In an industry often defined by its fast pace and fierce competition, Jamie Elliott, CEO of The Gate, has achieved a milestone few can boast—a Creativepool Annual Award that reflects not only the agency's creative prowess but also a commitment to reshaping leadership itself.

In this exclusive interview, as the Creative Leader of the Year award winner for 2024, Jamie shares insights into the vision and strategy behind his agency, revealing how a blend of brand creativity and customer experience (CX) drives meaningful impact across the entire funnel.

From fostering a collaborative work culture to tackling leadership's challenges, Jamie’s approach is a testament to creativity’s power to inspire, unite, and lead with purpose. He is, in every way, a true winner!

What inspired your award-winning project, and how did you approach it differently from past work?

The project in this instance is trying to create through leadership an environment within the company where the thing we all love, creativity, can and does flourish. We have been on a journey at The Gate with the first phase being a turnaround and this year we have been focusing on merging the CX creative capabilities of MBAStack with the brand creativity capabilities we already had to provide truly joined-up thinking. Creativity that has maximum impact through the funnel with no weaks links between the brand and customer experience.     

How does winning a Creativepool Annual Award impact your career or your company?

It’s been lovely to win this award. It helps raise the profile and reputation of the company and brings an enormous personal sense of achievement. But one mustn’t get too carried away, it’s just one moment in time, we are on a mission and there’s a lot still to do.

What role did collaboration play in your award-winning project?

The definition of leadership that I subscribe to is “the process whereby one or more people motivate one or more other people to contribute to the achievement of collective goals (of any form) by shaping beliefs, values, and understandings in context rather than by exercising stick-and-carrot behavioural control”. It is about what the collective is capable of achieving and has collaboration therefore at the heart of it.

The Creativepool Awards often introduce new categories to stay relevant. How do you feel your work fits into or redefines emerging categories in the industry and do you have any ideas for categories we could potentially add next year?

Our industry can be sheepish, in service to our clients. Our creativity is incredibly powerful and we should be more confident in it and take more of a leadership position with regards to it. So, celebrating leadership within the industry should be given more space and time than it currently is. I would deepen this category and celebrate those who lead more to encourage more to want to do it and see the value in it.

What advice would you give to creatives aspiring to win a Creativepool Annual Award next year?

If you don’t enter, you can’t win. Go for it, awards are important, they establish your track record and your track record is what gets you better remunerated, on potential employer’s radars and so on.

What were some of the key challenges you faced during the creation of your award-winning project, and how did you overcome them?

In a leadership position you can have a lot coming at you and the danger is paralysis. The way to avoid paralysis is to have a simple plan of action – this is what we’re looking to achieve and here’s how we’re going to do it. It’s about praxis rather than paralysis. Doing stuff and not overthinking it.

What unique tools or technologies did you use in the development of your award-winning entry?

None. My leadership philosophy draws from lots of sources – particularly powerful is an essay called ‘Zombie leadership: Dead ideas that still walk among us’. Definitely worth a read.

What role do you think awards like the Annual play in motivating creativity and innovation within the industry?

Any collection of the best stuff is an important source of inspiration to help us keep progressing.

What are your top tips for aspiring creative professionals?

Go for it. Don’t give up. Take the rough with the smooth. What separates the best from the rest is courage and resilience.

How do you stay inspired and continue producing innovative work in such a competitive industry?

Keep engaging with new thinking and new technologies.

How important is sustainability and social responsibility in your creative work, especially in the context of winning a Creativepool award?

Increasingly important. Our creativity can help the world move to a more sustainable economy more quickly and help to solve some of societies issues – our creativity in particular can help unite people in a way that some technologies are driving ever greater division.

What do you think sets apart truly exceptional creatives apart?

Courage and resilience.

What has been the reaction from your team or colleagues to winning the Creativepool Annual Award?

Disbelief and kindness.

What does the Creativepool community mean to you, and how has being part of it influenced your work?

Well, winning Creative Leader of the Year has given me huge encouragement to keep pushing on. I’m very grateful for that.