An interview with the Founder & Creative Director of Jacob Creative.

Tell us about how different is working as Manoj Jacob in ad agency and Manoj Jacob in your ad Agency.
The difference is quite enormous. As creative head of an agency, I only really had to worry about the quality of work. Now I’m Chief Everything Officer. I’m responsible for creative, client servicing, recruitment, finance, new business, coffee… I now do a lot more with my 10 to 6.

You started in 1996 as Junior Copywriter, After 19 Years in Advertising, What made you start Jacob Creative?
When you’re employed, no matter how high up the ladder you are, there’s always someone above you. So there are several things that you’d like to do, but simply cannot. Being your own boss changes that, gets rid of the conflict between your own belief system and that of the agency.

For example, I do not care for advertising awards, a pursuit which takes up too much time and money in the big agencies. I believe award shows are counter-productive, because they encourage creative people to save their best efforts for the awards season. Check this out – Indian agencies win more international awards today than we did 15 years ago. However the work you see in the newspapers today is embarrassing. Back then, agencies were proud to put their key numbers on ads. Today?

You started Jacob Creative on 1st Jan, 2016, Take us through this 1 year Journey.
The first year has been hectic but very satisfying. It’s been slow progress. From sharing an office space, adding clients and people, to getting our own address.

We’ve managed to establish a culture that is very focused on work. We do not have unnecessary meetings in-house. From experience, I can tell you that too many agency meetings are held to clear the air, or as the cliché goes “to make sure everyone is on the same page”. I believe creative people work best when left on their own.

We’ve done good work, pretty consistently, and that’s immensely satisfying considering the size of our team.

Now-a-days Clients ask for Digital Solutions, What services do you offer in this domain? Also You have mentioned about Lead Generation on your website as Digital Solution, Can you elaborate.
It is important to understand that the digital space is just another medium. A faster, more responsive and imminently measurable one. The marketing and business objectives of clients remain the same – brand building, customer engagement and lead generation.

We offer digital services in line with our overall responsibility as an advertising agency. These include social media marketing, campaign management and content marketing. What differs is our approach, as we offer integrated creative solutions both online and offline, which is essential to today’s connected customer.

What would you like to say to aspiring entrepreneurs? Any motivation theory to follow?
I’m still an aspiring entrepreneur myself. I’m hardly in a position to hand out advice.

Jcob Creative’s work can be found on their website here.