Shah Ghaffurian.
Independent media agency Magic's unique blend of media and mathematics was born out of the unlikely origins of how to more effectively sell a credit card.
Founder and CEO Shah Ghaffurian, who started the agency with Jordan Taylor-Bartels and Sean Taylor, initially began his career at media agency PHD, working across the ANZ Bank account.
“I ended up managing the whole retail side of their business - credit cards, personal loans, home loans – and we kept getting questions from ANZ like, ‘we're launching a new credit card, how many media dollars do we need to spend to hit our targets?’ and no one at PHD knew how to answer that,” he said.
“I remembered back to my business statistics courses at university, and I remembered there was a thing called regression, so I re-taught myself how to do that, built a very basic econometric model around media and what happened to credit cards in the past and ended up presenting this model back to some members of ANZ’s actuarial team.
“They said ‘let's use this to forecast how we should spend media for credit cards’, and I was like 22 at the time, but it was that first inkling that if you had that skill set, you might be able to actually answer business problems rather than marketing problems when it came to what you're doing in media.”
As a result, he figured out that maths, stats and various other modelling methods is a way to connect the worlds of marketing and media to answer overarching business problems “a lot better than many agencies can”, but no agencies really wanted to invest in the expensive head count that came with such an approach or even have such an approach driven from the top-down in terms of being a core attribute of a company.
“That's when Sean, Jordy and I started talking about this as a concept - let's formulate that business problem first using math, stats and data to form hypotheses and act as a consultancy, and then we just happen to do maths, marketing and media as an output to try and achieve those business results,” he said.
“We evolved our proposition to this concept of Mediamatics - a combination of maths and media together in a way that makes sense as an ecosystem.”
The approach prioritises the quantifiability and traceability of media investments via mathematics.
Ghaffurian said that it’s not really good enough to have maths and media separate; if you’re an agency, for example, you can have a market mix modelling (MMM) company doing that piece of work for you and you can have a data agency doing your customer segmentations but then ultimately, those data points and outputs aren't understood well by the agency, so they're not going to be used or activated on very well.
“Vice versa, if the agency isn't able to provide the data points or ask the right questions to the data people, then there's no feedback loop between marketing and the data side of things, so that's where the evolution from it being a proposition that was led by myself and mathematicians in the business became more of a holistic thing, where everyone in the business understands stats,” he told AdNews.
“They can read an output from a model, they can ask the right questions around making hypotheses around why business results might not have been good that week and go to the data team and then have a conversation around it.
“It's this idea that if you bring these two worlds together and the overall team understands it really well, you get an outcome that actually is much greater, and also more crucially drives overarching business success, rather than just marketing success.”
Due to the interest from clients in MMM – a hot topic in recent years in the advertising industry, especially in Australia – Magic built an entire MMM product as its own offshoot, but it ended up growing larger and larger in its scope and how complex it was and eventually ended up becoming its own company - Prophet.
Prophet is a predictive intelligence platform which can run mathematical modelling in near-real-time, launching back in March of 2024 with $5 million seed investment and a plan for a solution to the end of cookies.
The Melbourne-based tech play is headed by Taylor-Bartels and Taylor, while also being co-founded by mathematician Patrick Robotham, statistician John Strumila and full stack developer Clyde So. Among investors is ACM's Antony Catalano, executive chairman of View Media Group.
Ghaffurian said that an area Magic is trying to educate the market more on is how data and maths can be used to drive growth.
“I hate marketing personas as they’re impossible to use, not backed in any data and you can't segment your existing CRM into the lifetime values (LTV) of these customers or anything like that, so something we're doing a lot of recently is modelling in back-end CRMs to work out what actual personas exist within the data sets, and then using those in much more quantifiable ways in media - syncing those audiences across in terms of look-alikes, predicting LTV of customers when they first convert based on all these stats, and ultimately trying to move away from a CPA-based acquisition strategy and into a long term revenue based on the LTV-based strategy, and that can only really be done if you've got the smarts and the skill sets to do that initial analysis,” he said.
Magic also expanded to the USA around 18 months ago as a result of its pre-existing relationship with global cyber security provider Sophos – a relationship where, since Magic’s inception five years ago, the agency had been managing all of their advertising for the APAC region.
“Sophos, for the first three and a half to four years of our engagement, had larger global agencies operating their accounts and from an APAC perspective compared to the rest of the world, we ended up consistently outperforming those big agencies every single quarter,” he said.
“We also ended up essentially being the strategic leads across the entire business when it came to marketing, because I was pulled into weekly calls with their head of marketing to be like ‘What are we going to do next from a global strategy perspective?’ and then that would filter down to the other agencies.
“It ended up being a thing where even though we didn't have any presence in any other country globally, they were like ‘we're going to pitch, [we want you to] pitch for us’ and then we, as part of that, had to explain if we won how we're going to service the account. We had about six weeks to stand up an entire overseas operation to start servicing this client, but it's been going fantastically.”
