Putting a Leader Behind Mediavision’s Growth
Mediavision came to us with a hugely important hire for the agency: their first senior Growth and Sales leader.
This person would take ownership of the agency’s entire growth engine, working across every department to drive new revenue, improve inbound and outbound strategy and build greater visibility for the Mediavision brand.
It was a broad remit and, as the first senior hire of its kind, they needed someone capable of building rather than simply inheriting an established growth function.
Agency growth roles are one of our core specialisms. The market is shallow, but our network within it runs deep.
- Agencies
The Client
- Agencies
Mediavision is an established independent digital agency, working with ambitious brands across Search and digital performance.
Having built a successful agency and strong client base over more than a decade, the business was ready to put greater senior ownership around growth.
Until this point, responsibility for winning new business and growing the agency had been shared across the senior team. The next stage required someone who could take proper ownership of it.
This wasn’t simply about hiring a salesperson.
Mediavision wanted someone who could work across the entire agency, bringing together sales, new business, marketing, positioning and brand visibility into a coherent growth strategy.
The Challenge
The Growth Director would ultimately own the sales and growth engine for the entire agency.
That meant building and improving both inbound and outbound strategy, identifying new opportunities and working closely with teams across the business to turn the agency’s expertise into revenue.
But direct new business was only one part of the role.
They also wanted someone capable of increasing Mediavision’s visibility in the market through high-quality events, stronger brand positioning, content and thought leadership, while working closely with and supporting the existing marketing function.
The challenge was finding somebody who understood how all of those pieces fit together.
They needed to be commercially strong enough to own a revenue target, strategic enough to build the growth function and credible enough to work across different departments and bring senior people with them.
And the talent pool for genuinely strong agency Growth Directors is relatively small.
This wasn’t a search for someone who could sell agency services. It was a search for someone who understood how to grow an agency.
How We Got to Work
Agency sales growth is a market we know particularly well. Before moving into recruitment and after years as an SEO, I spent years working in agency growth myself, long before Growth Director became a commonly formalised role across the industry.
That background has allowed us to build a strong network of people doing these jobs. When great agency growth specialists start thinking about their next move, many already know us and what we specialise in.
As soon as we took the Mediavision brief, seven people immediately came to mind.
We tapped directly into that network, focusing on people who understood agency growth beyond traditional new business: individuals who could generate revenue, develop inbound and outbound strategy, improve positioning and work with marketing to build genuine authority and visibility around an agency.
From that initial network and the wider search, we identified five candidates strong enough to present.
Two ultimately emerged as the leading candidates and progressed through to the final stage.
The Result
Adam Bly was ultimately selected as Mediavision’s new Growth Director.
Adam brought eight years of solid experience within a leading agency environment, giving him the depth of agency knowledge and commercial experience needed to step into such an important first-time role.
Crucially, his experience extended beyond simply selling services. He understood the wider mechanics of agency growth and how new business, marketing, positioning, relationships and visibility need to work together.
He emerged as one of the two standout candidates from the process before ultimately being selected for the role.
For Mediavision, that meant securing their first senior Growth Director and putting dedicated ownership around the agency’s growth engine.
For us, it was exactly the kind of search our network was built for.
A shallow specialist talent pool. Five strong candidates presented. Two finalists. One successful Growth Director hire.
Facing a similar hiring challenge?
We specialise in recruitment across SEO & AEO, Paid Media, Digital PR, Growth Marketing, eCommerce and SaaS Marketing.
Results That Speak For Themselves
A selection of successful hires and long-term partnerships across the digital marketing industry.
- Agencies
From the UK to the Gold Coast
Edge Marketing is an Australian marketing agency on the Gold Coast.
Co-founder Rohan Dwyer was looking for a Head of SEO who could take ownership of the agency’s SEO department, shape its SEO proposition and drive the service line forward.
- Agencies
Seven Years. 17 Hires. One Future MD.
Reboot is an independent digital marketing agency specialising in Search, Digital PR and Paid Media.
Our relationship with the agency developed over seven years, meaning we were able to support the business as its hiring requirements evolved.
That included finding specialist practitioners across SEO and Paid Media, commercial Growth hires and, eventually, senior leaders capable of taking significant responsibility for the direction and operation of the agency.
As the business grew, the hires became increasingly strategic.
Two searches in particular would ultimately help shape Reboot’s senior leadership team: Director of Growth and Director of Operations.
- eCommerce
Finding an SEO Who Speaks Sneaker
The Sole Supplier is one of the UK’s leading footwear and streetwear platforms, helping sneaker fans discover the latest releases, news and trends from some of the biggest brands in the world.
The business has grown significantly, building a highly engaged audience alongside a team with a genuine passion for the space.
That culture was particularly important to them.
This isn’t a business where people simply happen to work in footwear and streetwear. The team genuinely lives and breathes the product outside of work, and preserving that as the company grows is a major priority.
SEO was already an important acquisition channel and The Sole Supplier had an external agency supporting its activity. The next step was to bring somebody senior enough in-house to take proper ownership of the channel.
- eCommerce
Five Years. One Trusted Partner.
Founded in 1810, Heal’s is one of Britain’s most iconic furniture and interior design brands. For the past five years, we’ve partnered with Head of eCommerce Mark Hammond, supporting the growth of his digital team through specialist hires across eCommerce, performance marketing and design.
- Agencies
Taking the Weight Off the Founder
Tacomi is a specialist Search agency with deep expertise across SEO, technical SEO and the evolving AEO landscape.
We had already been working with founder Chad Conlon and the team when they approached us about one of the most important hires they were about to make to date.
The agency was already operating at a very high technical level, but Chad remained heavily involved in the day-to-day. The next stage of growth required someone senior enough to take genuine ownership from him, without compromising the quality of work that had helped Tacomi build its reputation.
- Agencies
From First Hires to Future Leaders
NOVOS is a specialist eCommerce Search agency, helping ambitious retailers and challenger brands drive organic growth through SEO, Digital PR, content and wider Search.
Its eCommerce focus is fundamental to the business – it’s not a generalist agency with an eCommerce offering. Years of specialisation have created a highly knowledgeable team capable of solving increasingly complex Search challenges across platforms, markets and categories.
That makes NOVOS an exciting place for ambitious Search marketers – and a challenging place to recruit for. But that’s what I do.
Explore Anonymised Profiles of the Top Talent in Our Network
These talented individuals are looking for their next opportunity. If any profiles pique your interest, let us know!