moderately priced wine. We have so much power to talk to so many, and now even stronger tools to do that. It’s a gift. Let’s use it for greatness. - jaime
A great team. We have had lots of different classes of JOANs that have come through our company and this one is the best yet. Amazing, disruptive thinkers who are challenging in the best possible way. - Lisa
Constantly asking “why not”? Why not go for it? Why not try? Why not US? Why not this group of people? Why not believe? Why not be kind? Why not be open? Why not dare? Why not step out on a ledge a bit? Why not LIVE???? - jaime
My family. And coffee. - jaime
Besides Lisa (natch)? My 104 year old grandma Marge is smart as a whip and hilarious AF. - jaime
Oh jeez, it’s definitely not low rise jeans... But I love the return of metallics - jaime
