George Bryant elevated to Golin group chief creative officer

Interpublic Group agency Golin has promoted George Bryant, founding partner and chief creative officer of The Brooklyn Brothers, to the newly created role of group chief creative officer.

Based in London, Bryant's appointment is effective immediately, reporting to Golin CEO Matt Neale. Bryant will be responsible for global creative operations for all Golin Group agency brands, including Golin, The Brooklyn Brothers, Virgo Health and DeVries Global. He will oversee 100 staffers and continue to manage creative for The Brooklyn Brothers London.

Bryant is tasked with evolving the creative approach for the entire agency network and leading creative direction for some of Golin's largest clients, such as McDonald's, Johnson & Johnson, Lego and PepsiCo.

Neale said that The Brooklyn Brothers is positioned around earned-first advertising and earning attention, which is in sync with the PR industry.

"We have been trying each other out unofficially behind the scenes over the last year and [Bryant] and his creative team in London have had a dramatic impact on our business here in the US," Neale said. "We thought this was a terrific opportunity to align his talent with the converging needs of our agencies, so we created this position."

Bryant added that he wants to create works that matters "in culture, to our clients and to creatives".

Neale also wants to take Night School, an initiative Bryant launched at The Brooklyn Brothers in the UK in 2019 to attract more diverse talent into the creative industries, and bring it to the US.

"We want to bring a completely new bench of diverse thinkers into our creative community," Neale said.

Golin acquired The Brooklyn Brothers in 2016, but Bryant has been with the agency for 14 years. He has been responsible for multi-award-winning work with clients such as The Financial Times, Inspired by Iceland, WaterWipes and Mini. The Brooklyn Brothers has a footprint in London, New York and Brazil.

The Brooklyn Brothers London is also bolstering its leadership team in London with the hire of Abigail Findlay as UK managing director. Prior to joining the agency, Findlay set up and ran Wieden & Kennedy's Brand Studio, was the consulting managing director at TBWA MediaArts Lab and was the brand and creative director at The Nike Foundation, where she led The Girl Effect.

The Golin Group's agency brands had a "strong" Q4 and full year 2021, said Andy Polansky, chief executive of Interpublic Group's Dxtra unit, which includes Golin. The firm in particular had "robust" organic growth due to business wins. In December, NAPA Auto Parts brought on Golin, The Variable and Merkle to refresh its brand through strategic alliances.