Matt Holmes lands at MBCS
Matt Holmes, former Poem co-founder and Emotive head of earned creative, has joined MBCS.
Landing at the creative arm of IPG Mediabrands as its new head of creative strategy and ideation, Holmes will be responsible for content, activations, influencer activity, experiential, and partnerships. He has been given a “clear brief” of bringing media and creative thinking closer together.
His appointment comes as the agency unveils a “refreshed approach” to drive cut-through ideas for clients, according to a release. The goal is for ideas to “reach far beyond paid media, driving talkability, cultural relevance, and real-world impact”.
Matt Holmes
Harry Preston, managing director of MBCS, said Holmes’ capability “benefits a media-born creative business enormously”. He said his “modus operandi is creative thinking grounded in influence, storytelling and cultural impact, rather than just channels”, which supports the agency’s new structure.
“Matt’s earned first approach, passion for integrated ideas and ways of working, along with his experience of running his own agency, will help bring paid and earned together to create ideas that result in an unfair share of attention for our clients. We’re incredibly excited to have him on board,” Preston said in the release.
This move marks Holmes’ first gig at a major network. He has spent the past year freelancing following a short stint at Emotive as head of earned creative and PR. Prior to that, he spent over eight years at Poem, an agency he co-founded and led with Rob Lowe. He had also spent nearly four years at One Green Bean, prior to it being acquired by Havas.
“Over the last 20 years in the UK and Australia I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some huge global brands, award-winning integrated brand campaigns, and at some best-in-class PR agencies championing putting earned thinking at the beginning of the creative process,” Holmes said in the release.
“The truth is most of the work was briefed in silo, or at best, at the end of the creative and strategy development and this limited the opportunity to maximise ROI by baking earned into the concept. Media budgets were already allocated so any great earned idea was rarely supported via significantly paid social or innovative media.”
He described the role as an “fascinating” opportunity to be taking paid, earned, and owned thinking, coming at it from the media side.
“To already have a seat at the C-suite table on several big brand briefs with the respective creative and media agencies is enabling MBCS to add real value across our specialisms of creative strategy, activations, content, partnerships, promotions and influencer,” he said. “I can’t wait for our clients to reap the benefits of our new approach.”
MBCS’ creative leadership team has been further strengthened with the recent promotions of Andrea Bohorquez and Jack Bavin, to the roles of head of clients, Sydney and Melbourne respectively.
The agency is expected to make more announcements “in due course”.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
Linkedin
Have your say