Publicis•Poke Supercharges Creative Line-Up with Six Senior Hires

Publicis•Poke has hired a wave of creative senior hires from three different continents: two new creative directors, Valentina Amenta and Chris Bruney, plus two senior creative team duos: Thiago Jacon and Conor Barry, and Marion Cohen and Kevin Travis.

Valentina Amenta joins from Italian hot shop Caffeina, where she was deputy executive creative director, and worked on accounts such as Ferrero and Danone. In previous years Valentina has worked at Publicis Milano, BBDO and FCB Milano, on accounts including BMW, Mars, Pepsico and P&G. During her time at BBDO in 2018, she worked on the international illy ‘half a cup’ campaign. She is also the co-founder of SheSays Milano, part the global network for women in the creative industry. Last year she was juror at Cannes Lions and the One Show. 

US-born Chris Bruney moves to Publicis•Poke from Amsterdam, where he was Global Art Direction Lead at Just Eat. Prior to this he worked brand-side with Uber as their EMEA Lead Art Director. Before this role, Bruney spent seven years at DDB Chicago where he worked with brands including Skittles and McDonald’s. 

Among the new creative line-up is senior team Marion Cohen and Kevin Travis. The duo most-recently freelanced with BBH for the past 20 months where they worked on campaigns for Barclays and Tesco, including the supermarket’s ‘This Christmas, nothing’s stopping us’ campaign last year. Marion began her career at Lowe in her native Paris, she then moved to London and joined Saatchi & Saatchi, where she stayed for nearly 15 years. Since 2018, Cohen has freelanced at many agencies including Ogilvy, The Brooklyn Brothers and McCann. Travis has worked at many of the UK’s top agencies over the past two decades, including an 11-year stint at Leo Burnett. Since 2015, Travis has been freelancing at agencies including McCann, Engine, Ogilvy and AKQA. He also spent time brand side at ITV.

Creative duo Thiago Jacon and Conor Barry are the second senior team within Publicis•Poke’s wave of new hires. Jacon and Barry have spent the past two years freelancing with Le Pub Amsterdam and BBH London working on campaigns including ‘Live Till The Last Drop’ for Bonaqua (Coca-Cola) Global and Heineken’s Cheers To All Fans. Jacon, from São Paulo, Brazil, teamed up with US-born Barry in 2010. Over the years, their work has received awards at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, London International, Clios and ADC.

Dave Monk, ECD at Publicis•Poke, said: “These new hires will supercharge the creative team: adding to the ever-growing energy and creative firepower within the Publicis•Poke creative department. I can’t wait to see what work they’re going to deliver for our clients.”