Poke promotes Tom Bayliss to managing director amid string of appointments
Digital agency Poke has promoted its current head of client services, Tom Bayliss, to the role of managing director.
Poke promotes Tom Bayliss to managing director amid string of appointments
The move comes amid a shakedown which will see Christina Marks, a business leader on some of the agency’s key accounts, take on the position of head of client services and Colin Byrne join from VCCP.
Bayliss will take responsibility for the day-to-day running of the agency, and will oversee continued growth of the business. He will continuing to work with Nick Farnhill, co-founder and chief executive of Poke – who was himself recently appointed chief executive of Publicis London, which sits alongside Poke under the Publicis UK group.
Bayliss joined Poke in August 2014 to head up client services. Prior to joining the agency he spent seven years at Elvis in various roles securing wins with Virgin Holidays, Wagamama and Fulham Football Club.
Marks will now be responsible for the client services team at Poke, working with the agency's account teams and client services leads across Publicis UK to ensure integration and efficiency clients. She joined Poke six years ago and has since led the social launch of the EE brand back in 2012 as well as Orange's highly successful and award-winning sponsorship of the Euros 2016 - Orange Sponsors You.
To reflect the size of of its global Heineken account being run out of Publicis UK,
Poke has also made a senior creative hire tapping Byrne from VCCP as creative director. He will report into Nik Roope, co-founder and executive creative director of Poke, and global creative digital lead on Heineken.
The agency says the promotions and new hire are coming on the back of growth of the agency’s key accounts in the UK. The firm counts Ted Baker, EE and HBO among its roster.
Farnhill said of the slew of appointments: “Tom is a highly respected and integral member of the Poke team. He’s a natural leader, and both he and Christina have a track record of impeccable client service. They both know Poke inside and out and have the confidence and determination in ensuring we continue to drive innovation and new thinking. I'm so pleased they have accepted the challenge and have every faith in them at what is a very exciting time in the agency’s development”.
Roope called Byrne's appointment "a shot in the arm" for the global digital account. "Colin mixes great creative ability with the pragmatics needed for driving real innovation across multiple agencies in multiple locations," he added.