Bullfrog’s Big Leap: Kim Anderson Becomes CEO, Dalton Henshaw Shifts to Founder Post
Bullfrog has made its biggest hire yet and entered a new phase of leadership, LBB can reveal, with founder Dalton Henshaw stepping back as CEO and appointing former FIFA Women’s World Cup marketer Kim Anderson to the top job.
Dalton told LBB his ambition to transform the agency into a growth company requires hiring marketers like Kim, and the recently-appointed Robbie Brammall, to solve business problems upstream, and bridge the gap between CMOs and CEOs.
“Why Kim? Because she, far more than myself, captures what we think is a new order when it comes to not only building valuable brands, but building valuable businesses,” he said. “And her credentials and experiences far exceed my own in that space.”
Kim said her career has “always been marked by moments of looking for ambitious brands, but ones that are also purpose led. And Bullfrog delivers that in spades."
"When I find things that excite me, I tend to really run at it," she said.
She has held senior marketing roles at New York-based design company, Smart Design, TEDxSydney (she was also a co-founder of TEDxSydney Impact), CHOICE, and Pureprofile.
Most recently, she joined sports agency Octagon in January as managing director, but stepped down citing an opportunity that was “too compelling to pass up.” She will relocate from Sydney to Melbourne to join Bullfrog.
Dalton founded the independent five years ago, on the cusp of the pandemic and ahead of the rush of independent agencies that have launched since. Unlike most of their founders, he had never worked in advertising before. Half a decade in, he feels the time is right to hand over the reins. He will step back into the founder role, but remain involved in the business day-to-day.
“Sometimes you've got to know when to step off,” he said. “That doesn't take away from ... the last five years, but really sets up what the next five looks like.
“I've sat down with a lot of people over the last few years to find the right shape and size and puzzle pieces that could fit to build this vision.
“I've been looking for Kim for the better part of two years, to be frank."
Bullfrog’s updated positioning – which will be solidified and launched in-market later in the year – centres on transforming challenger brands into category leaders. Kim said CMOs are increasingly under pressure, and need a partner that knows how to grow businesses through purpose and fandoms; that’s why Bullfrog is now a ‘growth company’ versus an ‘agency’.
“It's part growth advisory, part data-driven strategies, and part building communities. When you think about it in its simplest terms, it's like, 'How do we move people, how do we shift culture, and how do we deliver results?' That's not what a typical agency does. And so that's why 'growth company' makes sense.”
The executive leadership team rebuild began with the additions of ex-Clems and Goodby Silverstein & Partners strategist Mike Ronkoske as CSO, and Georgia Newton as general manager, plus the promotion of Tim Shelley to chief brand and experience officer. LBB then revealed the appointment of Robbie, formerly the marketing boss of Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), as chief marketing and innovation officer.
Kim said hiring marketers to lead an advertising business is “not just a model that our internal team can look up to, but it means that we have that proofpoint when we walk into the boardroom. That's really comforting for a CMO that's trying to convince their CFO and their CEO to back them.
“It is about growth. It's not just about advertising. Robbie said it himself, that he's not interested in just making ads anymore. And my marketing career has grown quite organically across a whole number of different industries. At the core of it is trying to create impact at the centre of community building and commerce.
“The team that is being built here is a mix of talented, inspirational, entrepreneurial people, and being able to build a culture around that and lead them into this new era of growth is super exciting.”
CMOs’ trust in “expensive service-based models” including advertising has eroded, Dalton added, because of “the lack of commercial acumen in the advertising industry when it comes to driving a tangible ROI.”
The business’ current client list includes DIY Blinds, ready-meal brand Dineamic, joint pain product Epijoint, and insurer AIA Australia, in addition to KIC – the wellness business co-founded by Dalton’s wife Laura Henshaw. The founder promised Bullfrog will now “deliver across the entire business experience, not just … marketing and communications” and offer a “system for business growth.”
“This is not just a process. This is something that I've worked very closely [on in] my other world of KIC, and others, to test new models of different brand growth that challenge conventional models, the Binets, the Mark Ritsons,” he said – a response to shifts he said he has observed in consumer behaviour.
He added he has now learned enough about advertising to “acknowledge my own restlessness [about] what the right service model” is.
“We've tried everything,” Dalton said. “The last couple of years, we've tried, really intentionally, to build out new ways of working, new cost models, new service models, new capabilities, to really get back to what we think is a flag in the ground moment. This is that flag in the ground moment.”
He will remain closely involved in Bullfrog until December, when he will welcome his first baby and take parental leave.
“Fatherhood is the next chapter, but I am a very active participant [in the Bullfrog of the future]. Those that know me, [know that] ambition and a little bit of chaos is equally within my DNA, and I will be annoying them consistently, but I'm here to be the biggest advocate for where we're about to go.
“I love what this industry has created, and the door it's opened for Bullfrog and myself personally. That's not going to change. I'm always going to be business-building and storytelling in some way, shape, or form. And for this next five years, I'll be still doing it close with this team.”
