A new independent agency, Agency Named Desire, or AND to its friends, has launched in Australia with clear ambition – to support marketing leaders in unlocking the power of well-crafted partnerships to drive brand growth. It intends to put sports, entertainment and culture partnerships back at the heart of brand growth.
AND’s focus is guiding brands through the increasingly complex territory of local and global partnerships with strategic and effective sponsorship, partnership and ambassador campaigns, using decades of experience from the founders, and an independent, rights holder agnostic approach. The agency’s philosophy is a values-driven approach to cut through an industry often weighed down by jargon and complexity.
Agency Named Desire is founded by industry pros, James Bartold, Marnie McManus and Grant Rose, steered by their vast experience leading commercial and partnership strategy across sport, entertainment and the not-for-profit sectors, delivering some of the region’s most high-profile partnerships, such as Crown & Taylor Swift, La Roche Posay & Alex De Minaur, Shaw & Partners & Surf Life Saving Australia, Caltex & Newcastle Knights and Pepperstone & Aston Martin Formula One.
Bartold and McManus have an established and successful leadership relationship (formally both at independent agency Bastion), and hold exceptional client relationships and experience in multiple sectors. Collectively, they have worked on national and global partnerships with brands such as Bunnings, L’Oreal, CommBank, Suntory, Pepperstone, Crown, and Challenger. Rose adds expertise in agency establishment as the founder of Six Point, Vivid Sports Management and Flare Media Partners, using his end-to-end experience across sports and entertainment in senior roles both brand side and with renowned rights holders working with Lion, Sanitarium, Sydney Swans, Shaw & Partners and Chevron.
Having come together in late 2025, Agency Named Desire has already hit the ground running, launching with an impressive client roster including GWM, Swyftx, HOKA, waterdrop®, Caltex, PepsiCo and Vinomofo. The agency specialises in building integrated partnership strategies that deliver real impact, addressing a critical need in a market where many brands continue to grapple with an overwhelming number of opportunities, investment understanding, tactical execution and measurement effectiveness.
