Mother London joint executive creative directors Ana Balarin and Hermeti Balarin, who were promoted to their positions in June, today announced the appointment of eight new hires to the agency’s creative department. The hires arrive from as far afield as South Africa and include creative duos Jonathan Santana and Xander Smith; Matt Leach and Jess Oudot; Mike Kennedy and Pauline Ashford; and Lisa Turner-Wray and Raine Allen Miller.
South African creative duo Santana and Smith arrive at Mother London from TBWA Paris and Saatchi. Over the course of their career, they have worked with brands such as Visa and Guiness and have won awards including a Cannes Grand Prix and Yellow Pencil.
Leach and Oudot arrive from mcgarrybowen London, where they spent the past year. The duo joined JWT back in 2008, working on brands such as Ann Summers, Tourism Ireland and Kenco. They had unorthodox entires into the advertising industry, with Leach studying math and Oudot writing for The Telegraph.
Kennedy and Ashford met on Singlecreatives.com, first teaming up at The Corner, where they worked on “It’s Blue What Else Matters” for adidas. In 2012, they joined Grey London and since have worked with brands including Vodafone, Duracell, Lucozade, News U.K. and Schwartz.
Turner-Wray and Miller have worked on three creative projects for Mother over the past five months in creative placement, including “Epic Builder” for MoneySupermarket. They began their advertising careers in production roles, before making the jump to creative with Anomaly in October of 2014, moving on to Saatchi & Saatchi two months later and finally to a creative placement with Mother.
“We’re delighted to welcome such brilliant and diverse talent to the Mother family,” Mother London executive creative director Hermeti Balarin said of the hires.