Bear Announces New Creative Leadership and Brand Positioning to Support Expanded Opportunities

CHARLESTON, South Carolina —

Bear, the digital commerce agency of the future, is excited to announce new integrated positioning and enhanced digital capabilities that enable brands to scale and grow, with the addition of executive-level brand and design innovator Mick McCarthy as Chief Design Officer (CDO). Today’s announcement follows Bear’s ongoing strategic evolution under CEO Thomas McCutchen, who took the helm following last year’s merger of Bear Group and Scoutside, where McCutchen was founder and CEO.

With McCarthy’s appointment, Bear’s rebranding, new website, and enhanced offering now showcase the Bear team’s experience and expertise in the digital commerce space. McCutchen’s strategic vision was fueled by customer demand and a clear market need for a comprehensive solution that integrates front-end design and development and back-end engineering to meet the evolving requirements of mid-market businesses across sectors such as manufacturing, B2B services, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) eCommerce brands. Bear now offers a full range of digital commerce services, including user research, analytics, strategy, creative, UX/design, engineering, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

“Over the past year, we’ve been working with customers, partners, and other stakeholders to position Bear to help brands and mid-market e-commerce businesses succeed in an increasingly complex and competitive environment,” said McCutchen. “The market has been telling us it needs integrated strategy, human-centric design, engineering, and performance optimization capabilities all under one roof, which is why Mick is joining our leadership team.”

McCarthy’s people-first approach and leadership in brand strategy have been instrumental in aligning creative direction with business objectives to help top brands like Vince, Universal Parks, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever scale their brands, strengthen their presence in the marketplace and drive long-term growth. His work with McCutchen on the Bear rebrand and new website has already strengthened the Bear brand, design and user-experience positioning, and there’s more to come.

“I’m thrilled to join Bear as the agency’s first Chief Design Officer and to work with Thomas on the next phase of Bear’s journey,” said McCarthy. “We’re excited about the insights our cross-company research and strategy teams can bring to clients. What sets Bear apart is our ability to connect the dots across the customer journey to optimize outcomes for the brands we work with.”

McCutchen said today’s announcement provides an early glimpse of Bear’s new capabilities. “The site now reflects our new brand vision and Mick’s influence. In effect, it’s a case study of Bear’s capabilities and approach to digital transformation.”

###