Independent media agency Magic has unveiled a new leadership team with Shahram Ghaffurian promoted to CEO, new appointments Bernie Cullen to head of media, Sarah Baskerville head of growth, and the promotion of Sam Terminelli to head of strategy.
Ghaffurian, as a founder of Magic and the previous head of media, pioneered the integration of mathematical methodologies into the realm of media investment.
Previously, he worked across a range of media agencies, creative agencies and consultancies with clients ranging from a big four bank to start-ups.
At Magic he has brought together these worlds into a single offering, termed 'Mediamatics'. The approach prioritises the quantifiability and traceability of media investments via mathematics.
Cullen joins Magic from GroupM where she was head of delivery for Victoria and South Australia. She brings 16 years’ experience to Magic working across local and global brands in digital media and marketing and has worked across multiple industries such as financial services, ecommerce, retail, travel, education, FMCG, and energy at agencies including Mediacom, Revium, Performics, Neo@Ogilvy and Mindshare.
She will drive the Mediamatics approach in how the agency plans and buys digital media for its clients.
Baskerville comes to the newly created role of head of growth at Magic from growth strategy firm Vibrance. She has two decades’ experience as a strategic partner and leader of transformative growth in digital marketing and has also worked with News Corp, GumGum, Ansible, Bauer Media and Fairfax.
Baskerville will be focused on marketing, building the agency’s brand and reputation and leading the growth and expansion of the agency via new partnerships and the productisation of Magic’s Mediamatics platform.
Terminelli has more than 10 years’ marketing experience working across full-funnel engagement strategies and activations that blend both brand salience and performance objectives.
He joined Magic in 2021 and was most recently head of engagement. With experience working both agency side and in-house, he has developed marketing strategies matched to business goals for global brands operating in the FMCG, technology, ecommerce, and health and fitness industries.
Terminelli will deliver data-led approaches across both owned and advertising channels to drive measurable impact on business performance.
“Each of these new leadership roles will be key contributors to the realisation of our growth and expansion goals in this pivotal new chapter for Magic, driven by the success of our unique Mediamatics approach. Until now, Magic has been relatively quiet in market and fuelled by organic growth driven by the industry-leading performance outcomes and service excellence," Ghaffurian said.
"In the last 12 months alone Magic’s business has doubled and attracted new clients including Sophos global, Fivetran, and Maxwell & Williams. This new, highly experienced team represents a turning point in the next phase of Magic's growth and we are excited to see what the future brings.”
Baskerville said now more than ever marketers need to prove the commercial impact of their work beyond traditional media metrics.
"It’s time for marketing to evolve from a cost centre to a growth engine in the eyes of the board. Magic’s proprietary approach, applying math to media, not only drives market leading performance, it provides a source of truth for the commercial outcomes driven by our clients’ marketing efforts," she said.
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