Not many folks have cut as wide a swath through the creative world as Jamie Lamb. Writer, art director, sound engineer, designer, strategist, actor, musician — he's done it all. (An improv comedy troupe even named themselves after him. Not many people can say that!)
Jamie's now Creative Director with The Wynford Group, a leading communications, events, and rewards agency in Toronto.
What led you to move from advertising to being a creative director for communications and event companies?
JL: I worked in corporate events as a writer, composer, comedian and director before I ventured into advertising. After five years in advertising, I came back to the corporate world on a full time basis. A great job offer came up, and so I easily made the leap. But to me, it didn't feel like a big industry change, because I draw upon the same creative problem solving skills and experience for both.
Which ad-agency skills were useful when you moved to the events industry?
A big part of a corporate event is in fact, the communications. With a corporate AGM for instance, the client is usually asking themselves, "What do we say this year?", followed by, "How do we say it in an exciting, engaging way?" This is essentially the same as an advertising campaign. Therefore the problem-solving process with its strategy, brief, and resulting creative is very similar.
The only difference is, on the internal corporate side, you're speaking to a targeted audience of a few hundred or thousand people, who are likely in the room already. This makes the task of spreading your message easier, because you're not trying to reach millions across the nation.
However, in both external advertising and internal communications, it still all comes down to persuasion, and the ability to drive action. That's always the trick.
You've worked in improv and sketch comedy, both as an actor and a musician. That must contribute to your creative process.
When I was really into sketch comedy, we always made a point of writing new sketches for each show we performed. That helped develop my "idea generation skills", as a part of my process. For a creative, it's all about idea generation, no matter what kind of agency you're at.
Sketch comedy also helped get me into advertising. A big agency was working on a big pitch and wanted stronger comedy writers than they had in-house for a certain campaign idea. I got a call, as did a couple of Second City guys. It was my advertising crash course, but it's where I realized that sketch comedy writing and advertising were very similar.
As far as improv and music goes, I've used my knowledge of both to help me. I understand both in a fundamental way, and so I can usually create great creative using either, or both. I've used both music and improv as the beginnings of campaigns in both advertising, and on the corporate side.
All in all, as a creative, you need as many bags of tricks as you can master. You never know what you'll have to create next, so the more disciplines you're proficient in, the better. For me, I'm also a good sound engineer, theatre manager, director, producer, and technical director. I've done it all in one place or another. I'm getting better at photography, and video shooting/editing these days too.
Is there a typical day or week for you at Wynford, or is it all over the map?
At Wynford, it's a bit of everything. One day I'll be creating a website for a big client in the US, another day I'll be sourcing music for a motion graphics video that I'm building. I also end up handling a lot of Wynford's own communication needs, such as branding, identity, website, etc. In fact, our new website with new branding is just about to go live in the next few weeks or so, at www.wynfordtwg.com.
You must be familiar with a lot of keynote speakers. Any favourites?
At Wynford, try to ensure ROI in meetings, and so we always try to get speakers who really deliver new information, or new ways of working or thinking - something people can really grab hold and take away from the meeting. Personally, I'm always impressed with the speakers who are able to change MY habits.
A few examples: Marcus Buckingham, and his book Go Put Your Strengths to Work, Professor Youngme Moon, author of Different, and Peter Sheahan, who wrote Where Good Ideas Come From. On the advertising side — although I've never heard him speak — Jon Steel's The Perfect Pitch is great.
I've also worked with Terry O'Reilly in the studio, and enjoy hearing him speak, both at events and on the radio. In terms of great hosts, I like my old ad boss Ron Tite, who has been previously featured in this column I see.
Who inspires you?
It's not so much about who inspires me, but rather what inspires me. I tend to take useful snippets of information and ideas from as many different places as I can and draw inspiration from them. It could be information or an idea from the people above, it could be some great TV shows (HBO is excellent these days), great websites, or some great event technology like Pandora's Box, or some great comedy (The [British] Office, and Arrested Development for example).
I throw the net wide in terms of inspiration, because what I'm tasked to do on a daily basis is also quite wide.
Are you still performing comedy and music?
I play in a couple bands, with some Queen's University friends, as well as with some advertising colleagues. I still teach improv music from time to time, both at The Second City and elsewhere. I'm currently writing and video comedy shorts for the web, soon to be launched. I also teach comedy for the camera at Armstrong Acting Studios.
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Find Jamie online:
WEBSITE: www.wynfordtwg.com
EMAIL: jlamb[at]wynfordtwg.com
