Will Work For Love: Jamie Davies, Mood Media UK, London

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Jamie Davies is the creative director at Mood Media UK, a division of Mood Media Corporation, based in London, with responsibility for managing and directing all the audio and visual creative media for UK and Ireland.

  1. Describe your personal work space

    I am fortunate enough to have my own office, a (rarely peaceful!) haven of music, old movie posters and my favorite all time artists. It’s organized chaos!

  2. How do you get to work?

    I drive out of London to our offices in Kent, but also spend loads of time with clients, which often means interacting with the odd grumpy commuter on the London tube!

    After work I normally go and meet my gang of mainly arty and musical mates in a variety of dingy London rock ‘n’ roll pubs for Guinness, chats and giggles. If I’m not doing that, I also sing and play guitar and write quite a few tunes, which helps keep the creative blood flowing. And If none of the above are happening, I can usually be found at a gig or shock horror…..sleeping!!

  3. What is an average day like?

    Can’t say I have an average day really, but if I were to condense a week I guess it’s mainly brainstorming ideas, meeting clients and art directing/managing the team, I spend a lot of time looking at brands and their positioning and then sit with my creative teams to figure out the best way to respond to client briefs with the best and most relevant mix of audio and visual media. Most days involve inspiration, brain power and a little bit of magic!

  4. What is essential to you being able to work happily?

    The freedom to explore new concepts, hone and focus ideas and then work with our creative teams to create and deliver content that make our clients really light up. That’s the buzz for me.

  5. How flexible are your working conditions?

    We officially work the usual 9 – 5.30 but in reality it can be a much longer day and I often work into the evening. It’s also part of my role to entertain our clients at various gigs, or media members clubs like Shoreditch House and at events like the Brits and MTV awards – It’s tough but someone has got to do it!

  6. What do you think your employer looks for in its staff?

    Passion. We are in a great, creative and dynamic industry working within media and the digital realm. We pride ourselves in our ability to deliver creativity and reliability. The bosses want and need us to be experts in our field, whether that be marketing, technology or operations, but most importantly to really care about the solutions we deliver to our clients and the solutions relevant to their customers.

  7. What suggestions do you have for your company?

    More holidays, please! Seriously, a sabbatical? Anyone? No? OK and I also think we always need more new people. A new approach is always welcome and our clients really rely on Mood Media to come up with inspiring and increasingly complex concepts for their brand.
  8. Do you have any frustrations you would like to share with us?

    Personal or professional? With personal, we’ll be here all day, so business-wise, I have to say I get frustrated with some of the press we get about visuals. OK, so our company started out as a music provider, but we’ve grown into a leading provider of multi-sensory media products. Today, we are working for some huge clients and those same clients are telling us we deliver fantastic creative that is helping their brand engage and sell more.

  9. What do you like best about your job?

    The people I work with – without a doubt. We have a fantastic and driven team here. I get to do a challenging, interesting and dynamic job everyday with some really great people.

  10. How open is your company to new ideas and suggestions?

    Mood Media definitely welcomes new ideas – but in the past we have maybe tried to do too many at once! It’s all about finding what your strengths are and refining and honing that. We must guide and educate clients to fantastic but also practical solutions, as opposed to saying ‘yes’ to absolutely everything and then under delivering.

  11. How much responsibility have you been given?

    All audio and visual media for the UK and Ireland is managed and directed by me. I manage a 20- strong team of DJ’s, radio producers and motion graphic designers, and together we are creating media content for more than 25,000 stores across those territories. Pretty much everywhere you go, you can hear or see something we have produced. That’s pretty cool.

  12. How green are you and your company?

    Not bad, but I suspect, like most, we could always do more. Mood Media supports a lot of our clients’ green projects and, for example, often joins Timberland on its earth days. Of course, as a business, we recycle and all our products are made to the highest standards.


One Response to “Will Work For Love: Jamie Davies, Mood Media UK, London”

  1. Anonymous Says:

    Jamie Daives or James Blunt :o)

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