Matthew Barnes Appointed Riverbed’s New Chief Creative Officer

(Photo courtesy) Matthew Barnes joins Riverbed as Chief Creative Officer

“I’m delighted to join Riverbed, an independent agency that is doing some great work.

“More importantly, I very much identify with the organization’s philosophy of continually seeking to create a positive impact,” Barnes said.

Bill Bernbach famously said, “Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” which sums up much of Barnes’ philosophy. He jokes that if there were a Nobel Prize for creativity, he’d like to win it.

He brought that spirit to Riverbed.

The evolution of institutions

Monalisa Zwambila, CEO and founder of Riverbed, said the appointments marked an important phase in the agency’s evolving growth strategy.

“Matthew’s immense gifts as a creative individual are invaluable.

“His wealth of experience and drive is already making an impact at the company and will ensure that our value proposition is fully reflected in our creative output. I have no doubt that we are on the right path, building on our belief in the power of caring to create positive impact,” said Zwambila.

Barnes’ career

Barnes joins Riverbed having won over 100 international and local awards including Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, Effie and Loeries, and has held leadership positions at Ogilvy and Publicis Groupe.

Prior to joining Riverbed, he was executive creative director at Publicis Machine_ since July 2022, working for brands such as Heineken, PepsiCo, L’Oréal and Spotify.

He joined Ogilvy in July 2015 and has been based in Johannesburg for more than six years, the last two of which were spent as chief creative officer.

During his tenure, the agency experienced one of its most successful periods, with clients including KFC, Cadbury, Vodafone, DStv and MTV, and was named AME, Cannes Lions Top 3 Creative Agencies of the Decade, Creative Circle Agency Group of the Year 2018, and Adfocus Large Agency and Overall Agency of the Year 2018. Financial Postamong others.

The agency was the number one SA Creative agency at Cannes during this period.

He has been at the top of the Loeries rankings.