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Hopeful Monsters

Team PROFILE

Agency Type

Creative

Ownership

Indepedent

tagline

Culture Is Serious Business

LEADERSHIP TEAM​

Katie Barclay

Founder & CEO

Carl Moggridge

Creative partner

Alycia Raco

Strategy director

Key Stats

Offices

Sydney, Melbourne

Headcount

25

Gender Balance Staff

M: 33%
F: 67%

Gender Balance Leaders

M: 33%
F: 67%

Client book

Client Wins

6

Client Losses

0

Client retentions/extensions

6

Largest clients

Converse

Resmed

Adobe

7

The Drum Awards

Agency Scorecards report

Independent creative agency Hopeful Monsters closed out 2025 with a strong run of client success, picking up six new accounts to add to its fifteen-strong roster. 

Notable wins included Club Med on a communications retainer, Proximo across multiple projects, Heaps Normal on a strategic community project, Wheelchair Rugby Australia for creative and design work and Worldpay on a creative and digital project. 

The indie also held firm on its existing lineup. It didn’t retain any accounts via a competitive pitch process, but it did earn a number of encores including a renewed relationship with Converse and an extension of its NFL partnership.

On the people front, Hopeful Monsters’ 25-strong band grew by 10 per cent over the year, with hiring intentions pointing upward again for 2026. 

The agency’s HR offering hits the standard notes rather than anything genre-bending: three office days a week, flexible start times, parental leave beyond the statutory minimum and birthday leave. However its gender pay gap of 2 per cent ion favour of women, and a churn rate of only 5 percent (albeit for relatively small team) are very impressive in the creative agency space.

In 2025, the agency launched the Hopeful Monsters Institute, a training program launched that pairs a dedicated curriculum with personal development plans and a self-directed training budget for every team member.

Recognition is baked into the culture too, with a peer-nominated Hopeful Monster of the Year award carrying a $2,500 development prize, plus a monthly award decided by prize wheel. 

On AI, the agency is still finding its groove. It described AI as embedded in some processes but firmly in test-and-learn mode elsewhere. The clearest value so far has come through strategy and research, where AI has helped to compress desk research from days into hours, freeing up humans for the trickier work that machines can’t fake.

Hopeful Monster’s overall performance landed well with the advisory panel who said the agency is clearly carving out a unique position in the market.

Its steady growth, strong client wins and a genuine investment in its people offering marks out Hopeful Monsters as an agency to watch in the years ahead.

Hightlights reel

Resmed: ‘Say Goodbye to Your Sleep Monster’

On World Sleep Day 2025, it launched the ‘Say Goodbye To Your Sleep’ campaign with Resmed.

With the help of the mischievous Sleep Monster – the metaphorical burden that keeps you awake at night and ruins your day, it made poor sleep impossible to ignore and a lot more fun to talk about.

The campaign launched globally, across TV, radio, digital, OOH, PR, activations and even on the streets, bringing poor sleep to life, resulting in a category-first healthcare campaign.

Hightlights reel

End Food Waste: ‘The Great Unwaste’

‘The Great Unwaste’ for End Food Waste and the Australian Federal Government is a national behaviour change campaign to “Turn Food Waste Around”.

Australia throws away 2.5 million tonnes of household food each year, which is 7.7 million edible meals a day. An environmental, economic and social crisis.

It didn’t ask people to stop wasting food. It asked them to start unwasting it. A reframe that turned leftovers, wilted veg and soon-to-expire ingredients into everyday heroes.

It launched nationally across TV, digital, radio, print, social, OOH and PR, reaching people in the moments food decisions are made.

The message – “Are you wasting more than you think?” – travelled fast, showing up from ABC Breakfast to TikTok, shifting behaviours, powered by optimism, not guilt.

Hightlights reel

Converse: ‘All Stars Program’

‘The Converse All Star Program’ began in Sydney with a clear brief: win back the streets by investing in the people shaping culture from the ground up. Long before community-building became a category trend, Converse recognised that backing creators was not just culturally powerful, it was commercially effective.

Research later confirmed it: when consumers understood the brand’s long-term support of creators, consideration rose significantly.

What started as a local response has scaled into a global program spanning 34 cities, helping propel the careers of over 3,000 creators and is now one of the brand’s top three pillars. 

At its heart is a defining belief: culture is serious business. It’s built an ecosystem where ideas flow and subcultures thrive, powered by reciprocity. Creators support the brand as much as it supports them, driving cultural relevance, loyalty and long-term commercial growth for one of the world’s most recognisable brands.

That manifests into various creative and culture-led projects across the year. In 2025, it funded US$402,000 (AU$580,000) to creator-driven projects spanning art exhibitions, product development and creative production. 

Hopeful Monsters also launched ‘Chuck Stories’ a global micro-documentary series where All Stars could pitch an idea and receive funding to produce their own film. This work extended into products where All Stars were invited to create 1 of 1 Chuck designs as well as motifs and badges sold as customisable designs online.

Hopeful Monsters' take on 2025

Like any good Hopeful Monster, we responded to a bonkers 2025 with optimism and tenacity – sticking to our position in an industry drifting.

An industry that’s drifting towards hyper-targeted mediocrity over ideas. Where having nothing to say is more preferable than having something to say. Where producing irrelevant but ‘cost-effective’ content is more exciting than solving people’s problems. And in a world that’s a bit mental right now, solving cultural problems first and foremost has been good for our business.

So, whilst the awards and the growth are awesome, building a diverse client list that have missions worth getting up in the morning for is what we set out to do.

When business problems are tied to people problems and given to talented and imaginative minds, there’s a lot to be hopeful about. Hardly revolutionary, but largely ignored in the current ‘Technological Efficiency Marketing Movement’.

Tiff Seeto, Strategist

To summarise why Tiff is the MVP, we’ll instead share a direct quote from multiple clients: “Where do I get myself a Tiff?”

She’s cool, calm, collected, she’s always keen to get involved, and everything she touches she knocks out of the park.

If we were a band, we'd be...

The Velvet Underground

Not a household name, but to those that matter, an influential, alternative and antidote to the mainstream.

Critic's Comment

“Hopeful Monsters are starting to make a name for themselves with an outstanding performance in 2025.”

Hopeful Monsters'

B&T's Agency Score

8

Previous season: N/A

This year's Agency Scorecard was assessed by an Advisory Panel.

See all Agency scorecards
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