MBCS, the creative arm of IPG Mediabrands, has announced the appointment of Matt Holmes as Head of Creative Strategy and Ideation, marking a pivotal step in the agency’s renewed commitment to driving talkability, cultural relevance, and real-world impact for brands—beyond the boundaries of paid media.
In his new role, Holmes will lead creative strategy across content, activations, influencer marketing, experiential work, and strategic brand partnerships. His mandate: to tightly align media and creative thinking, delivering more integrated, earned-first ideas that resonate across audiences and platforms.
Holmes brings more than two decades of experience across the UK and Australia, with a strong foundation in storytelling, earned media, and integrated brand campaigns. He is also the co-founder of Poem, and has worked with some of the world’s leading brands, consistently putting cultural impact and influence at the heart of the creative process.
“Matt brings a way of thinking that benefits a media-born creative business enormously, his modus operandi is creative thinking grounded in influence, storytelling and cultural impact, rather than just channels,” said Harry Preston, Managing Director of MBCS. “Andrea and Jack have been instrumental to our recent success and collectively they add huge value, helping us deliver unified thinking across strategy, creative and execution across our client portfolio.”
Matt Holmes added:
“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.
“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.
“This role is an incredibly exciting (and already fascinating) opportunity to be taking paid, earned and owned thinking and 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. I can’t wait for our clients to reap the benefits of our new approach,” Holmes concluded.
The announcement comes as MBCS continues to evolve into a more integrated, agile, and media-led creative agency, with a clear focus on delivering ideas that earn attention and drive meaningful results.
In addition to Holmes’ appointment, MBCS has also strengthened its leadership team with the promotions of Andrea Bohorquez and Jack Bavin to Head of Clients, Sydney and Head of Clients, Melbourne respectively.
“Andrea and Jack have been instrumental in delivering unified thinking across strategy, creative, and execution,” added Preston. “Their leadership continues to shape the success of our client partnerships across the board.”
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