Richard Exon, the founder of Joint agency, grew up “more enthusiastic than talented,” as he puts it. He spent his childhood doing sports, while trying to balance it with a healthy interest in drama and creative writing. Advertising, however, stayed front of mind, which he blames his parents for. “My sisters and I had to ask permission to watch ITV. That sounds incredibly old fashioned, I know,” he says. “But it did turn telly ads into something forbidden and exciting”

One thing led to another and after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature, Richard found himself being an account executive at Ogilvy only four days after finishing his degree at 21 years old – an endeavour that he looks back on as an education after his formal education.

Almost a year later he would go on to become head of account management at BBH London’s Soho office – quite the opposite atmosphere to the then-quiet Canary Wharf and welcomed one, as he felt he went into a new industry altogether. 

After his nearly two-decade-long stint at BBH, Richard moved on to become CEO at RKCR/Y&R, where he saw the agency grow from London’s seventh biggest to its third, topping the Gunn Report for UK Creativity and doing work for Lloyds, TSB, BBC, Virgin Atlantic, Innocent, Warburtons and many others. During his time as CEO, the agency also won their first D&AD Pencil and not one, but two Baftas. 

2012 was the year of new beginnings, however, and with inspiration from his co-founder Damon Collins, who he met at RKCR/Y&R, the two founded Joint. The agency then, and still today, according to Richard, runs on the strength of its culture and the effectiveness and quality of its work.

LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Richard to find out more about his journey to Joint and the lessons he picked up on the way.

LBB> What were the first steps you took towards entering the industry? Were they intentional or was it more of an accident?

Richard> I got very lucky as a friend’s older sister was an account manager at BMP DDB Needham. She was a real inspiration and made a whole bunch of us realise you could have a career in business without being a banker, lawyer or management consultant.

She coached us through the graduate recruitment process and four of us from the same friendship group ended up at top ten agencies.

To this day I think universities underplay the opportunity to join the UK’s creative industries. It is our economy’s second biggest sector after all.

And we won’t all be lucky enough to know someone with a sibling who’s happy to help. 

This is why organisations like Creative Access and Media Trust are so important for the long term health of our industry.

LBB> What are some things you did back then to help accelerate your carrer and would advise people joining the inudstry to do the same?

Richard> One thing I always advise, no matter where you want to end up in advertising, is to take the time to understand all the different disciplines including the ones your company doesn’t operate in. 

For an account person in a creative agency that means getting deep practical knowledge of strategy, creative development and production in every possible channel. But also getting to understand the core elements of media planning and buying, PR, CRM and others. That may sound like a lot to do alongside the day job, but it’s an investment that will pay back. And once you’ve got the learning habit, never stop being curious. 

LBB> On LinkedIn you call your experience at Ogilvy on Ford Dealers ‘quite the education’ – what did you learn?

Richard> I was 21 years old and only four days out of university when I started at Ogilvy. 

I’d narrowly missed out on a formal grad place but they snuck me in at the last minute when an AE role came up on the Ford Dealers account team.

Our clients were various committees made up of incredibly successful, entrepreneurial car dealers. They were astonishingly forthright about their views on everything to do with Ford.  Especially their relative interest or otherwise in what a scruffy AE had to say about selling Fiestas. 

Once I had learned to always listen and rarely speak, I picked up a lot of lessons about how brand, product, price and customer relate to one another. And why it really, really matters who’s paying the agency’s bills.

LBB> You then spent a large portion of your career at BBH – what drew you to the agency and what enticed you to stay? How did you see the agency’s DNA change while you were there and how did your own role in that develop?

Richard> 11 months into working on Ford Dealers at Ogilvy in a near empty Canary Wharf, I got the chance to interview for a role on Audi at BBH in Soho. I’ll always be grateful for my start at Ogilvy, especially to the people who helped me in so many ways, but joining BBH in 1994 was like joining a different industry.

Most great agencies are driven by an unshakeable belief that brilliant creativity is a brand’s best chance of business success. That was certainly true of BBH and they did it better than most. Over 13 years I was lucky enough to work on and lead multiple accounts at BBH as well as grow into the global business development role. 

Perhaps the most important lesson I learnt at BBH was that an agency is only set up for success when it’s crystal clear about its values and its purpose. Everybody at BBH knew what the company and the culture valued most and what that meant for them and their careers.

