About us

Your odds just got a whole lot better.

Overview

We’re JAA. An independent media planning and buying agency for ambitious marketers who want to punch above their weight – with the results to prove it.

We plan and buy across every channel. But we don’t follow the conventional media playbook. We flip the script to flip the odds in your favour.

The Underdog Advantage™ is our planning approach that identifies the traits, strategies and tactics that help underestimated and outgunned marketers win.

It’s never the size of your budget. It’s the scale of your ambition.

The Underdog Advantage™

We believe in The Underdog Advantage™ so much we wrote a book about it. It’s our planning approach that identifies your underdog traits and puts them into strategies that help you win and tactics that make you stand out.

Because you don’t beat the competition by doing what they do.

You beat them by changing the odds.
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Podcast

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Recognised by

The team

Who we are

  • Richard Temple

    Chief Executive Officer

  • Jonathan Newton

    Chief Client Officer

  • Nick Smith

    Chief Digital & AI Officer

  • Elizabeth Emsley

    Chief Financial Officer

  • Cameron Cumming

    Managing Director

  • Alex Hurley

    Director of Planning

  • Caroline Ayling

    Marketing Director

  • Sue Fernando-Solini

    Commercial Director

  • Dale Simmons

    Data and Insights Director

  • Sarah Greaney

    Director of Performance

  • Dan Denman

    AV Director

  • Max Noss

    Head of AV, Co-Head of JAA Slingshot

  • Lucy Smith

    Head of Search, eCommerce and AEO

  • Georgia Izon

    Head of Digital Operations & Innovation, Co-Head of JAA Slingshot

  • James Sibree

    Group Business Director

  • A red headed women looks down the lens of the camera with a blue sky behind her

    Simmone Hallett

    Business Director

  • Leo Barron

    Business Director

  • John Ayling

    Founder

  • Olivia Collins

    Account Director, Co-Head of JAA SlingShot

  • Daniel Reid

    Account Director

  • Michael Craggs

    Account Director

  • Tabitha Mikula

    Account Director

  • James Cable

    Account Director

  • Rebecca Seston

    Account Director

  • Josh Freedman

    Account Director

  • Lily Bauld

    AV Digital Account Director

  • Scott Snaylam

    AV Broadcast Account Director

Our History

  • 1978

    John Ayling rejects the traditional ad agency mould and launches John Ayling & Associates one of the first independent media planning and buying agencies in the UK.

  • 1979

    JAA navigates the total strike on ITV facing the tough challenge with adaptability and resilience.

  • 1984

    JAA launches Audi’s ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ in the UK and starts an impactful partnership with creative agency BBH.

  • 1985

    Launched Levi’s ‘Laundrette’ ad on Boxing Day 1985 now considered to be one of the best ads of all time.

  • 1986

    JAA moves to their iconic Soho Square offices where we stay until expansion in 2026 moved to our current Covent Garden home.

  • 1990

    John co-founds media planning and buying agency PHD as silent partner alongside David Pattison, Nick Horswell and Jonathan Durden.

  • 1998

    Wins Suzuki account and puts the brand on TV for the first time.

  • 2000

    Launches Barnardo’s ‘Heroin Baby’ national newspaper ad. One of the most impactful and controversial press ads of all time.

  • 2008

    Alcopop WKD disrupts the market with irreverent and topical humour in OOH ads across the UK.

  • 2009

    Win IPA Effectiveness Award for milkshake brand Frijj ‘Four Ridges Must Be Destroyed’ campaign.

  • 2015

    JAA helps grow Macmillan’s Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning one of the UK biggest fundraising events.

  • 2021

    For RNIB, JAA and Metro create the first ever braille front cover of a national newspaper. The campaign went on to win multiple awards including Campaign Media and Newsworks Grand Prix.

  • 2022

    JAA wins Agency of the Year at the Third Sector Awards.

  • 2024

    RSPCA relaunches brand identity with dedicated Googlebox ad on Channel 4. The Campaign went on to win multiple awards including DMA Gold.

  • 2026

    JAA moves to new offices in the Kodak building providing a new dynamic home for our people, allowing more creative collaboration with clients and media owners.