Doug Jacob

Doug Jacob · JWALK

2010–2017 · Founder

JWALK

JWALK is a New York creative agency founded by Doug Jacob in 2010 and acquired by Shiseido Americas in March 2017. Jacob started the agency with Michael Lastoria and Charlie Walk, ran it as chief executive and chief creative officer, and joined Shiseido Americas as Chief Creative Director when the deal was announced.

The agency

JWALK was a full-service creative agency working across beauty, luxury, fashion, hospitality, spirits and consumer packaged goods. Its approach was to integrate design with business strategy: identify the purpose of a brand and carry it through identity, digital, content and campaign work rather than stop at a logo. By 2017 roughly 60 percent of its output was digital and the remainder brand development.

The agency's first project was &pizza, the fast-casual chain Jacob helped launch with Lastoria in 2010. JWALK built the brand from the start; by the time of the Shiseido sale the chain had about 20 shops across Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Other clients over the years included bareMinerals, Buxom, Lacoste, SoulCycle, Kenneth Cole's Reaction fragrance and DeLeón Tequila. Walk, a music executive, stepped back from day-to-day involvement and later became president of Republic Records.

At the time of the sale JWALK employed roughly 35 people and worked from a 10,000-square-foot studio in midtown Manhattan. Adweek profiled the firm in 2014 as an agency that develops new brand categories, and Bloomberg featured Jacob in its "What I Wear to Work" series in November 2015.

The Shiseido acquisition

Shiseido Americas announced the acquisition on March 6, 2017. Terms were not disclosed. JWALK had worked with Shiseido for about four years beforehand, principally on bareMinerals and Buxom, and the deal converted that relationship into ownership. JWALK became an integrated division of Shiseido Americas, supporting the company's brand teams from strategy through execution, while remaining free to keep and pitch non-competing outside clients. Shiseido framed the purchase as part of its VISION 2020 plan and as a way to gain speed and consistency across consumer touchpoints; Adweek compared the structure to Hearst's ownership of iCrossing. Shiseido Group CEO Masahiko Uotani said the agency's digital expertise would also be used alongside the company's Tokyo creative teams on global projects.

Creative power and agility have never been more important to a brand's success.

Marc Rey, President and CEO, Shiseido Americas, in the Shiseido news release, March 6, 2017

Jacob has said he and Lastoria had not set out to sell the agency, and that the structure of the deal, which kept JWALK working for outside brands, was what made it acceptable.

Michael and I were never intending to sell JWALK.

Doug Jacob, Cosmetics Business, March 7, 2017

Chief Creative Director, Shiseido Americas

With the acquisition Jacob took the title Chief Creative Director, Shiseido Americas and Founder, JWALK, reporting to Jill Scalamandre, President of Shiseido's Global Makeup Center of Excellence in New York. The remit covered creative for nearly all of the Shiseido Americas portfolio, with the exception of NARS, which kept its own creative direction under François Nars. Jacob later left Shiseido and in 2019 co-founded &vest, the beauty transformation platform. JWALK no longer operates as an independent agency.

Coverage

Related

Doug Jacob &vest Morphe