JOAN is a female founded creative agency established in New York in 2016 by Lisa Clooney and Jamie Robinson. Even as recently as then, it was notable in the industry that women had founded their own agency, so notable in fact that the press buzz around the launch included a photoshoot with the great photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The agency got its name as a tribute to not one but a number of ‘Joans’, all who represent “kick-ass women”. From Joan of Arc (the “OG Joan”), to Joan Jett, who was told that she can't play the guitar because she's a woman, and Joan Didion, the incredible writer who forged a new path in her field, and comedian Joan Rivers, to reference just a few Joans who have given the name an air of excellence and rebellion.
When JOAN, the agency, launched in London in 2023, they enlisted Managing Director Tom Ghiden (previously of Grey, AMV BBDO and McCann), and Kirsty Hathaway (Vogue, GQ, refinery29 and AllBright) as Executive Creative Director, to helm. Here, DCA speaks to the pair about how they build legendary brands, and the unique culture of JOAN.
Building modern legends
One of the founding ideas of JOAN is building brands into modern legends. “You can have modern brands that come in and disrupt a category and change things, like the FinTech brands, banks like Monzo, Moneybox and all that good stuff,” explains Ghiden, “They come in and disrupt things, but the question is, do they have the longevity to become a legendary brand?”
At JOAN, they believe that there is a way to build a modern brand into a legendary brand. And it also works the other way around, with brands that are legendary but who have struggled to survive and evolve in modern times. A prime example of this is the original online marketplace eBay, a client of theirs.
“They started a whole category, but now, they have these new competitors who've come to the market in the last decade who are doing what they've done and doing it better,” says Ghiden. “They needed to evolve their way of thinking, their platform, and their communication in order to stay relevant in this market.”
JOAN has helped them to do that, and you’ll see their work as part of eBay’s Love Island sponsorship through 2025.
Platform agnostic
Having come up through editorial media, and seen the decline of print, the rise (and often fall) of digital publications, and the way social media has changed the landscape, Hathaway says she is now platform agnostic. “In the ages of old, you’d have your social agency, your creative agency, you have all these different pieces, but it was very hard to have that continuity. I think what we really love is that the idea comes first for us,” she explains. “It's not about the channel. It's about the right creative solution.”
“We have created this partnership that has given us an ability for us to think outside the box when it comes to work and being more channel agnostic, really driving forward the idea first versus the channel first,” adds Ghiden. “And that allows us to think about briefs in a very innovative way.”
JOAN also partners with independent media company Cross Media, which they collaborate with as early on as the ideation and development stage. “It has allowed us even more freedom when it comes to thinking about programs and all of the different touch points and channels, and also ensuring that we're not just thinking about the big channels as we develop ideas, but instead thinking about how does this idea really stretch? How does it become channel agnostic so that we can think forward?” says Ghiden.
Joyful rebellion
JOAN founders Jaime Robinson and Lisa Clunie have imbued their agency with their mantra of “joyful rebellion” which MD Ghiden explains as “a desire to create a place for people who didn't feel like they had a seat at the table or had a voice in the room.” It’s a mindset the London team are keen to maintain with their now almost 30-strong office.
“It's rebellion not for the sake of rebelling,” he elaborates, “but a sense of joy to make the world a more positive place. So everything that we do and everything that is a part of our culture is that mindset, which I think really resonates both in the work that we do, but also the environment and culture that we try to create internally.”
Diversity of thought, believes Hathaway, is the key to the best creative ideas, but it’s only possible, she argues, when people with different experiences, different socioeconomic backgrounds, professional or learned experiences, all feel able to share their perspectives.
“You need to create a really safe space, where every opinion is listened to and there’s no shut down, no egos,” explains Hathaway. “We care more about everybody coming to work every day and having a great time. Because what we do is supposed to be fun.”
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