The Sopranos, Nike ‘Tag’ and ‘Kommo’: The Work That Made Jake Barrow

Jake Barrow grew up in Red Cliffs, Australia – population 2,600. It was here, when voted ‘Funniest Kid in High School’, he believes his advertising career was born. After placing second in Australia’s prestigious AWARD School, he found himself working at some of Australia’s top advertising agencies.

Jake’s innovative approach to creativity has established him as one of Australia’s most awarded advertising creatives. He has won over 500 industry awards, including 34 Cannes Lions, with seven Gold and a Grand Prix. He has twice been ranked in the Top 20 creatives in the world and in 2024, he was ranked 6th ECD in the world by The Drum. During his six-year leadership tenure at VML Melbourne & Sydney, he steered the agency to a top five ranking in Australia for five consecutive years. This period also saw them earn back-to-back Campaign Brief Agency of the Year titles in 2023 and 2024, the sixth Regional Agency of the Decade at Cannes Lions, and the 2023 Global Agency of the Year at the London International Awards. His leadership also saw the agency triple in size.

Other career highlights have included creating a global dog adoption movement, having a TV ad on display in an art gallery, launching a feature film, strapping Fit Bits to chickens, replacing phones with KitKats and having work featured in the book ‘100 Ideas that Changed Advertising’. He was a guest lecturer at AWARD School for five years running, has spoken at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Golden Drum and delivered panel talks at SXSW Sydney. He has judged at Spikes Asia twice, New York Festivals, AWARD Awards, Creative Pool, was on the Shortlist Jury for Cannes Lions, jury president of Young Lions Czechia and on the Awarding Jury for the Outdoor Cannes Lions.

In late 2024, Jake embraced a new challenge, moving to the other side of the world to become the chief creative officer at VML Czechia. His ambition: forge a European creative powerhouse. In just 18 months he has already launched the country's biggest TV entertainment platform – OnePlay, led the agency to win the Czech Republic’s first-ever Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, won Agency of the Year at the Czech ADCs and secured one of the country’s largest pitches in years – T-Mobile. Outside of advertising Jake enjoys making homemade salami and is an avid supporter of Bohemians 1905, the best football team in Prague – quite possibly the world.

Jake sat down with LBB to discuss growing up in the outback of Australia, starting his life in the industry as a graphic designer and his work on ‘Mobile Medic’.

The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Jake> I grew up in a town in the outback of Australia, with a population of 2,000 people and one TV channel. So, I can still recite a few jingles for things like air conditioning stores and tractor dealerships.

But when our family made the once-a-year trip to visit relatives in Melbourne, suddenly we were exposed to TV channels with ‘the good ads.’ Seeing commercials for chocolate bars where people’s outfits magically changed colours was better than the actual TV shows.

The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Jake> I entered the industry as a more traditional graphic designer, and in the early 2000s I subscribed to a design magazine that would occasionally stick a CD that shared non-print creative work to the cover.

I vividly remember loading the CD into my Ruby Red Apple iMac and opening a file called ‘Nike – Tag’. That was it. Goodbye, design career; hello, advertising creative.

The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Jake> I’m a really big fan of the HBO series and usually find myself re-watching ‘The Sopranos’ and/or ‘The Wire’ once a year.

Afterwards, I enter a long, drawn-out debate in my own head about writing, casting, soundtrack, and storylines and try to decide which one of these two programmes is the greatest TV show of all time. And for anyone reading, I will not accept any other answer than ‘The Sopranos’ or ‘The Wire.’

My first professional project…

Jake> One of my first TV ads was to sell a special offer on solar panels for energy company Origin. I always liked the ad but remember desperately trying to convince the client to do a direct mail piece where we were going to create envelopes that looked like solar panels and stick them to the outside of people’s letter boxes, creating a solar panel-on-a-house effect.

To me, this was a more exciting prospect than the TV spot because it felt cleverer.

The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Jake> One ad that comes to mind after many years is ‘The Big Leap’ for Lacoste by BETC, Paris. Beyond this film, BETC consistently releases brilliant work for Lacoste and Canal+. The level of originality, craft, and emotion they achieve is one that I have a deep admiration for.

The creative project that changed my career…

Jake> In 2011 I joined what was then called GPY&R (now VML) as an art director. My copywriter, Matt Lawson, and I were briefed to recruit medical students into the Australian Defense Force. Our idea was to challenge potential candidates by releasing medically diagnosable outdoor advertising.

This became a campaign called ‘Mobile Medic,’ where you could use your phone to scan and diagnose pictures of injured soldiers on posters. It went on to win four gold Lions and just about every major award you can think of.

The following year at Cannes we didn’t win anything, despite thinking we had good-enough work. That was a lesson in how relentless you need to be if you want to continue to be recognized at the highest levels.

The work that I’m proudest of…

Jake> The work that sticks out right now is what we’ve been doing for KitKat. We are super proud of the ‘Phone Break’ campaign because it was conceived, sold, produced, and run right here in Prague. To go on and win the Czech Republic's first-ever Grand Prix at Cannes was a moment that will stay with me forever.

But why I’m especially proud of the agency is that we've recently released another campaign called ‘Break Billboards,’ where we turned wasted media space into moments that empower people to have a break. This, along with many other projects on other brands is really fuelling the creative momentum we have in the agency.

The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Jake> Every once in a while I come across an idea that makes me realize the true potential of our industry. This happened when I first joined VML Czechia, and ECD Julia Dovlatova told me about a project called ‘Kommo.’

She was asked to come up with a way to provide ongoing funding and support for a multiple sclerosis organisation. Her idea was to invent an exercise system that was based on the principles of the disease itself. She then worked with Charles University for five years to achieve a scientifically backed programme based in neuroplasticity that connects the mind with the body. ‘Kommo’ launched publicly this year – talk about being thorough.