July, 2026.- Social media can be so unpredictable, with ever-changing algorithms making it a “Wild West” of sorts. This often leads brands to fall into a trap of trying to keep up without understanding what they are doing or why. George David, Group Commercial Director at Spin, believes brands think they need to jump on every trend, but they do not stop to ask: “What is the purpose of this post?” His advice is simple: post with purpose. Not every trend is for you.
David joins Spin after serving as Head of Growth at Wilderness, an agency that was acquired by Havas during his tenure. He saw both sides of it: independent and part of a large network. At Havas, his role was not just new business but internal relationship building to manage cross-sell opportunities across agencies. At Spin, it is more traditional new business—sitting in the middle of a thriving social agency, qualifying and converting leads. Spin is right at the precipice of some big growth, and he is there to help the team unlock it.
In this interview, David discusses the commercial strategy across Spin’s three agencies: Spin (360 social), Be A Bear (YouTube specialists), and Tiny Studios (production). Each is specific to a niche, but finding the right opportunity for each is key. Ideally, the dream would be to find an opportunity that can include all three.
David also addresses what brands actually need from social in 2026. A solid strategy, with the team in place to ensure it is adhered to, the ability to evolve as platforms change, all backed by innovative creative, will always help build relevance on social. Community management is a powerful tool to build awareness and gain relevance within niche communities that would otherwise be hard to reach. He admits that one of his favorite things to do on social is to get the most amount of likes on funny comments on viral videos. If he were to start his career again today, he would be a community manager—preferably for an unhinged satirical brand account.
Spin’s recent wins—Fortnum & Mason, Five Guys, National Rail—demonstrate the agency’s ability to flex a specific set of services for each pitch. Proprietary tools like the R Score (a real-time relevance score against competitors) and SpaRk (an end-to-end creative solution for paid ads) set Spin apart. The creative team is unparalleled, with internal content creators who can shoot UGC-style content through to top-notch editors and designers using AI in innovative ways.
1. From Wilderness to Spin: You were Head of Growth at Wilderness when it was acquired by Havas. Now you’re joining Spin, an independent. What’s the biggest difference between driving commercial growth in a network-owned agency versus an independent?
GD: I was at Wilderness for over a year before we were officially acquired by Havas, and weren’t in Havas Village until a few months later. I saw both sides of it at Wilderness, from being independent through to being part of a large network. When part of Havas, we were able to find opportunities from within the building, with each of the agencies under the Havas Media umbrella having cross-sell targets to other agencies. My role wasn’t just a new business role but an internal relationship builder to manage those cross-sell opportunities working, for example, with Havas Media or Arena Media on large media campaigns where Wilderness were brought in to ideate and produce the content or influencer activity used for the campaign.
I always knew that Spin would be different, I was going from an agency within a slow paced media network to a fast-paced and thriving social agency – I haven’t ever been part of an agency that is so busy with new leads! Here, it’s more traditional New Business (which I’m very happy about!) – I’m sitting in the middle of Max building some high-quality connections with marketing leaders across the industry and Lucy driving fame through Marketing and PR, with myself qualifying and converting those new leads. It seems right now we are set up to nail it going forward – and I feel Spin is right at the precipice of some big growth, I’m here to help the team unlock it.
2. The Commercial Director’s Mandate: You’re leading commercial strategy across Spin, Be A Bear (YouTube specialists), and Tiny Studios (production). Which of these three is hardest to sell to a brand that doesn’t already know them, and why?
GD: I don’t think any of the three is traditionally hard to sell, I believe it’s about getting the right briefs in front of them. Spin is 360 social, that makes complete sense from a client point of view. Tiny are best-in-class at high-end social-first with the ability to lean more lo-fi when required. Be A Bear has set up a brilliant YouTube and channel management business model that more clients, especially when it comes to rights holders (sport and entertainment), should be more aware of. Each is specific to a niche, but finding the right opportunity for each is key. Ideally, the dream would be to find an opportunity that can include all three agencies within the group to work together.
3. What Brands Need from Social in 2026: Max Whicher said you “genuinely get what brands need from social in 2026.” What’s one thing brands think they need but actually don’t, and one thing they’re ignoring that they desperately need?
GD: Social media can be so unpredictable, with everchanging algorithms making it a “Wild West” of sorts. This often leads brands to falling into a trap of trying to keep up with it without understanding what they’re doing or why they’re trying to do it. They think they need to jump on every trend, but don’t stop to think “what is the purpose of this post?” – when talking to brands I always say post with purpose and not every trend is for you.
In terms of what they’re ignoring but need, this is so varied based on the brand itself! But I would say that a solid strategy, with the team in place to ensure that it’s adhered to, with the ability to evolve as the platforms change, all backed up by innovative creative, is always going to help you build relevance on social.
This is a broad answer, but if you want me to be more specific to a certain subsection I would have to say community management – I find it super interesting and I love how outlandish it can be. Community management is such a powerful tool to build awareness and gain relevance within niche communities that would otherwise be hard to reach. It’s quite sad to admit this, but one of my favourite things to do on social is to get the most amount of likes on funny comments I write on viral videos – honestly, if I were to start my career again starting today I would 100% be a community manager (preferably for an unhinged satirical brand account).
4. Recent Wins: Fortnum & Mason, Five Guys, National Rail: These are three very different brands in terms of category and audience. What’s the common thread in Spin’s pitch that won all three?
GD: This is the beauty of Spin, we aren’t pigeonholed into one specific industry or way of working, we have the ability to flex a specific set of our services for each and every pitch if required, pivoting in an agile way to facilitate what the client needs.
We also have innovative ways for new brands to work with us. From the R Score, our proprietary relevance score that uses synthetic survey data and analysis to rank your real time relevance against your competitors, through to SpaRk, our end to end creative solution for paid ads that delivers creative assets based on human signals driving action from the very top of the funnel down to the bottom. These proprietary tools and services are services that other agencies can’t offer, and it’s something that clients keep coming back to us for and what sets us apart.
5. Spin’s Growing Portfolio: Spin has 80+ people globally and has launched in APAC. When you’re scaling commercial growth internationally, what’s the biggest operational challenge you face in translating Spin’s model to new markets?
GD: I truly believe that the UK is the furthest ahead in terms of social media servicing for brands, and Global brands are coming to this country to make use of that. But this is the tricky thing with expanding internationally – maintaining that level of service across new markets is often the main area agencies slip up. Our proposition is about making brands more relevant on social, and our agency model is set up to enable this which is why we have tools such as The R Score. Our departments and their make-up is what you might expect – the thing that sets us apart if the members of those teams and trying to replicate the talent we have in London across the world is the biggest challenge. We are immensely proud of the work we do, so everything we put out into the world must be to our very high standards.
6. The Social Content People Actually Want: Spin creates “social content people actually want to engage with.” That sounds obvious, but most social content is ignored. What’s the specific structural difference in Spin’s creative process that makes their content more engaging?
GD: This is an easy one in my opinion: our creative team is unparalleled. Led by Jake but with a wide range of skillsets within his team, they’re right on the front line with ensuring our clients are pushing creative boundaries which is becoming ever more important on social. We have internal content creators who can shoot UGC style content through to top-notch editors and designers who are using AI in innovative ways to build a huge content bank from a handful of images – but what we also have is Tiny Studios. When all these things are combined, we have an in-house creative capability that starts with thorough concepting and ideation, through to hi-fi or lo-fi production capabilities, and finally industry leading post-production teams – a true end to end creative operation.
