Thinkerbell has bought Dan Monheit's Melbourne-based customer experience (CX) agency as the independent creative shop moves to enhance its CX capabilities and close the loop on brand-led business transformation for clients.

As part of the acquisition, Monheit will become a partner in Thinkerbell and assume the role of Chief CX Thinker. Over time, the Hardhat brand will be retired as it merges into Thinkerbell.

“Dan and Hardhat are best in class at what they do, and we are always looking for ways to help our clients build their brands with our particular brand of Measured Magic. In order to keep doing this it’s imperative we continue to invest in, and build our capabilities across all touchpoints between the brands we work with and their consumers," said Thinkerbell CEO, Margie Reid. "Along with Dan, the Hardhat crew will bring something special to Thinkerbell, as they are specialists in thinking customer first across the entire customer journey as well as their behaviour change creative capabilities. This will mean that we can unleash the power of Measured Magic for our clients across their entire customer experience. This will in turn help us to continue creating brand led business transformation for our clients”.

"Along with our expansion into New Zealand, our buying back of the PwC equity, and some deeper investments into production it's been a big year or so for Thinkerbell. We look forward to continuing to work with some of the most iconic and loved brands in Australia and New Zealand,” added Reid.

Monheit co-founded Hardhat in 2005, with the agency having spent the past 19 years building digital customer experiences for Australian brands and businesses, including Lite n' Easy, Docusign, Kogan.com, Blooms the Chemist and others.

"The scale of Thinkerbell allows us to take our CX offering and apply it to bigger brand opportunities. Further, Thinkerbell’s measured magic philosophy, or marketing sciences meets hard core creativity resonates to our core," said Monheit. "Our skill set will further build on the Thinkerbell offering and we look forward to seeing what our combined forces can do. This is especially true for all of the clients who have backed us until now, who will immediately benefit from Thinkerbell’s world class strategic and creative firepower."

Thinkerbell chief thinker, Adam Ferrier, said: “The successful agencies and consultancies today have a much broader remit than just advertising. From our inception we’ve embraced a broader marketing pallet embracing brand strategy, PR, research and media. Bringing Dan and his team on board means we can deliver measured magic through the entire customer experience, and ensure we offer a holistic brand led business transformation offer to our clients. I’ve known Dan for years, we catch up regularly, and we share a similar point of view on the world. Dan has built an incredible business in Hardhat and we are extremely proud to bring the business into the Thinkerbell family.”

Thinkerbell, established in 2017, has made significant strides in recent years. The company has expanded into New Zealand, bought back PwC equity, and made deeper investments into production. It has also been recognised with numerous accolades, including Campaign Brief Agency of the Year, AMI Large Agency of the Year, B&T Creative Agency of the Year, and B&T PR Agency of the Year. According to Campaign UK, Thinkerbell was named the 2nd best creative agency in the world in 2023 and the 3rd best in 2024.

"The successful agencies and consultancies today have a much broader remit than just advertising," said Adam Ferrier, Chief Thinker of Thinkerbell. "Bringing Dan and his team on board means we can deliver measured magic through the entire customer experience, and ensure we offer a holistic brand led business transformation offer to our clients."

After buying back a 10 per cent stake from PwC in mid 2023, Thinkerbell is a 100 per cent independently owned agency.