Booms & Shakes: July's big new hires, launches and wins from across the creative industry

Creative Boom: News Creative Industry Booms & Shakes: July's big new hires, launches and wins from across the creative industry M+C Saatchi lands Boss, Mother Design opens a real, physical shop, Oliver makes a big TikTok hire, and plenty more besides. Written By: Tom May 15 July 2026 Mud completes its leadership team Welcome to Booms & Shakes, our monthly round-up of the hires, launches and wins making noise across the creative world. July has arrived warm and heavy with inbox traffic, which is either a sign of a buoyant industry or a lot of people trying to get news out before the summer slowdown. Possibly both. Either way, a lot is going on.

A significant creative hire from TikTok. Two new companies spinning out of established studios. A shop has opened in LA. A Manchester animation studio has launched a whole new brand studio. And plenty more besides. Somewhere in all of this, I think, a theme can be discerned. Agencies are investing in creative leadership at pace, particularly at the social-native and experience end of the market. New integrated models are multiplying. And the brands that used to buy broadcast are now buying social and influence in a very big way.

Hires and promotions Oliver takes from TikTok We'll start with the most significant creative appointment of the month. Oliver, which designs, builds and runs AI-powered marketing organisations inside the world's biggest brands, has hired Tom Skinner, a former global executive creative director at TikTok, as group ECD. Tom spent six years at TikTok helping brands like BMW, Gucci, Samsung and Off-White rethink how they show up on social. More recently, he oversaw TikTok's global business marketing, connecting brands with the Women's World Cup and the Olympics. Before that, he held senior creative roles at BBH and CHI & Partners.

He's also, somewhat randomly, written children's books and co-directed music videos. He joins alongside a restructured creative leadership team, with Eloise Smith moving into a parallel group ECD role. Both report to global CCO Rodrigo Sobral, and Tom will also serve as creative leader for Unilever's U-Studio. Tom Skinner SocialChain appoints Tom Fenwick-Smith SocialChain—the integrated social agency part of Brave Bison, with hubs in Manchester, London and New York—has appointed Tom Fenwick-Smith as executive creative director, reporting to CEO Jacinta Faul.

Tom joins from VodafoneThree, where he spent five years as a senior conceptual creative and social strategy lead. His remit covers SocialChain and sister agency Engage Digital Partners. Tom Fenwick-Smith Joint bolsters its strategy Joint, an independent creative agency whose clients include Amazon, Google and TripAdvisor, has appointed Ayla de Moraes as head of strategy, a newly created role. Ayla brings experience across VCCP, Publicis Poke and McCann London, with clients including Nestlé, Garnier, Mercedes and O2. She also, we note with approval, launched the first sustainable concept store in the Middle East.

Ayla de Moraes SYLVAIN adds two senior creatives New York-based strategy and design consultancy SYLVAIN has made two new hires. Renwick (Ren) McAslan joins as the team's first-ever copywriting creative director. Coming from LeBron James' SpringHill Company with stints at Ogilvy, Anomaly, Translation, Fig and BBH London, he's also – fun fact! – an Emmy-nominated writer who's taking an original one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. Meanwhile, Matthew Smith joins as design director from High Tide. He's the founder of type practice Morning Type and a partner at Tipofili, the complementary foundry to Louise Fili Ltd.

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The article discusses significant trends in hiring and brand strategy within the creative industry, which is impactful and relevant for professionals, though the focus on social media expertise is becoming a more common theme.