Now having onboarded a trio of mid-sized clients in the last couple of months in the US, Ghaffurian said that he will only focus on expanding into further countries where he can have a team member in that country able to work with clients on the ground.
“I've been in situations where I've been pitching on clients in Dubai or London and I still feel like clients have this need to have a team located where they are in the same time zone - it's kind of a big detractor if you don't have that,” he said.
Closer to home, Magic boasts a high staff retention rate, with only two people resigning in five years of Magic’s existence - one going to a nonprofit and the other to the wider technology industry.
Ghaffurian said that's probably one of his favourite stats around the company - who now boasts a team of over 25 individuals worldwide - because growing up in the media world, you can get used to “getting the bad end of the stick a lot of the time” when it comes to workload, pay and career progression.
“My philosophy is ‘build a company that I would have wanted to work at when I was coming up in the world of marketing’ and I think people talk about culture a lot as it's more of a feeling or a set of activities or something like that, but I really think that it starts at people feeling valued, and feeling heard, but more importantly, having their workloads protected and being paid well,” he told AdNews.
“If people are under the pump all the time and they feel like they're getting paid poorly, ultimately you're not going to have a good culture at any business. We try to make sure people's pathways to progression are really, really clear as well, in a way that's a lot more numeric than a lot of other businesses.
“We're very careful in how we hire too - people who work at Magic tend to be very ambitious and curious all the time, which is fantastic, but it also presents some challenges, because they're always hungry for the next client to work on or the next promotion. As we're growing, we're able to feed these really hungry and curious people so they never feel like they've got to jump somewhere else for an opportunity that isn't there.”
Looking ahead to this year, Ghaffurian said the big focus is simplifying to the market what data and maths can do for businesses.
“MMM is really well explored and spoken about, so we want to productise some of the other solutions we offer,” he said.
“I definitely want to do some more general education in the market around how much better the results are for clients when media and that data set work together.
“I know there's so much curiosity around this, but I don't think anyone really articulates it very well in terms of why and what's it going to do for your business, so getting that articulation right and prioritising those things is my core focus.”
Cian Hansen - Performance Executive
What are you focused on for 2025?
In 2025, my focus is on scaling success for our clients and delivering results that make their jaws drop. I want to explore new strategies and leverage new trends across Google and Amazon Ads. It’s also a year to level up my skills, learning, experimenting, and staying ahead of the ever-evolving digital space. And, as always, doing my best to contribute to the amazing culture that has been crafted at Magic.
What do you love most about your role?
I love the mix of creativity and strategy. One moment, I’m diving into data and analysing performance and the next I’m brainstorming new campaign ideas. What makes it even better is the team I work with - they make even the busiest days enjoyable. And nothing beats the buzz of seeing a campaign take off and knowing you played a part in that success.
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
The digital marketing world moves fast, platform updates, new trends, and shifting client priorities keep me on my toes. The biggest challenge is staying ahead of the curve while juggling multiple accounts. It forces you to think critically and be innovative. Plus, when you nail a tricky account issue, it’s incredibly rewarding.
What attracted you to Magic?
It was the perfect blend of everything I was looking for, an amazing culture, a smart team, and the opportunity to work across multiple digital marketing platforms. The “work hard, play hard” vibe really stood out to me, and it’s proven true every day. Everyone here is passionate about what they do, and that energy is contagious. It’s a place where you can thrive professionally while genuinely enjoying the people around you.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every day is different but I usually start by pacing client accounts and then diving into performance data to see where we’re at. Then it’s potentially onto completing tasks for a client optimisation roadmap I may have built, or tweaking campaigns to get the best results possible. Somewhere along the way, I’ll usually have a client WIP or two. There’s always some collaboration with my team, whether we are bouncing around ideas or solving problems together. By the end of the day, it feels like I’ve achieved a lot and learned something new.
Ed McMutrie - Head of Data
What do you love most about your role?
The opportunity to shape the future of media buying and strategy using mathematics and technology. Better utilising and activating data keeps me up at night. I have a massive passion for problem-solving, addressing complex challenges, and discovering innovative ways to measure and enhance business performance, especially with Magic and the focus on ROI rather than vanity metrics that don't tell the full story.
Collaboration is at the heart of this process, bringing together creatives, strategists, and data scientists to push the boundaries of advertising. This helps when the people I work with are genuine rock stars of their craft and amazing to work with.
Finally, the ever-evolving nature of AI ensures that every day presents new learning opportunities, fostering growth and adaptability in a rapidly changing industry.
What does a typical day look like for you?
The crystal ball no longer seems to be working, every day is different (also part of the fun) but I can say that it's all within the realm of data and like any job, ensuring scheduled jobs and reporting are accurate and up to date. Queue more nods from the data audience.
What attracted you to Magic?
Magic’s and our CEO Shah Ghaffurian’s drive to push the boundaries in advertising through data and math-driven solutions is inspiring and caught my attention immediately. Magic’s math and data-driven approach deeply resonates with me, uniquely blending mathematical precision with creative storytelling to get to the why and Y.
