Doubling down on Gen Z
Ziad Ahmed, head of Next Gen and a co-founder of JUV Consulting said that JUV was familiar with UTA before the acquisition from working on brands like Eos, JanSport, and Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee. He said that UTA and JUV have both have successfully been able to position branded content and talent relationships by focusing on culture.
“We started working with UTA because we represent a lot of brands in the influencer marketing space,” Ahmed said.
In 2023, Julian Jacobs, co-head of UTA Entertainment and Culture Marketing, met Ahmed. “I kept seeing not just him, but some of the other JUV team in places that matter, places of influence—whether that was Cannes or other conferences,” said Jacobs.
When Jacobs and Ahmed connected, Ahmed said he knew that UTA always felt like home. He said that an acquisition wasn’t something the JUV team had thought about.
Jacobs, who has been at UTA for 16 years, said the two agreed that JUV could give UTA more expertise around Gen Z and youth culture.
“This is a company that has always been a first mover, an innovator, and a thought leader in youth culture—we were the first talent agency to start a digital talent department,” Jacobs said.
