The former Translation president and Publicis Groupe executive joins as the brand experience studio builds on a year of growth that included being named Experiential Agency of the Year at Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards and an industry-first MASB certification for experiential ROI

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — DE-YAN, the global brand experience studio, today announced that Jonathan Akwue has joined as President, the first in the studio’s history. Akwue joins from Translation, where he served as President. Based in New York, he will work alongside founder and CEO Dejan Jovanovic and the executive leadership team to continue to deepen client relationships and build the business around the studio’s creative ambition.

Akwue brings more than 25 years across network and culture-led agencies, including Publicis Groupe, where he was President and Global Media Lead, as well as Digitas UK and Lost Boys. He is the second senior leader in under two years to join DE-YAN from an established agency, following Chief Creative Officer Jason Kreher, formerly of Wieden+Kennedy and Maximum Effort, in 2025.

The hire comes on the back of real momentum for the studio. Ad Age recently named DE-YAN Experiential Agency of the Year at its Small Agency Awards, and this spring DE-YAN became the first company in the world to earn Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) certification for experiential ROI. The studio has also had a run of high-profile work, from contributing to the FIFA World Cup Halftime Show, to launching Meta’s new retail experience stores, to creating Luma AI’s $1 million Dream Brief and more.

“It’s fascinating to watch where brand building is heading. More and more of the industry is moving toward the kind of model we’ve been building for a decade: strategy, creative, technology, production and experience working together from the start,” said Dejan Jovanovic, founder and CEO of DE-YAN. “Jonathan is joining at a pivotal moment when that way of working feels more relevant than ever. He brings a rare combination of scale, cultural fluency and operational rigor, but most importantly, he understands what is already special about DE-YAN. His role is to help us take bigger swings, deepen our client relationships and grow without losing the taste, craft and creative ambition that got us here. We’re building a real alternative to the traditional agency structure. My vision has always been for DE-YAN to be a category of one, and it’s incredibly exciting to feel like we’re not just building the next chapter of the studio, but helping define what the next generation of creative companies can look like.”

Akwue first came to know DE-YAN when he visited the retail experience the studio built for Meta Reality Labs in Los Angeles.

“I walked through that experience as someone in the industry and as a consumer, and thought, this is incredible. I wanted to know who the people behind it were,” said Akwue. “DE-YAN takes cultural intelligence off the page and puts it into the real world. With digital and AI, many can create a single channel campaign or piece of content, but far fewer companies can create a real-world experience that connects with people in innovative, tasteful, tech-enabled ways. Agencies and holding companies across the industry are racing to build or acquire experiential offerings. DE-YAN isn’t evolving to catch up—in many ways, the market is starting to move toward the model we’ve already been building.”

“There is a real push right now where companies are trying to bolt on experiential,” said Jason Kreher, Chief Creative Officer of DE-YAN. “For the last decade, DE-YAN has been creating highly effective, highly crafted experiences. Clients come to us for that best-in-class creativity. It’s a natural next step to offer them the rest of the marketing funnel at the same standard.”

Akwue also points to DE-YAN’s MASB-certified measurement as a differentiator. “Putting my media hat on, I look at ERIC and think, this isn’t just vibes,” he said. “You can substantiate the impact a real-world experience delivers. As someone who has spent time in media, in creative and in culture agencies, it all comes together here.”

Jovanovic and Kreher describe DE-YAN’s approach as “inverting the pyramid.” Instead of building an ad campaign and bolting on an experience at the end, DE-YAN often starts with something in the real world: an experience that asks someone to care enough to leave their house, show up and engage. And they build advertising, content, creator participation and amplification around that from day one. The experience is not the last deliverable. It is the reason everything else exists.

“We think of ourselves as a brand experience studio, not a traditional experiential agency,” said Jovanovic. “Strategy, design, technology, motion and production all sit together. The people shaping the answer are sitting next to the people making it real.”

The model is already in the work. For PUMA’s Rolling Nations, DE-YAN skipped the stadium reveal and built the World Cup kit launch out of pop-ups in New York’s diaspora neighborhoods, ending in an 11-truck block party in Brooklyn.