LBB> As CEO of RKCR/Y&R you saw the agency accelerate greatly – what do you think that was down to?

Richard> Mark Roalfe and his partners built an amazing agency, especially in its ability to attract and retain outstanding people in every discipline.

I worked with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met during my almost five years as CEO of RKCR. Including, of course, my brilliant Joint co-founder, Damon Collins.

LBB> During your agency time before founding Joint, you worked with a great array of brands – which one was the most rewarding and how did you see that relationship develop?

Richard> It’s hard to pick one so I’ll choose four very different brands, each of which I worked on for many years. 

Audi, Lloyds, Warburtons and Virgin Atlantic all taught me a lot, especially about the direct impact strong, inspiring leaders can have on a brand’s success. Whether it was the CMO, the CEO or, in one case, the owner, all those businesses benefited hugely by having outstanding marketers and brand thinkers at the very top table in their organisation.

Or as one of them memorably put it, “You need your brand to have a seat on the board.”

LBB> Then in June 2012 you founded Joint – what was the inspiration behind that move and what were the key people that were with you in making that step? Why was that the perfect time for Joint to come into existence?

Richard> The biggest single inspiration was meeting my co-founder Damon. I had always loved the idea of starting a company and I knew that to start a creative agency, guess what – you need an amazing creative person as your partner.

Even though we hadn’t worked together before RKCR, we had shared values and our views on where and how creativity can really make a difference for businesses were near-identical.

Much as we loved RKCR, the opportunity to start something from scratch proved irresistible. 

In particular, we wanted to build a culture of our own that took the best elements of everywhere we had worked and added some new ingredients all of our own.

Between us, we were then able to attract two more co-founders to share the adventure.

LBB> Since its opening, how has Joint changed and developed – what are some pillars that carried it over ten years ago and are still present today?

Richard> It doesn’t matter who said it first, but two of the agencies I most admire have used different versions of ‘Do great work, have fun, get paid fairly’ to describe their approach to business. That’s a pretty good summary of Joint’s position too. There’s no need to make things more complicated than that. 

But of course, achieving all of the above takes huge amounts of strategic thinking, emotional energy and clear leadership.  That’s why we say ‘Joint doesn’t just have a business plan, it has a culture plan’. And we work on that culture day in, day out because when our people feel happy, motivated and secure we do our best work for our clients. Which means our business and our people can thrive. The strength of our culture and the quality and effectiveness of our work are what define Joint as a company. 

LBB> What is your favourite part of your day-to-day roles on the job?

Richard> Ever since we started Joint, Damon and I have spent most of our time working on our clients’ business. This means we know everyone who works here, and also our clients, as well as humanly possible. We pride ourselves on being practitioners, not management overhead. Nothing beats getting the right people around the table, clients included, and working together at speed to crack a particularly knotty problem or take a new opportunity. 

LBB> What is your relationship with new tech and what are your predictions for its latest developments in the next couple of years?

Richard> One of our first big international account wins was a Google brief, swiftly followed by Amazon and then a series of TripAdvisor projects. 

Our relationship with Amazon, including AWS, has been one of the most exciting and enjoyable experiences of all our careers. We’ve learned that where Joint can most help any technology brand is by creating what we call an ‘emotional edge’ that moves a tech business’s appeal way beyond the functional user benefits.

We create work that makes people feel something, not just think something and that’s how tech brands can develop deeper and more valuable relationships with their customers and users.

In the next few years advances in things like generative AI will see tech become even more central to how we work, lead our lives and think about our futures. Tech brands with ‘emotional edge’ will be stronger, stickier and faster growing than those without.

LBB> What was your latest biggest challenge in your role and how did you overcome it?

Richard> Like most businesses all over the world, Joint has had to ride the waves of disruption created by covid and the fuel crisis triggered by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The latter was especially difficult for three of our biggest clients. 

In all cases, the only sensible thing to do was to prioritise the well-being of our people (we made no redundancies and took no furlough money during covid) and the long-term health of our client relationships. 

Whilst there’s no sense that life is fully back to normal yet, we’ve just had one of our best ever incomes and creative work. Our teams are firing on all cylinders. 

LBB> What are your hobbies and passions outside of work?

Richard> Like most people I know and love, family means everything to me. When I’m not working, I love not working with them.