Chicken Dinner has appointed Lucy Thompson as its first head of growth, following a series of client wins and expansion across Australia, the US and the UK.
Thompson joins the independent growth marketing agency from Dentsu, where she spent the past two years in leadership roles, most recently as group digital director.
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She brings 11 years of digital and performance experience to the role, including work across Dentsu’s Carat Perth portfolio. That included WA Government, Cash Converters, with $3.6 million in annual media investment, and Revo Fitness.
Thompson has also worked in agency roles on brands including Kurt Geiger and Stokke.
What will Lucy Thompson do at Chicken Dinner?
Thompson’s remit covers the agency’s next phase of growth. Chicken Dinner said it plans to double media under management by mid-2027 and open a US office in Miami to service its American financial services clients.
“The holding company model isn’t slow because the people are bad – it’s slow because every new tool and every process change has to move through layers built for control, not speed,” Thompson said.
“Chicken Dinner moves like a F1 car next to that. What convinced me wasn’t a pitch, it was watching how fast this team turns AI and automation into actual client impact – not next quarter, this week.
“That’s the muscle I want to help them build at scale. What the team has produced in under a year speaks for itself. My job is to build the engine that takes it to the next level.”
Agency growth after first year
Chicken Dinner launched in July 2025 and has grown paid media under management to $96 million a year, nearly tripling in size in its first 12 months.
The agency has built a client roster across Australia, the US and the UK. Recent signings include Australian financial services brands Yes Loans and Penny Finance.
Chicken Dinner has focused much of its growth on lead generation for financial services, including lenders, brokers and fintechs.
Ben Drew, founder and managing director of Chicken Dinner, said Thompson’s appointment reflected the agency’s next stage.
“Lucy is exactly the calibre of operator Chicken Dinner was built around,” Drew said.
“We’ve spent the last year proving that a lean, senior, AI-augmented team can out-deliver the traditional agency model. Lucy’s job is to compound that – taking what’s working and scaling it without diluting it.
“There aren’t many people who can hold growth and standards at the same time. She’s one of them.”
Drew, a former Google growth manager, launched Chicken Dinner as a senior-led agency using AI and automation across paid search, paid social and SEO.
Top image: Lucy Thompson & Ben Drew