Following our recent feature City Brand Leaders – Glasgow, we interviewed a select group of leaders from Glasgow’s top agencies to help focus on the Glasgow brand and consider their own agency vision.

Creativebrief Founder & Chairman Tom Holmes talks to Graeme McGowan, Managing Director of JamHot. 

TH: Graeme, what does the Glasgow brand stand for?

GMcG: I’d say it’s all about being friendly, open and down to earth with a strong sense of humour.

TH: What are your views on the city’s new slogan “People Make Glasgow” and the city’s marketing to date? 

GMcG: It certainly has potential but the success will lie in how brave and bold the concept execution is. It’s always a difficult thing to work on as everyone has an opinion on how it should be done. 

TH: How do you think Glasgow should position itself?

GMcG: As a forward thinking, vibrant, creative city. We have a proud history but it’s the future that is much more important and it’s important that we communicate the many exciting things happening in Glasgow. 

TH: What impact do you think the Commonwealth Games will have on Glasgow?

GMcG: It’s a great opportunity for Glasgow to showcase itself to the world. I think it will be a really exciting time and great for the City. 

TH: Are the city’s brand values reflected in your own agency culture? 

GMcG: Definitely. Although we’re deadly serious about what we do we are very straight talking, friendly and down to earth when dealing with clients. We love producing great work but also like to have fun doing it. 

TH: Why should clients from outside of Scotland consider sourcing work from Glasgow agencies?

GMcG: There’s some world class creative, design and digital work being produced by Glasgow companies and at great value when compared to London based agencies. 

TH: What makes your own agency offer different?

That allows us to constantly produce fresh work and makes sure that it’s never just another job. This can be a difficult policy to stick to at times but one we strongly believe in.  

TH: What sort of clients do you want to attract?

GMcG: Ambitious, passionate and forward thinking companies and brands who want to work with a friendly team of results driven experts. 

TH: What work makes you particularly proud and why? 

GMcG: We have recently completed brand campaign re-positioning work for Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh’s largest shopping centre that has included a new campaign, TV, responsive website and centre app. Also our recent work for Glasgow’s bid to bring the 2018 Youth Olympic Games to the city was a highlight. It was a solid year of work alongside the bid team. Unfortunately having managed to make the shortlist Glasgow lost out to Buenos Aries at the final announcement day in July – but we are very proud of the work we did and the journey we went on with the whole team. 

TH: Which Glaswegian brands do you most admire? 

GMcG: Tennent’s, Soma, Linn and you’ve got to love Tunnocks – how can you not love the masters of caramel wafers!   

TH: Are there any local marketers who have inspired you? 

GMcG: We work with a lot of inspiring clients and suppliers but we wouldn’t want to give them big heads by mentioning them by name. 

TH: What business would you most like to win? 

GMcG: It’s not really about any particular names for us, whether it’s a known brand or an exciting new start up with huge potential we’re interested in working with clients, companies and brands who love what they do and who have huge potential for growth. 

TH: Thanks Graeme

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