Matt Holmes departs Emotive
Emotive’s Matt Holmes, head of earned creative and PR, has left the agency, as it looks to restructure its ‘fame’ offering, Mumbrella can reveal.
Holmes was appointed to the newly-created role just four months ago. His role saw the indie creative agency’s PR delivered in-house for the very first time, aiming to provide extra firepower to the agency’s ‘fame’ offering, working closely with then head of social, talent & partnerships, Rhian Mason, and Darren Wright, group creative director.
Speaking exclusively to Mumbrella at the time, Holmes explained that his role would focus on brand campaign PR, rather than regular press: “That’s where out focus lies for the short term. We’ll see as the division grows though.”
The division has grown swiftly, and Simon Joyce, founder and CEO of the agency, said it was quickly revealed that changes needed to be made.
In a statement sent to Mumbrella, Joyce said: “In February 2024, Emotive launched an integrated fame offering that united five specialisms (social, talent, partnerships, brand experience and PR), positioning this service area as an essential not just desirable part of the creative process and opening doors to plenty of exciting non-traditional briefs.
“Matt, as head of PR and earned creative was an integral part of this launch. However given the trailblazing nature of this structure and the impact it has on how we do both strategy and creative, we quickly realised that we needed greater senior leadership in the strategy unit, as opposed to senior PR skills.
“For that reason, we parted company, and as difficult as it was as Matt is a terrific operator who brought wonderful energy and smart to the business, we had to make a quick call which is essential for a tight knit business like Emotive.”
Last month, Rhian Mason, head of social, talent & partnerships, also left the agency, with her next move being announced in due course.
She joined in early 2021 as head of content distribution, tasked with focusing on social and earned media, after moving over from DDB’s Mango Communications, where she spent close to two years. Prior to that, Mason worked at Mediabrands in Australia and the UK for over five years.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with top-tier clients and smart, genuinely lovely colleagues daily. I’m particularly grateful to Simon for allowing me to create something special with the fame unit – I can’t wait to see Emotive’s continued success,” she told Mumbrella last month.
Emotive has been made to restructure the fame unit, bringing on Irnin Khan as acting head of fame.
Khan will lead across the five specialisms (social, talent, partnerships, PR and brand experience) until a formal announcement in made.
In April, the agency made anew promotions and appointments in account director Aoife Lehane, creative opps manager Jenna Fisher, and senior account managers Ruki Ahad and Tyler Ronaldson.
It recently launched work for Google, showcasing how the tech giant’s AI tool is helping to restore Tasmania’s giant kelp forests in Australia’s Great Southern Reef.
Emotive also unveiled a major pro-bono campaign earlier this year, collaborating with the team behind the award-winning Deep Rising documentary, to take action against deep sea mining and the dangers it poses to the world’s ecosystem. Set to launch this month, the world-first campaign, which Emotive will lead strategy and creative for, is designed to give people across the world agency over the decisions currently being made about the future of the seabed by a select few.
Speaking exclusively to Mumbrella at the time, the team said it wants to “tell the story of the deep ocean, because it can’t speak for itself”.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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very onvious what’s happened here isn’t it… anyone who knows KNOWS
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All the best Matt
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specialisms?
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Hi brave keyboard warrior anonymous. Please let me know if you know something I don’t.
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Emotive has lost 1.2m of Optus business, six people have left recently, Rhiana Mason has resigned, and yet the trolls on here seem to be making it about Matt despite a pretty solid statement from the CEO. This is industry is f*cked.
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I’ve read some absolute spin in my life, but this paragraph is surely two kinds of GPT.
“Matt, as head of PR and earned creative was an integral part of this launch. However given the trailblazing nature of this structure and the impact it has on how we do both strategy and creative, we quickly realised that we needed greater senior leadership in the strategy unit, as opposed to senior PR skills.”
The guy has run agencies bigger than Emotive!
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A blind person can read between the lines here …
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