Mistress, A full-service independent creative agency, has named Allison Barnes to serve as director of media, Kristin “KB” Busk as director of social strategy and Iman Forde as director of project management. All are new positions at the agency.
Barnes comes to Mistress from Supermoon following the merger of the two agencies last year. Previously the director of media services at Supermoon, Barnes has over 20 years of media strategy and execution experience, having previously worked in leadership positions at media agencies including Starcom, Mediavest, and Spark Foundry. Barnes’ media solutions have broken through the clutter and authentically connected with customers for a variety of brands, including Kraft, Delta Faucets, Concur, Supercuts, Bolthouse Farms, American Greetings and Hotwire.com. She has received two Effie awards for her work on Veridian Homes, in addition to several other agency and industry honors. At Mistress, she will lead the agency’s newly minted media buying and planning capabilities, with an emphasis on digital and social media.
KB is a new hire at Mistress with over seven years of digital experience. Her resume includes positions at Madison + Vine, VOWEL (a PMK*BNC digital agency), and theAudience. She has worked across all digital tiers, running highly engaged social media platforms for the first season of The X Factor USA, as well as launching worldwide tours and album releases for top 10 artists like Pitbull, The Weeknd, Black Sabbath and Pearl Jam. KB has worked on influencer campaigns for American Express and Pepsi and content creation for brands such as Samsung, Taco Bell, Audi and The Billboard Music Awards. She has received an Honorary Webby for the Pitbull Walmart Kodiak campaign and a Bronze Award from the American Advertising Awards (Los Angeles) for the Ashton Kutcher and Lenovo Tablet Launch, both social first campaigns.
“Allison and KB are both experienced, thoughtful and analytical marketers who are helping Mistress evolve into a truly full service shop offering rebundled agency services,” said Mistress founding partner Christian Jacobsen. “We are growing our expertise in business strategy, customer acquisition and media services, especially in digital and social, and Allison and KB are an important part of that. They are helping Mistress become a more complete partner to our clients. We’ve already benefited from their impact on both our services and culture.”
Forde has been promoted to director of project management after working at Mistress for nearly three years. She came to the agency from Select World, and prior to that, The Sheppard, two LA-based agencies. She started as project manager at Mistress, then was quickly promoted to sr. project manager, working on Discover Los Angeles, IMAX, Coca-Cola Freestyle, Pearson Education, and Audience Network (DirecTV/AT&T). Forde has led Mistress through a period of growth and has mentored a new generation of junior project managers at the agency.
