co-creation

campaigns

content

co-creation campaigns content

a hybrid creative shop brought to you by award winning creative strategist Josh Akapo.

Collage of logos from various organisations including NHS Scotland, Mayor of London, Boiler Room, Mission44, Mental Health Foundation, Prime Video, Pinterest, University of the Arts London, and BBC Sounds.

partnering with

what’s jalé?

Pictured: five young adults after completing NHS Blood & Transplant Hot House Week in 2019 in casual clothes posing together indoors, smiling for a group photo. From left to right Mearle, Jonathan, Stafi, Hilary, Sofia, Josh (below).

We help develop campaigns, creative and content with the communities brands want to speak to. Through community engagement, understanding people’s lived experiences, and active co-creation, we support at every stage of strategic and creative processes to build transformative campaigns for the audiences centred.

how does it work?

We’re a flexible shop with a hands-on leader and a mission to spread best practice community co-creation to help build a more equitable creative industry. No matter the size, scope or spend of your request, we’ll do our best to find you a unique and dynamic solution to better connect with people as they move through the world.

  • Whether with Josh himself, or one of his expert associates, we can support with ongoing freelance project and consultancy support, as well as project stints and sprints

  • If you need a quick download on the latest cultural phenomena, regular community engagement, or a more in-depth qualitative, quantitative or hybrid study, we can support both brands and agencies develop robust approaches and deliver relevant insights to help your brand live in culture.

  • We can support your teams’ to centre communities in your business, brand and creative strategy through retained or project-based community engagement approaches converting insights to solutions to better connect with communities in your communications.

  • Whether strategic or creative, Josh and his expert team of associates can support to guide high level strategic brand decision-making and implementation through its marketing functions, ensuring the approach is community-centred.

  • We help agencies and work directly with brands to build and deliver creative work co-created with communities. With scalable multifaceted in-house production capabilities and grassroots-certified creative development, we provide a secure partnership to build trust with communities through the campaigns developed for them.

  • Working with communities and our friends and associates network, we connect directly with talent plugged into culture to develop, produce and launch direct-to-social content that makes people feel something and activates them in real life.

powered by

cultural insights

+

inspired through

community engagement

+

powered by cultural insights + inspired through community engagement +

why centre communities?

Communities create, shape and steward culture for the very people who share in those spaces. Brands and organisations who want to exist in culture have to work with the people who make these cultures possible. That means actively and directly involving the communities in the creative outputs, campaigns and content brands make - at every step of the way. By incorporating grassroots voices into the campaigns process, brands build trust with real people, grow their reach and continued engagement with new audiences, and become the brands that keep culture moving forward.

“You can’t impact culture without the people’s support and community sign-off”
— Josh Akapo, founder and creative strategist, jalé
Josh is an Advisor at Creatives for Climate, the world's largest non-profit network mobilising creative professionals for climate action.
Josh is Head of Marketing at independent climbing wall Rise Climbing
Josh leads marketing and brand partnerships as a Director in youth mentoring non-profit Joined Up Thinking.
Part of the Gaza Sunbirds family, Josh helped co-create Athletes for Palestine, uniting the world through sports.

what's jalé doing?

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what's jalé doing? * click the tiles *

some more about Josh

Josh Akapo, co-founder of jalé, wearing all black with glasses and locs smiling and giving two thumbs up in front of a plant and a window at Rise Climbing, with handwritten text on the bottom that reads his moniker and name, 'JALÉ (JOSH)'.

  • Josh Akapo is the founder of jalé and an award-winning cultural researcher and creative strategist working across the creative industries for over a decade.

  • He drives brands and organisations to centre people and purpose in how they engage with communities for transformative impact. A multifaceted industry leader, he works across advertising, communications, music, TV and film to tell the stories from the communities' pioneering culture.

  • The jalé friends and associates, a network of plugged-in, expert directors, producers, designers, creatives and strategists from the backgrounds reflecting modern society, working across the arts and culture sector, to deliver world-class work that inspires transformative change with the people, their communities and wider audiences the work reaches.

    • Received a citation in the British Medical Journal for best practice in co-creating with young people for the Awkward Moments campaign with Thread & Fable, which has been included into the Scottish National Curriculum.

    • Changemakers 2022: Emerging Leaders - BRiM, B&BAN and Ad Association

    • The Blacklist 2020 - GUAP, Converse

    • 100 rising stars inspiring change 2020 - The Dots

    • BIMA 100 2019 - British Interactive Media Association

or drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you!