Truant London has recruited Lennie Hughes – formerly Soho House’s head of membership and communications – for the newly created role of ‘head of hype and culture’.
As head of hype and culture, Hughes will lead the charge on all agency-led output, putting the entire business in the spotlight and helping to tell the agency’s unique story. Hughes will be tasked with building the Truant brand, identifying new commercial opportunities and driving all agency comms and content.
Prior to his three-year stint at Soho House, Hughes was an artist manager at Jackie Davidson Management working with WESLEE, Samm Henshaw, Malika and Dolapo. He is also a musician in his own right, featuring in London music collective, The Fedz. Hughes has also been a key member of Soho Mentorship, providing opportunity and support to young creatives from disadvantaged backgrounds in London, alongside the Creative Mentor Network.
Hughes’ appointment is the result of a period of immense growth for the agency that, despite pandemic challenges, saw its full-time headcount grow by 20% and revenues increase by 30%. In the past 12-months, Truant has also won multiple new accounts – including Belazu, Pepsi Max, Miral and Mokka – and launched Polly, the UK’s first helpline dedicated to women and girls, from the brains behind CALM.
Chris Jefford, Truant CEO and co-founder said: “We have an incredible, fiercely independent agency on our hands here, full of brilliant people. Over the past 12-months we have developed a really clear proposition that is working incredibly hard for us. And in Truant, we have a brand that creatively can really take us anywhere. Lennie clicked instantly with our culture. He instinctively understands how to engage with a broad spectrum of creative people, and he is set to be a huge asset in building our brand moving forward. We all report to Lennie from here on in.”
Lennie Hughes added: “The prospect of joining a group of creative thinkers who do things differently while driving positive change was irresistible. I've always bought into people and I knew straight away that Truant was the family that I wanted to be a part of. I'm chomping at the bit to start exploring opportunities to cement Truant's place as cultural innovators.”