Digital marketing agency, Jellyfish Australia has appointed Maria Africa as senior director of paid media.
Africa has more than sixteen years of experience in cross-channel strategy, performance marketing, and client solutions across global and regional B2C and B2B brands. She was formerly group digital performance director at Mindshare in Sydney and has also worked for Main Roads Western Australia and Lotterywest. Her digital career commenced at Starcom Mediavest Group in the Philippines, and she has also worked in agencies in Singapore.
In her role at Jellyfish, Africa will focus on team leadership, growth, and the expansion of team capabilities, and advising clients on how to get the best from the Google Marketing Platform. Jellyfish recently won the Google Marketing Platform Partner of the Year Award in Australia for the second year in a row. The company was recognised for helping businesses unlock the full potential of Google Marketing Platform, including Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager, and Google Analytics 360.
“I joined Jellyfish because its value proposition is rooted in specialist expertise and technology, offering advertisers access to highly skilled practitioners, a global knowledge network, and a proprietary, AI-powered tech stack,” said Africa. “The paid media space is changing rapidly and is marked by more automation, signal loss, and increasing pressure on creative effectiveness. Brands need partners who can move with agility and help them navigate that change with confidence”.
Jellyfish has built upon its suite of AI tools over the last 12 months—releasing Share of Model, Agent Shopper, and the Jellyfish Marketing Platform (JMP)—completing the full GEO suite. This positions Jellyfish as the only agency globally with an end-to-end, GenAI solution supporting marketing needs, driven by its goal to “Move. Faster, Smarter, Together”.
The company, part of the Brandtech Group, has grown its paid media team in Australia to ten people. This forms part of broader organisational growth this year, bringing headcount to over 40, including experts in Martech, Media, Creative, and SEO.
“Maria has an excellent track record and significant experience in running paid media campaigns for brands in Australia and Asia,” said Ashleigh Johnson, Jellyfish managing director, Australia and New Zealand. “Her expertise, experience, and tech-first approach make her the perfect person to lead our team into its next phase after our significant growth in paid media over the last few years.”
