Trifid Media, one of the Middle East’s fastest-growing social-first creative agencies, has officially landed in Australia. The Dubai-born powerhouse is expanding with the backing of radio star and Netflix personality Kris Fade and Matty Fahd, the former Head of Partnerships & Brand at TikTok Australia.
Speaking exclusively with B&T, founder Mahdi Shafiei said the expansion wasn’t part of a grand plan but a response to overwhelming market demand.
“I came here for a holiday in May, and from a couple of stories, I had businesses reach out to me and people wanting to work with the company. It just kind of happened out of nowhere,” he explained.
“I realised there’s a huge gap in the market when it comes to content virality, and really allowing brands and individuals to understand that they could take a huge advantage of reaching others from a business perspective for monetisation.”
Shafiei runs Trifid as a 250-member operation focused on organic social growth and content at scale. “We do about 500 videos daily, and we have the operations available so the engine is running,” he said. “Marketing in Australia today, in my opinion, is being practiced in a very traditional manner, and there’s not a lot of agencies or individuals that understand how to operate organic content marketing, which is where we come in, we understand it at scale.”
He credits a chance conversation with Fade and Fahd for turning a spontaneous idea into a full-fledged expansion. “Chris is a good friend of mine,” he said.
“He was like, Australia’s really good. It’s a great market to be in. If you do it, I want to be in with you.” With Matty in Sydney, having just left TikTok, Shafiei said the match up was just “meant to be”.
While Australia’s creative landscape is crowded, Shafiei believes Trifid’s scale and approach will set it apart. “We focus on bulk, we focus on quantity, and we go all out, all in,” he said. “We’re not boutique in a sense. We focus more on where the attention is, as opposed to how pretty the creative is looking, which allows us to scale and expand.”
That strategy has already delivered results. The team’s announcement video featuring Fade and Fahd racked up over 300,000 organic views within days.
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“It’s all organic,” Shafiei noted proudly. “If you notice the announcement video, it’s a phone conversation we’re having. There’s nothing polished. It’s super raw, authentic… not scripted. That’s how every piece of content goes, and the formula works every time.”
A big part of that formula, he said, comes from youth culture. “We are heavily Gen Z oriented. Ninety per cent of our team are between the ages of 21 and 25,” he explained. “That’s what I’m going to do here, too. I believe it will even work faster because of the different cultures and mindsets. We’re banking on the youth and their understanding of socials.”
Shafiei’s next mission is clear: to humanise the Australian market’s approach to content. “Everything is humanised, everything revolves around human emotions,” he said. “I believe in the next 12 months, we will take over this space and be on top of the list with the same approach, humanised content.”
As Trifid Media establishes its Australian base across Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast, Shafiei’s ambitions already stretch further. “The next step for me is to expand globally, going into the UK, and then the US within the next two to three years,” he reveals. “But for now, the primary focus… is Australia.”
He’s also setting his sights on specific industries ripe for disruption. “One sector that I really want to tap into is real estate and developers, then healthcare, and then food and beverage,” he said. “With all of these sectors, personal branding plays a huge role”.
At the heart of all of it, is heart, ambition and the desire to go good. “I’ve learned that tall poppy syndrome here is very big… I’m on a mission to defeat that mentality. I’m just going to prove to people that if you do good and your intentions are good, there’s nothing wrong with people wanting to achieve better or do more”.
Founded in Dubai, Trifid Media has built a reputation as one of the Middle East’s most dynamic social-first creative agencies, delivering campaigns for global brands through cutting-edge content, influencer partnerships, and innovative storytelling.
With its Australian expansion, the agency will connect local brands to world-class social media creativity, while also opening a gateway for Australian talent and businesses to reach audiences across the Middle East.
