The Pistol was launched in 2011 by co-founders Steve Hibberd and Troy Townsend under the original name Tiger Pistol.
At that time, Tiger Pistol – named after one of the world’s smallest creatures, the Tiger Pistol shrimp – operated differently from the business than the leading digital marketing agency it is today. Its initial vision was to help small businesses achieve disproportionately large real-world success through digital.
Jaime Nosworthy, CEO of The Pistol, spoke to Mediaweek about the independent agency’s journey so far, marking its 12th anniversary and how they have benefitted from its IMAA membership.
Over the next few years, the Melbourne-grown tech start-up quickly emerged as a leader in the MarTech landscape.
The Pistol’s journey so far
Nosworthy noted that the founders envisioned expanding the company’s scope to serve enterprise brands, franchise groups, and distributed networks across many industries, including retail, real estate, hospitality, and automotive.
Tiger Pistol quickly became one of the first organisations badged as a Facebook (now Meta) Marketing Partner and the world’s largest publisher of Facebook and Instagram ads. This saw the company’s headquarters move to the US, culminating in the acquisition of Tiger Pistols’ eponymous technology by US-based private equity firm Next Sparc in 2019.
The founding partners retained the professional services business – based in Melbourne – that evolved around the technology, naming it The Pistol.
The agency was fast becoming the go-to for best-practice digital media, expanding its remit beyond social media and being badged as both Meta Marketing Partners and Google Premier Partners.
Nosworthy noted that the agency stood out for its unique strength in combining technology and digital media savvy to deliver exceptional client results. She highlighted The Pistol’s next technology incubation wasn’t far off tackling the challenges and opportunities faced by leading global and Australian businesses and quickly evolved into the full-scale retail media SaaS platform Zitcha.
The platform spun off to become its own business last year, in partnership with The Pistol, to integrate with leading retailers’ overarching media strategy.
Nosworthy said: “The Pistol, which has evolved into the full-service technology and digital marketing agency proven to drive faster growth for their clients. Like the MarTech solutions that preceded the agency offering, The Pistol’s DNA remains focused on driving digital performance by enhancing ‘big tech’ solutions and solving what many relegate as ‘too hard’ across technology, media and creative.”
Nosworthy on leading The Pistol and helping their clients grow faster
Nosworthy joined the agency in 2019 as chief client officer before being promoted to CEO in March 2021.
As the CEO of The Pistol, she is in charge of the drive of the overall strategic direction of the business.
Nosworthy also noted that she oversees building on the agency’s 12 years of experience delivering accelerated performance for its client partners through best-in-class technology, digital media buying, and fit-for-purpose creative.
“This includes driving our capability in AI and emerging technology to help our clients not only grow their businesses faster but also to make a meaningful impact to the profitability of their business through efficiency and performance,” she said.
Nosworthy noted that The Pistol specialises in helping businesses grow faster. She explained that this is done through an optimal combination of strategic consulting, website and bespoke technology development, best-practice media planning and buying, and digital-first creative.
The Pistol’s growing clients and a look back at its performance in 2022
The Pistol has continued strong relationships with its foundation clients, Spotlight and Liquor Marketing Group.
The agency has welcomed recent wins, including fashion label Decjuba, Riparide, and Vitasoy and across NFP and CPG, as well as multiple wins in the finance vertical.
Reflecting on The Pistol’s performance in 2022, Nosworthy described it as another defining year for the independent agency.
The success was marked by the successful spinning out of its second SaaS incubation in the form of the retail media technology platform, Zitcha.
“While powering accelerated client growth was still the driving purpose of the business, the vacuum left by Zitcha enabled a focused restructuring around how technology-led solutions underpin every aspect of how this promise was delivered for The Pistol’s clients,” she said.
Nosworthy noted that the key to this approach was building on the tech start-up heritage of the agency to leverage AI to improve efficiency, performance and, ultimately, the customer experience, but in a low-fi, agile manner to address client needs in near real-time.
“This resulted in a new offering tailored for clients looking to move faster and work smarter,” she said.
Nosworthy added that overall, 2022 was a steady year for the business. She noted that media billables grew 8%, primarily driven by increased investment across paid search, programmatic, and TikTok.
Marking a milestone and the focus for the year ahead
The Pistol recently celebrated its 12th anniversary and marked it with the soft-launch of its AI-focused innovation centre.
Nosworthy explained that the small group within this function was “handpicked for their strategic technical capability and unique ability to view client problems differently, sit in the day-to-day of agency activity, translating the rapid changes taking place in the landscape to actionable solutions that can deliver immediate value for TP’s clients.”
The Pistol’s current focus is on brands that are spending money or time that could be replaced or enhanced through AI models.
“Recent examples include a content-generation tool that directly connects trending content, conversations, and audio across digital platforms with a retailer’s product feed, reducing FTE requirements by over half and improving speed to market by 350%,” she said.
How The Pistol benefits from its IMAA membership
The Pistol joined the IMAA in 2022, and Nosworthy shared that their partnership with the association has built meaningful connections and supported the agency’s growth, particularly in fostering the team’s skills and development.
“At The Pistol, we have meticulously crafted a comprehensive training and development initiative aimed at propelling our employees’ personal and professional advancement. This program is the culmination of extensive planning and continuous improvements over the years,” she said.
Nosworthy highlighted that the recent initiative of the IMAA Academy plays a vital role in supplementing learning and development efforts as the agency rounds out FY24 planning.
“It serves as an invaluable resource, offering immense value not only to our organisation but also to all its members and their respective teams,” Nosworthy added.
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Top image: Jaime Nosworthy
