Interview with ICONIC founder, James Kirkham
How was your company born and where are you based?
ICONIC is a London based agency, launched just last year, but it feels like it has a much longer history, with its roots in my previous agency, holler, and then my work in football, leading COPA90, through to the time I worked in House Music for Defected Records.
My background, spanning digital agency, social and mobile leadership, advertising and brand expertise, sports and music, means that ICONIC is the sum of all that knowledge, from working in the music industry, dealing with talent, IP and marketing records, and then using that experience to create new-era marketing machines that go out to communities.
I also bring the feeling of sport and culturally symbolic new talent from my days working within football. It’s all in the mix.
What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?
Growth can be perceived in different ways. We want to grow revenues of course, through the success of our brand partnerships and beyond. But I do not equate growth with having more and more people under one roof.
By the end of my time with holler, we had around 100 employees and I know for a fact that ICONIC won’t be like this. This agency is intentionally different. ICONIC launches with a team of four, but is promising a unique model, comprising no more than eight full-time leads.
I don't want to line up employees behind desks and end up having to charge clients for the cost. At the core of the ICONIC team, there is a hub of hybrid expertise, at the heart of a bespoke network.
This is not an agency which is wedded to outdated cost models with unnecessary overheads. Our talent is here to accelerate a brand, business or product.
Which was the first huge success that you can remember?
With ICONIC, undoubtedly the feedback and sales of our magazine which we have just launched. But the first huge success I can remember in my career, was probably launching the TV show ‘Skins’ for E4 back in the early noughties.
We were the first agency in the world to market a TV show using social media. It caught fire and went viral before that word existed. Everyone was talking about it before they’d even seen the programme; the ultimate win for our marketing strategy.
What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?
Our biggest opportunity this year is proving our worth. We want to work with the right people on the right projects - nothing more, nothing less. Nice things for nice people was a holler philosophy and something I am still passionate about.
And, as well as the magazine, we’re launching a podcast series and this will be one of our biggest opportunities as we will be able to elevate some of the amazing ICONIC NETWORK of talent we talk to work with every single day.
Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?
There are two key pillars to our creative processes. First, we have our ever-growing ICONIC network. This is a personally curated network of creators, artists, designers, DJs, presenters, stylists, typographers, directors and more.
Not only ensuring ongoing legitimacy, this is also a product offering for brands and clients. It allows a brand instant feedback from the network on an idea, brief, or product, effectively outlining their permission within culture. Twenty three years in the industry has given me a black book and an understanding that much of the best talent sits outside the agency walls.
We don’t pay for people we never need. There is always a handpicked team of skilled superstars primed for the job.
Meanwhile, underpinning all this expertise is AI - known internally as ‘AICONIC’. We’re linking the agency processes with AI and see this as a value-added offering. I believe the use of AI is going to be more potent and pioneering than when I first used social media for marketing in the early 2000s.
We’ve looked at the tech stack and categorised output of every key business function. We’re finding smart ways to optimise across the board, from speed and quality to differentiation of thinking.
ICONIC is using AI to help power influencers’ content, from a stimulus when writing a creative brief through to copywriting and editing. We elevate our creative output using the best of both man and machine in synergy.
How does your team remain inspired and motivated?
We cannot not be inspired as we surround ourselves in culture, and we’re full of interesting people. We’re speaking with talent all day long. There are no barriers between us and the work.
We only take on campaigns, clients and opportunities which are interesting; coming out of disruption or legacy, with brands keen to be part of the fabric of culture. So for us, there is no work which isn’t inspiring or motivating.
How has COVID-19 affected your company?
Not one bit as we started after the worst of it, but the legacy lives on. I learned so much by putting on virtual and hybrid events for Defected Records and this has filtered through to work at ICONIC. Now we all understand how to mobilize and deliver through hybrid promotion and activation as a ‘given’.
Which agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
The original creative collectives in digital were insanely good. INSANE. Antirom. AudioROM. Tomato. Intro. These guys are unmatched. From experimental sound toys to such iconic music work, and beyond.
What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow?
Be audacious.
How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.)
We work by referral only. We only want to work with the right people, and are fortunate that brave and smart clients who come to us want to do things differently.
What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry?
That creativity explodes out of the adversity of our times. The world needs it right now. We’re in a dark place politically. We need an outpouring of creativity and a brilliant mix of creative talent to work our way through.
We want that feeling we had in the 90s when regime change led to that explosion of a joyous ‘anything can happen’ feeling across music, film, TV and beyond. This is something I believe is in our reach again.
Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend?
I think people should get out of their myopic view and consume adjacencies. This is where the good stuff always originates.
So start with books in music like Richard Russell’s ‘Liberation Through hearing’, the story of XL recordings, or listen to podcasts like Scott Galloways’ Pivot or watch documentaries like ‘The Defiant Ones’ the story of Beats, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine. These are all huge influences where creativity, business, industry, music and the arts all overlap. This is pure culture right now.
