3rdspace

3rdspace has labelled 2025 as a rebuilding year, one shaped by the loss of executive creative director Andrew Sidwell, who passed away in 2024.

Into that gap stepped Rickie Marsden, brought on as ECD and partner, a move the agency has credited with steadying the ship and pushing its creative process towards something more collaborative.

The indie picked up five new clients and lost one in 2025. New names on the roster included home builders North Homes and Singapore-based ageing and longevity business Chi Longevity, for whom it works on a retained basis. It also picked up project-based work for building materials brand Boral and consultancy DSS+. Old favourites the NRMA, The Man Shake and Lady Shake, The Kids Cancer Project and Royal Albert all stuck around.

Its one exit was the For Purpose account, a project-based gig the agency said wrapped up after it rebuilt the brand and handed over the mic to an internal team.

The agency runs a work-from-anywhere model, with staff spending stretches of 2025 working from Fiji, the UK and Greece.

Staff have access to an external behavioural psychologist for conflict resolution and neurodiversity support and the agency reported no staff churn for the year, albeit in a small team of seven.

Much of 3rdspace’s hiring comes from outside traditional advertising pathways, with film, events, comedy writing and animation among the backgrounds represented across the team.

The agency said it deliberately sat out the awards circuit to focus on client relationships and new business opportunities. Its sole trophy came via the NRMA’s SBS Sustainability Challenge submission.

Sustainability was a big focus for the agency, however. It told us that its productions ran 75 to 85 per cent below the carbon footprint of similarly sized shoots, measured using the AdGreen Green Score Calculator. It chalked this success up to using solar-powered gear, recycled wardrobe and electric vehicles on set.

Artificial intelligence played a supporting role only being used for category trend analysis, internal time tracking and stress-testing ideas. A 2024 investment in its own AI video tool, the 3rdspace Batch System, never found its audience and has since been shelved.

Heading into 2026, 3rdspace said the focus is on translating that foundational work into more visible output, building on a year it spent largely out of the spotlight.