Social House Adds Kelson Berkus and Sam Shaw to Creative Leadership Team

Sep. 24, 2026

Social House, the integrated growth agency partnering with ambitious brands across beauty, fashion, food and beverage, and technology, has expanded its senior creative leadership with the appointment of two high-profile executives. Kelson Berkus joins as executive creative director and Sam Shaw as creative director, strengthening the agency’s creative vision as it continues to build a more connected model across strategy, creative, content, media and performance. Both roles are new to Social House and represent a significant investment in the creative leadership shaping the agency’s next era of growth.

Berkus most recently served as SVP/ECD at Edelman, Los Angeles, where he led global creative work for Starbucks and the Hawai‘i Visitors & Convention Bureau and partnered on work for brands that included Microsoft, Samsung and Fox Home Entertainment. Prior to that, he served as a senior advisor to Influential.co, a leading influencer company, through its acquisition by Publicis. He directed creative at theAudience, an early innovator in brand and celebrity social media content, and co-founded the Pacific Festival, a SoCal music and lifestyle event, with DJ/producer Steve Aoki.

Norel Mancuso, CEO/founder of Social House said:

“Kelson brings a distinctive combination of global brand storytelling, creator-driven marketing, cultural fluency and entrepreneurial leadership. His appointment represents a significant investment in our next chapter. He will work with our leadership team and me to evolve the agency’s services, strengthen our competitive differentiation, support new business opportunities and ensure our creative capabilities continue to anticipate changing client needs.”

 

Berkus’ mandate includes expanding the connection between cultural intelligence and creative execution and building the systems and standards required to produce consistently exceptional work at scale. He will be responsible for helping develop ideas specifically for today’s media environment, rather than adapting traditional campaigns for social channels after the fact.

Berkus said:

“What excites me most is the chance to work with people who understand how to make brands matter in culture. The strongest ideas bring social, creators, paid media, content and experiences together around a clear purpose and insight. I’m looking forward to partnering with our clients to create work that’s both creatively ambitious and commercially meaningful.”

 

Sam Shaw joins Social House with more than 20 years of experience as a creative director and brand builder who has lived at the intersection of instinct, taste and culture. She grew up in a family connected to the New York garment district, studied theater and by her early twenties was building the creative identity and brand footprint for global beauty, fashion and luxury brands—including Chanel, Alexis Bittar, Bumble & Bumble, Kitsch and Hourglass Cosmetics— where she rose to global creative director. Her work has spanned brand identity, campaigns, content, retail, casting, styling, and storytelling, including award-winning creative with Mark Seliger and recognition from ADC, Sephora and Fast Company.

Mancuso said:

“What distinguishes Sam’s work is her belief that strategy and taste are inseparable. She cares as deeply about the business idea as she does about the image, the casting, the rhythm of an edit, the styling and the feeling the work creates. She will create work that is culturally sharp, visually specific and emotionally alive. Her goal is not simply to make something beautiful, but to make something people want to step inside and experience firsthand.”

Shaw will help clients move beyond standard content production to build distinctive, culturally relevant global brand ecosystems that drive consumer engagement. She will contribute to new business pitches, client renewals and organic growth opportunities by helping clients see the opportunity to redefine their brand narrative.  

Shaw said:

“I believe my background in understanding culture, aesthetics and platform behavior will help our creative team focus on why something is resonating, what it reveals about the audience, and how a brand can participate in a way that feels original, rather than reactive. I want our clients to move far beyond trends and establish clear, ownable cultural and creative signals of their own.”

 

The addition of Berkus and Shaw comes at a time when brands need far more than high volumes of entertaining content. They need culturally informed ideas, distinctive creative thinking and work built specifically for the ways audiences discover, participate in and share culture today.