The company’s culture of experimentation fosters creativity, and the ability to try new and interesting approaches. Above all, the opportunity to collaborate with others in an organisation where every single role fundamentally understands the value data can drive is amazing, especially in my role.
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
Successfully navigating the complexities of modern media requires seamless data integration, and aligning disparate sources to create unified and actionable insights. Any marketer or analyst reading this will be nodding right now.
Another massive aspect is building trust, not only in new and emerging tech but the data and insights you produce, addressing skepticism by ensuring outputs are both explainable and reliable is key here, but not always easy.
Finally, as the pace of technological change accelerates, balancing innovation with practical implementation timelines and team/client readiness becomes essential. After all, you don't use a Ferrari to plough a paddock.
What are you focused on for 2025?
My main focus for 2025 will be furthering and improving the industry's ability to measure marketing effectiveness and link it to incremental revenue. I’ll be working on ways to better measure incrementality and refine how campaigns are measured to link digital and in-store outcomes, I will measure this by ensuring it's implemented in all the work we deliver while educating both clients and our Magic Mediaticians.
In the evolving landscape of media and advertising, AI-driven media optimisation plays a critical role in predicting campaign performance and enhancing ROI. By leveraging AI for effective targeting, content generation and selection, I plan to build an offering for how this approach to media can play as part of a wider personalisation strategy at scale.
With these new technologies and practices, businesses can achieve unprecedented levels of engagement and efficiency, so another key focus will be client education, ensuring a deep understanding of AI's capabilities and its seamless integration into strategic approaches.
Maddy de Winter - Senior Engagement Manager
What are you focused on for 2025?
My main focus for 2025 will be growing our organic team and offering. Magic is big on development and continuous education,so a focus for this first quarter of the year will be spotting opportunities to upskill our organic team, ensuring we all have the tools and knowledge to excel. And, of course, staying ahead of the trends and providing the best content strategies and results for our clients.
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
Aligning visions and outcomes between our creative partners and clients. Everyone has big ideas, so it’s crucial to establish a clear understanding of the brief and desired outputs upfront. This ensures we deliver maximum client satisfaction and create content that truly resonates and drives results.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My day starts with a Hot Mat Pilates class, followed by a short walk to work. My days vary, but they usually start with coffee, Meta campaign performance checks, and planning upcoming organic content. I spend time optimising our current strategies based on past results, compiling recommendations for clients, and refining our approach. This often includes a fun scroll through trending content for inspiration (research, I swear!).
What attracted you to Magic?
Honestly, the people. Funnily enough, I almost skipped my interview because I was close to accepting another job. But I decided to go for it, and I’m so glad I did. The interview was great—huge shoutout to Sam Terminelli, still one of the best managers I’ve ever had. The culture here is incredibly friendly and laid-back, yet everyone is super driven and works incredibly hard. At the same time, we know how to blow off steam and genuinely enjoy hanging out together—even outside of Friday drinks!
What do you love most about your role?
It’s extremely fulfilling to see our creative ideas and campaigns drive real results. Working with my partner-in-crime, Caoimhe Conroy our Engagement Executive, makes it all the more fun. Plus, the relationships we’ve built with our clients make our day-to-day work so enjoyable.
Tommy Glover - Head of SEO
What attracted you to Magic?
Magic approached me for some assistance on a project they had when I was based in the UK, and over a few months I got to know the team and their unique approach to online marketing. Their proprietary Mediamatics methodology immediately stood out to me as a fresh outlook on what felt like an industry lacking in real innovation, so that was one of the main attractions to me.
What do you love most about your role?
I love how SEO has so many different moving parts and there’s such a broad spectrum of ranking factors that can influence organic growth, so you have to think on your feet when faced with a problem and be agile. Within my role, I have to be adaptable to any situation and adopt a holistic view of online marketing as it presents many challenges, which is something that I truly relish.
Magic approached me for some assistance on a project they had when I was based in the UK, and over a few months I got to know the team and their unique approach to online marketing. Their proprietary Mediamatics methodology immediately stood out to me as a fresh outlook on what felt like an industry lacking in real innovation, so that was one of the main attractions to me.
What are you focused on for 2025?
2024 was a positive year of development for Magic, so I’m looking forward to the business being able to really make some waves in the industry this year. Personally, I have three key focuses for 2025, which are to grow the SEO team, expand our service range, and invest in my personal development to expand my skill set.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Coffee from the local café, check emails, Monday.com admin, then crack on with my task list! However, this doesn’t always go to plan and more often than not I jump from one thing to another, such is the life of an SEO professional!
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
Ensuring the value of SEO doesn’t go unnoticed. Sometimes the benefits of good SEO can be hard to quantify, as it’s not as tangible as paid search where generally if you pay X in advertising fees then you’ll receive Y in revenue and sales. Since Google uses hundreds of ranking factors to assess a website and its content, it’s all about making several small changes that culminate into big impacts.
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