• MSQ’s award-winning creative studio hires Juliet McLaren as Executive Creative Director and promotes Rebecca Vickery to Managing Director
• Appointments follow a period of sustained growth for Brave Spark, with new business wins including Which?, Trivento, ThermoFisher and Zalando

Brave Spark, MSQ’s creative studio, has appointed Juliet McLaren as Executive Creative Director and Rebecca Vickery as Managing Director as the agency continues its rapid growth. 

Since joining MSQ in 2021 Brave Spark has doubled its headcount and won a number of key new clients, including Which?, Trivento, ThermoFisher and Zalando. The agency continues to champion combining creativity and craft from day one across ATL and digital channels, with plans in place to develop its offering on an international scale. 

A Freelance Creative Lead for the past few years, McLaren began her career in Auckland and then Sydney, working at Colenso BBDO and iris Sydney. She joined Wunderman Thompson in London in 2011 and since then has worked as a Senior Creative at VCCP and J. Walter Thompson, as well as a stint leading creative at global start-up, ClassPass.

Notable work includes campaigns for Grolsch, Peroni, and Schroders. 

McLaren will now be responsible for the overall creative output of Brave Spark, championing cutting-edge thinking for clients such as Cancer Research UK, Hiscox and Which?. She will work closely with the agency’s co-founders Rob Drake and Robin Shek, reporting directly to Drake. 

New MD Vickery first joined Brave Spark as a Business Director in March 2020, overseeing the agency’s Client Services team, and running a number of the agency’s most high-profile accounts. 

In recent years she has helped deliver major integrated campaigns such as ‘We’ve Got You Covered’ for Hiscox, pan-European work for Arlo and the activation of Cancer Research UK’s partnership with the Science Museum Group. 

Prior to joining Brave Spark, Vickery was a Senior Account Director at Rufus Leonard, where she led clients including London Business School, Lloyd’s Register and The British Red Cross, and was named in The Drum’s ‘Top 50 Under 30’ list. 

Rob Drake, co-founder of Brave Spark, says: “This is a hugely exciting and pivotal time for Brave Spark as we enter a new era of growth. To keep that momentum building it’s important we have the right people in place, and in Juliet and Rebecca we have two brilliant, modern leaders bursting with the ideas and dynamism our clients need to succeed.”   

McLaren says: “Brave Spark is an agency that’s always looking at what’s new and what’s next. It’s growing quickly but still retains its entrepreneurial spirit – it’s collaborative, energetic, and ego-free. That’s a business I want to work at and the type of place that’s more likely to generate great creative work for a new breed of client.” 

Vickery says: “It’s been a privilege to be part of Brave Spark’s growth story so far and with much more still to come. We’re redefining what’s creatively and commercially possible for clients, proving that speed, scale nor complexity should kill creativity. Creative ambition, craft and collaboration are in constant supply across the agency and I couldn’t be happier to be part of taking us on the next stage of our journey.  

In addition to McLaren and Vickery’s appointments, Brave Spark has made a number of further senior hires to bolster its creative capabilities and provide clients with senior, hands-on expertise.

Raphael O’Selle has joined the agency as Design Director in a full-time capacity, having previously worked with Brave Spark as a Freelance Design Lead. During his career O’Selle has also worked at RAPP, The Guinness Partnership and New City College, and will now be responsible with scaling Brave Spark’s design capabilities through thoughtful design and a high-performance, insight-driven design team. 

This article first appeared on Campaign here.