Independent Media Agency Magic Unveils New Leadership Team as Agency Doubles and Poised for Further Growth
The leadership team includes Shahram Ghaffurian promoted to CEO, new appointments Bernie Cullen as head of media, Sarah Baskerville as head of growth, and the promotion of Sam Terminelli to head of strategy.
As a founder of Magic and the previous head of media, Shahram pioneered the strategic integration of mathematical methodologies into the realm of media investment. Previously, he worked across a range of media agencies, creative agencies and consultancies with clients ranging from a big four bank to start-ups. At Magic he has brought together these diverse worlds into a single offering. This was termed 'Mediamatics,' an innovative approach that prioritises the quantifiability and traceability of media investments via mathematics.
Bernie Cullen joins Magic from GroupM where she was head of delivery for Victoria and South Australia. She brings 16 years’ experience to Magic working across local and global brands in digital media and marketing and has worked across multiple industries such as financial services, ecommerce, retail, travel, education, FMCG, and energy at agencies including Mediacom, Revium, Performics, Neo@Ogilvy and Mindshare. At Magic she will drive the Mediamatics approach in how the agency plans and buys digital media for its clients.
Sarah Baskerville comes to the newly created role of head of growth at Magic from growth strategy firm Vibrance. She has two decades’ experience as a strategic partner and leader of transformative growth in digital marketing and has also worked with News Corp, GumGum, Ansible, Bauer Media and Fairfax. She takes a holistic view to problem solving with expertise as a creative, commercially accountable executive for digital networks, tech platforms, media agencies and consulting firms. At Magic, Sarah will be focussed on marketing, building the agency’s brand and reputation and leading the growth and expansion of the agency via new partnerships and the productisation of Magic’s Mediamatics platform.
Sam Terminelli has more than 10 years’ marketing experience working across full-funnel engagement strategies and activations that blend both brand salience and performance objectives. He joined Magic in 2021 and was most recently head of engagement. With experience working both agency side and in-house, he has developed marketing strategies matched to business goals for global brands operating in the FMCG, technology, ecommerce, and health and fitness industries. In his new role, Sam will deliver data-led approaches across both owned and advertising channels to drive measurable impact on business performance.
“Each of these new leadership roles will be key contributors to the realisation of our growth and expansion goals in this pivotal new chapter for Magic, driven by the success of our unique Mediamatics approach. Until now, Magic has been relatively quiet in market and fuelled by organic growth driven by the industry-leading performance outcomes and service excellence. In the last 12 months alone Magic’s business has doubled and attracted new clients including Sophos global, Fivetran, and Maxwell & Williams,” Shahram said.
“This new, highly experienced team represents a turning point in the next phase of Magic's growth and we are excited to see what the future brings.”
Commenting on her new role, Sarah said, “Now more than ever marketers need to prove the commercial impact of their work beyond traditional media metrics. It’s time for marketing to evolve from a cost centre to a growth engine in the eyes of the board. Magic’s proprietary approach, applying math to media, not only drives market leading performance, it provides a source of truth for the commercial outcomes driven by our clients’ marketing efforts.
“The marriage of math and media has the potential to set an entirely new industry standard at a time when it's needed most. Magic’s organic growth to date shows just how strong the market appetite is for a new approach and I could not be happier to be on the journey to realise Magic’s growth potential.”
Bernie said, “I am thrilled to join Magic and represent independent agencies in our market and work with some of the brightest and most passionate minds in the industry.”
After overseeing the growth of Magic’s full funnel engagement model, Sam said he was excited to move into a role that would connect Magic’s marriage of data and marketing to wider business problems as the head of strategy.
“Being at Magic for three years it’s been great to be part of our growth journey to date. I’m looking forward to the next iteration of growth in the business and am excited to lead a data-led strategic offering that’s backed by mathematical modelling,” he said.
