Indie media agency Magic makes major leadership changes
Independent media agency Magic has bolstered its leadership team to focus on its next phase of growth, nabbing talent from GroupM and News Corp, as well as promoting two long-time employees.
Designed to strengthen its core disciplines, the agency’s investment into its leadership team comes following a period of strong organic growth,
Co-founder and head of media Shahram Ghaffurian has been promoted to chief executive officer, while head of engagement Sam Terminelli has been promoted to head of strategy.
Ghaffurian co-founded Magic in 2019 to bring his diverse background in media, creative and consultancy together into one offering, describing it as an innovative approach that prioritises quantifiability and traceability of media investments. Coined ‘Mediamatics’, Magic strategically integrates mathematical methodologies into the realm of media investment.
As chief executive, he will continue leading the agency on a larger scale, helping it sustain the growth it has had and pushing it to grow further.
Terminelli has been with Magic for over three years, having joined in 2021 as am amplification manager. In 2022 he was promoted to engagement director, and a year later was promoted to head of engagement.
Now serving as head of strategy, Terminelli will use his experience both in-house and agency side to deliver data-led approaches across owned and advertising channels, to drive measurable impacts for clients.
Magic’s new leadership team. (L-R): Tommy Glover, Bernie Cullen, Shahram Ghaffurian, Sarah Baskerville, Sam Terminelli
“Being at Magic for three years it’s been great to be part of our growth journey to date,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to the next iteration of growth in the business and am excited to lead a data-led strategic offering that’s backed by mathematical modelling.”
Meanwhile, the agency has also welcomed two new employees to its leadership team, Bernie Cullen and Sarah Baskerville.
Cullen joins Magic as its head of media, where she will drive the ‘Mediamatics’ approach for clients’ media buying and planning. She joins from GroupM where she was head of delivery for Victoria and South Australia.
Prior to that, she worked at other leading agencies including Revium, Neo@Ogilvy and Performics.
“I am thrilled to join Magic and represent independent agencies in our market and work with some of the brightest and most passionate minds in the industry,” Cullen said of her appointment.
Baskerville comes to the agency in a newly created role of head of growth, with over two decades of experience in transformative digital marketing growth. She joins after seven months at growth firm Vibrance, with previous experience from News Corp Australia, GumGum, Fairfax, Bauer Media and more.
Her responsibilities including marketing, building the agency’s brand and reputation, and leading the growth and expansion of Magic via new partnerships and the productisation of its ‘Mediamatics’ platform.
Baskerville said now more than ever, marketers need to prove the commercial impact of their work beyond traditional media metrics. Marketing must evolve form a cost centre to a growth engine, she explained, and her new role at Magic will allow this to happen.
“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.
“The marriage of math and media has the potential to set an entirely new industry standard at a time when it’s needed most. Magic’s organic growth to date shows just how strong the market appetite is for a new approach and I could not be happier to be on the journey to realise Magic’s growth potential.”
Ghaffurian said these new leadership roles will be key contributors to the agency’s growth and expansion goals, describing this moment as a “pivotal new chapter” for the agency.
“Until now, Magic has been relatively quiet in market and fuelled by organic growth driven by the industry-leading performance outcomes and service excellence. In the last 12 months alone Magic’s business has doubled and attracted new clients including Sophos global, Fivetran, and Maxwell & Williams,” he said.
“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.”
Subscribe to the daily newsletter
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
topics
appointment
Bernie Cullen
Leadership
magic
promotion
Sam Terminelli
Sarah Baskerville
Shahram Ghaffurian
Have your say