“I was raised at Wieden+Kennedy, where you learn to spot an idea and make sure it can go everywhere. For years, the manifesto film was where that idea lived,” said Kreher. “I can deliver something as effective as a 90-second, tear-jerking manifesto in a physical space, for far less cost and far less risk. You show people something real and let it spread the way things spread now. And an event lifts all your other marketing channels too.”

“Being here feels like stepping onto a rocket ship,” said Akwue. “We’re still in takeoff mode.”

DE-YAN: The Past 12 Months At A Glance

DE-YAN is a global brand experience studio led by founder and CEO Dejan Jovanovic. Between September 2025 and September 2026, DE-YAN recorded the following milestones.

Awards and recognition:

In July 2026, Ad Age named DE-YAN Experiential Agency of the Year (Gold) at the Ad Age 2026 Small Agency Awards.In May 2026, DE-YAN became the first company to earn Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) certification for experiential ROI. The certified tool, DE-YAN’s Experiential Revenue Impact Calculator (ERIC), was added to the MASB Marketing Metric Catalog.

Measurement:

ERIC lets brands model the revenue impact of a live brand experience before it runs and measure actual return after it runs.In an independent study commissioned by DE-YAN with market intelligence firm Avasta, 89% of attendees said the event was the main reason they made a purchase.The same study found high-quality live experiences improved the performance of other marketing channels by an average of 47%.Hyperion is DE-YAN’s proprietary real-time behavioral measurement platform for live activations.

Leadership and growth:

In September 2026, Jonathan Akwue, formerly President of Translation, joined DE-YAN as its first President.In 2025, DE-YAN named Jason Kreher, formerly of Wieden+Kennedy and Maximum Effort, as its first Chief Creative Officer.DE-YAN grew headcount by 75% in 2025 and has more than 160 employees as of September 2026, with plans to pass 200 in 2027 as it builds out its offerings.

Work

FIFA World Cup Halftime Show 2026: DE-YAN created the LED visuals, broadcast opening sequence and post-production for the first Halftime Show in FIFA World Cup history, featuring Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber and Coldplay. DE-YAN worked with executive producer Guy Carrington on the show’s creative direction.PUMA “Rolling Nations”: DE-YAN produced PUMA’s 2026 global kit launch, a multi-week series of pop-ups in New York’s diaspora communities that ended in an 11-truck block party at Domino Square in Brooklyn.PUMA x Salehe Bembury: DE-YAN produced the collection launch at ROW DTLA in Los Angeles.Meta: DE-YAN led retail strategy and launches for Meta’s first permanent AI glasses stores, in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. The stores drew 13,000 visitors in ten days with a 95 CSAT score.YouTube: DE-YAN created the YouTube Brandcast experience content at Lincoln Center for the fifth consecutive year, headlined in 2026 by Chappell Roan.Google: DE-YAN produced two flagship live productions for Google, including the Google I/O keynote and Google’s first retail store outside the US in Tokyo’s Omotesando district—Pixel Studio—where the Pixel brand and features are brought to life through interactive creative technology.Zevia: DE-YAN created a campaign for Zevia featuring Cardi B.Luma AI: DE-YAN created and produced the “Dream Brief,” a $1 million global AI creative competition, for Luma AI.Warner Music Group: DE-YAN created a guerrilla takeover of the Bowery in New York marking the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.”Louis Vuitton: DE-YAN created the interactive experiences for the launch of Louis Vuitton Beauté in SoHo, including a sound, LED and projection installation at the Corner Store pop-up and a personalized shade matching experience at the Tumi Space.

About DE-YAN

DE-YAN is a global brand experience studio shaping the next era of human connection. With teams across the US, EU, Brazil, and Canada, DE-YAN brings together strategy, design, creative technology, and production to create experiences that move people and move culture. For over a decade, the studio has set the benchmark for how ambitious brands connect with their customers and drive measurable growth. Through proprietary tools and creative frameworks, including Hyperion, its real-time behavioral measurement platform, and ERIC, its MASB-certified ROI calculator, DE-YAN is building the measurement infrastructure and creative standards that define the next generation of brand experience. In an industry obsessed with automation and efficiency, DE-YAN believes the future belongs to brands that create something real. For more information, visit de-yan.com.

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