2025 AGENCY SCORECARDS
Emotive
Team PROFILE
Agency type
creative agency
Ownership
Independent
tagline
We create ideas that change how people feel
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Simon Joyce
TEAM CAPTAIN
Darren Wright
Group Creative Director
Michael Hogg (departed Apr 25)
Chief Strategy Officer
Hayley-Ritz Pelling
Head of Production
Andrea Dalton Doran
Client Service Director
KEY STATS
offices
Coogee
HEADCOUNT
92, 36 freelance
gender balance
Total: Male: 37% Female: 63% Leadership: Male: 45% Female: 55%
CLIENT WINS
8
CLIENT RETENTIONS
N/A
LARGEST CLIENTS
Optus
Expedia
B&T's season report
Emotive delivered one of its most consistent seasons yet in 2024, combining creative strength with commercial stability and clear cultural leadership.
The independent agency held its ground with zero client losses and added eight new accounts to the books, winning project work for HelloFresh, HOKA and Weis Ice Cream among others.
It also made a strategic move into pro bono work, launching Deep Rising, a global campaign with Jason Momoa that elevated the problems around deep-sea mining onto the international agenda.
Emotive’s operating model remains lean but sharp: 56 full-time staff supported by a rotating freelance bench.
It continued to refine its proprietary “Fame Thinking” process, a blend of insight, strategic creativity, earned storytelling and platform integration, to position brands at the centre of culture.
This model was evident across standout work for Dan Murphy’s and Daniel Ricciardo’s DR3 wine range, a series of campaigns for Google Ads, and new product launches for HelloFresh and HOKA.
Internally, Emotive doubled down on wellbeing and performance. Staff undertook DiSC profiling and mental health first aid training, and the business maintained its commitment to flexible working.
Gender balance remained healthy, but diversity in senior leadership (0 per cent culturally and linguistically diverse) flagged a clear area for improvement.
Meanwhile, staff churn rose slightly to 22 per cent, suggesting retention may need renewed focus heading into 2025.
One notable gap in 2024 was awards recognition. Despite solid creative output and strategic thinking, the agency recorded no major wins, a rare quiet season for a team capable of producing standout, fame-driving campaigns.
campaign HIGHLIGHTS REEL
Google Ads
Featuring a mockumentary-style ad and support from comedian Magda Szubanski, the campaign highlighted how Google’s tools like Performance Max and Product Studio make digital marketing easier and more effective for Aussie SMBs.
System One Testing showed 2.9x long-term market share growth compared to B2B advertising benchmarks.
Dan Murphy’s – DR3
Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo took over Dan Murphy’s in a cheeky campaign to launch his DR3 wine range, temporarily rebranding the store as “Dan Ricciardo’s.”
Deep Rising
In a powerful global campaign launched, people were urged to reclaim the deep seabed from mining giants threatening the Pacific’s fragile ecosystems.
Anchored by a Jason Momoa-narrated documentary and backed by a digital platform issuing unique ocean “birthrights,” the initiative aims to halt deep-sea mining and protect Earth’s largest carbon sink.
The campaign was Emotive’s first major pro-bono project.
Emotive's ANALYSIS
2024 was Emotive’s most successful year yet – creatively, commercially and culturally. We delivered our strongest campaigns to date, won major new business, retained every client, and posted record revenue.
We launched our first major pro-bono campaign, taking on deep sea mining and earning global attention. We brought earned creativity to the core of the business, launched a specialist partnership model, and embedded AI into our workflows to drive speed, scale and bigger ideas.
Underpinning it all was our refined approach, Fame Thinking – a model that puts strategy, creative, design and earned at the centre, supported by specialists across social, talent, PR and brand experience.
Our culture remains our edge. We invested in our people with DiSC profiling, flexible work, and a flat, inclusive structure designed to let everyone thrive.
We’re not chasing headlines. We’re building ideas that last – and 2024 proved the value of that long game.
mvp award
Rupert Taylor - Creative Director
He has been with Emotive 4.5 years and continues to deliver the hits with an approach to creativity that is always unexpected – and therefore delivers feeling.
B&T's agency score
Emotive: 7.5
Previous season’s score: N/A
COACH's COMMENT:
Emotive showed consistency across the year. The team is tight and the work is resonating. But there’s room to sharpen on some fronts.
