Here's a number we're proud of: over the past 12 months, we grew revenue by 20% and lifted profit a further 12%, while welcoming six new clients to a roster that already includes Peters Ice Cream, Honda, Pizza Hut, Mutti, Boost Mobile, Red Bull, THE ICONIC and Indeed.
But the numbers that tell the real story are different ones. Our earned media team grew headcount by more than 40% and profit by 36% over the same period, faster than any other part of our business. And our dedicated SEO & GEO team has grown right alongside it.
That's not a rounding quirk. It's a signal.
Earned and SEO isn't the poor cousin anymore
For years, earned media and SEO got treated as the nice-to-have — the poor cousin of paid and creative. We think that thinking is over. In an increasingly fragmented, AI-mediated media landscape, earned and brand visibility have become core growth levers for brands, and our clients are voting with their budgets.
Our SEO & GEO team has grown alongside earned, and it's fast becoming a growth engine in its own right — helping our clients navigate the huge shift toward AI visibility, so they show up not just in search results, but in the answers.
"Earned budgets are growing faster than any other part of our business, and it's not by accident. Brands are realising that earned media doesn't just build reputation — it's increasingly the raw material that large language models like Claude and ChatGPT are pulling from to inform what they recommend to consumers.
If you're not earning organically created, third-party content that's GEO-optimised, you're not showing up in the answers people are getting from AI."
— Michelle Hampton, Managing Director & Partner
We're hiring for the next phase
To fuel what's next, we've made a run of senior and specialist hires across strategy, media and earned.
Nat Kuznetsova joins us as Head of Strategy — a newly created role. Nat comes from Dentsu Creative, where as Group Strategy Director she worked on THE ICONIC's award-winning "Got You Looking" masterbrand campaign, earning an Effie for her strategic work on the account.
"Nat's hire is one of the most important strategic moves we've made as an agency. Brandformance only works if the strategy underneath it is fresh and airtight — connecting the creativity of brand-building and the science of performance in a way that's genuinely additive. Nat's already proven she can do that at the highest level, and having her lead strategy means every client gets fresh, sharp thinking and big ideas."
— David Kennedy, Managing Director & Partner
Oliver Carthy joins us as Head of Media & Strategy. Ollie brings more than a decade of media leadership across agency and client side, including as Head of Digital at Carat Sydney and a senior media and digital role at Nestlé Nespresso.
Ollie is a genuine growth expert. He's built and scaled media businesses from the inside, he understands how media performance and brand outcomes connect, and he lives and breathes brandformance the same way we do. That's rare. Bringing someone of his calibre in to lead our paid media is a huge statement of intent about where we're taking this agency next.
We've also strengthened the teams driving that growth:
Sophie Young joins our earned media team as Senior Account Executive.
Cobey Johnston joins our earned media team as Account Executive.
Amy Vu joins as SEO & GEO Lead, previously at Dentsu and a B&T 30 Under 30 2026 Tech Winner.
Haiying Tang joins as SEO & GEO Executive, previously at Advisible.
Irene Sang joins as Paid Media Specialist, previously at Admatic.
Why our model is working
We think these results are a direct validation of our brandformance model: the fusion of brand and performance thinking that sits at the centre of everything we do. Clients are consolidating spend with agencies that can prove effectiveness across the full funnel, and that's exactly what brandformance is built to do.
The approach has come into its own over the last two years, with culture playing a big role. Big integrated campaigns like Confessions of a Muttiholic — which helped make Mutti the fastest-growing preserved tomato brand — and Boost Mobile's category-busting campaign are proof that brands can achieve real effectiveness with a brandformance approach.
We've built a culture and a structure that lets ideas move quickly and freely between our paid, owned and earned specialists, without the usual friction.
That's the whole point. And it's why we're hiring for more of it.
