The Barbarian Group won marketing duties for Kind Snacks and announced a series of hires and promotions to solidify its new leadership team for the fall.
First, Edu Pou–who the agency poached from W+K Amsterdam last October–has been promoted from ECD to CCO. Chief executive Sophie Kelly tells us that the agency generally promotes new hires within six to eight months based on performance, and Pou “had an instrumental impact on the talent we’ve hired” in 2015 as well as helping the agency win new business pitches including Kind and Etihad Airways.
Barbarian also promoted tech director Robert Christ to the chief technology officer role. Kelly called Christ “an inspiration to the tech community,” noting his ability to help clients “understand new and different marketing experiences.”
The agency hired two new members of its leadership team as well: CSO Ian Daly and head of operations Darren Himebrook. The former was a journalist (Details, WIRED, etc.) before entering the agency game in planning roles at Grey New York and Anomaly. His last gig was group strategy director at MAL; he joined the super-secret Apple office after checking out of Anomaly in the fall of 2013.
Himebrook was a producer on Burger King at CP+B back in the pre-pre-Senecal Bogusky era. He also worked at W+K and the Martin Agency, where he helped expand in-house production capabilities. In his new role, he will oversee all of Barbarian’s operations and manage Lot112, which may or may not be an independent production studio.
Kelly says Barbarian’s new work will be “more technically and creatively ambitious” because “we now have the blend of brand tinkerers and tech prowess to do this.”
That work will include social/digital campaigns for Etihad (read: Instagram pics of $32,000 “suites in the sky“) and assorted marketing projects for Kind Snacks.