In the last three months Thinkerbell has put out a fire using sound. Dared people to open a suitcase by telling them not to. Had a decathlete run the City to Surf marathon in electric-powered pants. Listed a 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL for AU$219.99. Built football boots with home ground soil. Gave a ute (pick-up truck) a luxury feature – a spa. And that’s about half the work the agency produced. Short, sharp, talked about, often topical…and always with a core benefit locked into the heart of the work. Thinkerbell has found something that every agency wants – in its own words, how to keep things interesting. How?
I asked. Thinkerbell answered [ed]:
Thinkerbell’s leadership team Jaime Morgan, managing director, and Tom Wenborn, chief creative tinker:
The marketing world loves neat labels. Creative. Consultants, Media. PR. Digital. It makes agencies easier to categorise, but in the process it strips away distinctiveness. At Thinkerbell, we’ve heard the assumptions too, sometimes we’re painted as the branded stunt agency, sometimes as the behavioural science brand transformers. But our ambition to unleash Measured Magic on the world to keep things interesting, isn’t just a pithy line. It’s a way of working that is deliberately building a new kind of oddly-shaped creative business.
Measured Magic is the foundation. It’s where marketing science meets hardcore creativity, and where data and strategy don’t exist in opposition to bold ideas, but are fused into them. That means the project (whatever shape it takes) is engineered to work, but also to stick in people’s memories.
This is why we’ve built an alchemy model where squads blur traditional boundaries. Instead of siloed departments, each squad can bring together PR, media, production, data, design and AI, all co-led by a Thinker and a Tinker. The Thinker helps shape the strategy, the Tinker drives the making, and together they ensure the team solving the problem hears it directly from the client, rather than traditional batten passing. The outcome is work that is brand-led, fast, fluid, and interesting by design.
At Thinkerbell, keeping things interesting means designing work that’s built for fame. Everything must have a creative layer that’s naturally sticky and entertaining, reaches wide audiences, is instantly distinctive, and compels people to share it. Fame-driven thinking isn’t an optional extra, it’s the most responsible marketing a brand can do.
We also practice what we preach. The Thinkerbell brand itself is devotedly protected. Walk into the offices and you’ll instantly be struck by Measured Magic. Work at Thinkerbell for a week and you’ll understand how our Measured Monday and Magic Hour rituals keep Measured Magic front of mind. Be part of Thinkerbell for a year and you’ll know exactly why every employee does Mind Expansion – an extra week of annual leave to do anything that expands their thinking, like learning taxidermy. Or Pot of Gold – an AU$5,000 grant anyone can apply to do something cool with. Pot of Gold has produced things like an album launch for Twisted Fix, a photography exhibition on the Rwandan Genocide and The Bachelors Handbag (The most fashionable BBQ chicken related accessory).
Thinkerbell’s five-year partnership with Jetstar shows how Measured Magic reshapes a brand from the inside out. Together we reset the customer value proposition and redefined what the brand means, underpinned by deep behavioural journey mapping. From re-imagining the brand identity and designing new uniforms to launching the platform, Takeoff More, we’ve built a program of earned media and social spikes that ensure Jetstar is seen not simply as low-cost, but as a fun, spirited-brand that people are excited to fly with.
Or take the Banana Pass. On National Banana Day, we turned a banana into an actual gym pass, giving Australians free access to more than 350 gyms across the country. It wasn’t just a PR stunt, but a fully-integrated piece of work spanning partnerships with gyms, retail promotion, social, outdoor, radio, and data-driven targeting. A piece of fruit became a ticket, and an ordinary day became a reason to remember bananas are a great source of energy.
These aren’t campaigns, they’re examples of how alchemy works when Measured Magic is applied. They show how keeping things interesting multiplies effectiveness, delivering fame and attention without the extra millions spent on trying to buy it.
In a world oversaturated with ads, dullness is a cost brands can’t afford. Interest is the multiplier… the advantage. At Thinkerbell, we’re not content to sit in the old categories of agency. We’re creating our own, one where science and creativity are inseparable, and where teams are fluid and multi-skilled, and where keeping things interesting isn’t just an ambition, but a proven path to effectiveness.