“Your job is to bring the sparkle”: Creative Advertising alumnus gives students advice

Since graduating in 2020, Jonah Campbell has worked on everything from television adverts for Burt’s Bees and Kleenex to short films on Charlie Puth, bringing his love for coming up with creative ideas to the advertising space in the US.  

Last week, Jonah visited the Creative Advertising MA students on our Falmouth Campus to share his industry experience, from working with entertainment giants such as Netflix and Disney+, to creating a social media campaign for prostate cancer awareness.  

“When I left university, I got my first role by emailing every agent that existed, and that’s when I landed my first job at Doner LA. 

“When you start out, you’re more likely to be working with smaller agencies who are lower down in the advertising funnel. Though we worked on films such as Cruella and SING, and popular dramas such as Outer Banks, a lot of your work will be on smaller decisions and ideas that often don’t see the light of day.” 

Jonah moved on from Doner LA to then work for global creative agency 160over90 and FCB Chicago, where he works now. As he moved between agencies, his involvement in campaigns has increased, as he shared with students some of the work he had key involvement with. Jonah showed his experience of creating an advert for Bose, an audio provider, who collaborated with Charlie Puth – and how he created the piece by interviewing Charlie and cutting together the answers to create a cohesive script that created the final project.  

Jonah shared how once he moved to FCB, his creative ideas were behind the adverts for brands such as International Delight, Little Caesar’s, Burt’s Bees, and more. He stated that an important part of working in creative advertising is that it is “your job to bring the sparkle, to have ideas, and to continuously bring interesting thoughts to the table that only your brain will come up with.” 

During his visit to campus, Jonah homed in on the importance of being an easy person to work with and making friends on the job, emphasising how it is his biggest piece of advice for future advertisers. “The people who are in the room with you are the people who will help you get the next big job. Take every opportunity you can to network and be friends with the people around you. Be easy to work with. Be friendly when people give you feedback. It will all help you with getting the next big thing.” 

He added: “Awards really do matter. People care about them. But the real value of the award is the people you meet at the ceremony. That’s where you’ll make the most important connections.” 

Follow in Jonah’s footsteps with Falmouth’s Creative Advertising MA