LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2026--
Mocean, a culture-first creative agency where entertainment and brand meet, today announced the launch of its new See Change™ operating model, unifying the agency and studio across five core practices to deliver creative work for entertainment and brand clients.
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To lead the new brand expansion, Mocean has appointed former head of 72andSunny LA, Laura Likos, as President of Brand. The agency also named Emmy & Webby-winning and D&AD Creative-ranked Ryan Bucci as Chief Creative Officer of Brand.
Mocean's new operating model is grounded in a simple observation: audiences don't separate entertainment from advertising. They distinguish between interesting and boring.
"Advertising agencies understand brands. Entertainment agencies understand how to move audiences. Mocean understands both," said CEO Michael McIntyre, who built the agency from a 15-person boutique design shop in 2000 to a 150-person full-service operation. "That's the difference between work people see and work people care about."
With Likos as lead executive at 72andSunny LA, the agency returned to AdAge A-List status, achieved Little Black Book's number one North American ranking, and partnered with clients including Amazon, Zillow, NFL, United Airlines, and L'Oréal.
"The best brand work has been borrowing from entertainment for years: the storytelling, the audience-first thinking, the craft," Likos said. "Mocean doesn't borrow from that system. It operates inside it. That changes the kind of work we can do."
See Change™: A New Operating Model Built to Navigate Culture
Mocean now operates as a unified agency and studio, integrating five core practices: Strategy & Creative, Social & Community, Content Studio, Design Studio, and Post Studio (including Theatrical & Streaming AV and MoceanFinish). Ideas move from insight to production within a single system, allowing for speed, efficiency, and more unified work.
The agency's operating platform, See Change™, defines how Mocean works: translating emerging behaviors, conversations, and platforms into creative systems that drive both audience engagement and business outcomes.
"Greg Harrison [Mocean's Chief Creative & Marketing Officer] and I came at this from opposite directions; He built his career in entertainment, I built mine in brand," said Bucci. "See Change is what happens when you merge the two."
"The audience doesn't care which side of the business made it," Harrison added. "They care if it's worth their time. Our new model is designed to make sure it always is."
Mocean aims to expand on their portfolio of prior brand work for Samsung, UFC, NBA, PlayStation, Cicis Pizza, Ulta Beauty, and Disney World x Chevy, as well as current engagements with DC Studios, Waymo, The Cheesecake Factory, and North Italia restaurants.
For North Italia, Mocean's SXSW activation resulted in an eye-popping 913+ million impressions across socials and over 100 branded Italian food tattoos that adoring fans received at the block party. For the Cheesecake Factory, Mocean turned the brand's owned and operated channels into an entertainment program, leading to a 60% audience growth and a 115% spike in engagement across the brand’s socials.
"Mocean has done a terrific job understanding what sets us apart as the leader in experiential dining," said Donald Evans, Chief Marketing Officer of The Cheesecake Factory and North Italia. "They figured out how to make a 250-item menu, more than 30 legendary cheesecakes, and our iconic 'brown bread' part of the cultural conversation. They are masterful at helping us tell our brand story."
"We've spent 25 years becoming experts at the hardest version of the attention game there is," McIntyre said. "What a modern agency needs to be in 2026 looks exactly like what we've been building."
About Mocean
Mocean is a culture-first creative agency operating where entertainment and brand meet. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the agency has earned 500+ industry awards, including four Emmy nominations and 2 wins, multiple Grand Clios, honors from One Show, Digiday and National Addys Best In Show, and three Agency of the Year titles, with work spanning PlayStation, Disney, Waymo, Marvel, Netflix, HBO, NBA, Riot Games, Chevy, North Italia and The Cheesecake Factory. Mocean operates as a hybrid agency and studio with integrated strategy, creative, social, design, content production, and post-production capabilities. Named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. Learn more at moceanla.com
Mocean Names Laura Likos President of Brand; Launches a New Operating Model Built For Brands Navigating Culture
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is edging back from its all-time high Thursday following mixed profit reports from Tesla and other big companies. Oil prices, meanwhile, are swinging higher on continued uncertainty about what will happen next in the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% following a big rally that erased all its losses because of the war and then carried it to records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 71 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower after setting its own record.
Tesla dragged on the market and fell 4.3% even though it reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors may be focusing instead on Tesla’s increased forecast for spending this year, as it builds factories to make robots and other products.
“You should expect to see a very significant increase in capital expenditures,” Elon Musk told investors late Wednesday, “but I think well justified for a substantially increased future revenue stream.”
ServiceNow dropped even more, 16.2%, even though its results for the latest quarter matched analysts’ expectations. The company has been under pressure, along with much of the broad software industry, because of worries that rivals powered by artificial-intelligence technology could undercut its business.
Analysts said investors may have also been underwhelmed by its forecast for a declaration in growth for an important measure of revenue.
Texas Instruments helped limit Wall Street's losses after breezing past analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Haviv Ilan said the semiconductor company is benefiting from growth led by industrial and data center customers, and it gave forecasts for profit and revenue in the spring that cleared analysts' estimates.
The 16.6% leap for Texas Instrument's stock was the strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P 500.
In the oil market, prices swung higher as uncertainty continues about what will happen with the Strait of Hormuz. A ceasefire is still in place between the United States and Iran, but oil tankers aren’t able to get through the narrow waterway off Iran's coast to exit the Persian Gulf and reach customers.
The U.S. military on Thursday seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up the standoff a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the strait. President Donald Trump also said Thursday he ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines to gum up traffic in the strait.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1% to $102.97 after bouncing between roughly $101 and $106 overnight. It’s unclear whether U.S.-Iran peace talks, previously hosted by Pakistan, would resume anytime soon.
More expensive oil has hurt airlines in particular because of the industry's already big fuel bills, and stocks diverged in the industry following the latest profit reports.
American Airlines Group rose 4% after reporting better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Even though winter storms hurt its revenue during the first three months of the year, American said demand was strong for flights, and it saw the nine best weeks for revenue intake in its 100-year history.
Southwest Airlines, though, lost 2.2% after reporting weaker quarterly results than analysts expected. It said it would not give an updated forecast for profit this year because of “the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was IBM, which sank 9.7% despite reporting better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said investors were focusing on some potentially discouraging numbers underneath the surface, including decelerating growth in trends for its software business.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 0.7% for two of the bigger losses.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% after the government reported better-than-expected economic growth for the start of the year, boosted by strong exports, particularly of computer chips used in the AI boom. Semiconductor supplier SK Hynix said its revenue for the latest quarter jumped more than analysts expected largely because of AI-related demand.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.29% from 4.30% late Wednesday.
A report in the morning said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number is still at a historically healthy level. A separate, preliminary report on U.S. business output from S&P Global also suggested growth is improving a bit from its near-stagnation seen in March.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The sun rises behind tankers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Asghar Besharati)
A board above trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person takes a photo of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index outside a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
