In 2024, the Australian Radio Network (ARN) quietly brought in the razor gang.
The broadcaster, still recalibrating after its headline-making $200 million deal to secure Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson for another decade, began a round of internal restructuring aimed at streamlining operations.
Among those affected was National Client Services Manager Tegan Kirkby, known and respected in the industry for her client-first mindset and calm under pressure. For Kirkby, however, the redundancy wasn’t the end of the road… it was a catalyst.
“It gave me the opportunity to something I’d always wanted to do,” Kirkby told Mediaweek. “But like a lot of people, I never quite had the push. This was the push.”
And, so, the mother-of-two launched ‘We Are Marble’.
Learning to fly
Kirkby describes the decision to go solo as instinctive. “The setup and deciding to do it was easy because I’d always wanted to do something like this,” she said.
“In the back of my mind, I’d always wanted to start my own business, so I could have the freedom and pace to achieve a good work-life balance and create meaningful work for myself.”
That seed of an idea soon turned into a concrete plan: she built a website, shaped the offer, and got to work. But, as she puts it, “The actual setup of the website and so forth was the easy part. The hard part comes afterwards when you realise you need to make it work. It’s like building the aeroplane’s fun, but making it fly is the hard part.”
Fortunately, Kirkby’s flight plan was grounded in experience. “I was also lucky because I’ve had the opportunity to run a couple of surfwear brands over the years, so I had the background knowledge to establish the stepping stones that accompany building a brand and a business.”
From there, she started pressure-testing the idea with peers and industry insiders. “I bounced the idea off several people who understand the industry, and I received some excellent feedback,” she explained.
“One thing that stood out to me was the question of where my bread and butter is going to come from, and for me at this stage, it’s a plugin for senior strategic thinking. So, that could be anyone from a media agency to a publisher who doesn’t have a senior person on the books but needs strategic support, albeit not every single day.”
Tegan Kirkby from We Are Marble
A flexible layer
Kirkby’s pitch is sharp: short-term or project-based expertise for companies who don’t need another full-time headcount, but do need someone with experience and objectivity.
“They might already have brilliant planners and buyers on the ground who service their clients amazingly,” she said. “But when they get a brief that comes in the door, and they say, ‘This isn’t just about buying media … we will need to remodel who the audience is, or do a whole lot of research to prove the category is going to be open to this idea’, that’s when I come in.”
And she’s confident that the right clients will see value. “Companies can benefit from having someone with 20 years of experience in media at the table, without having to pay the additional full-time salary.”
She continues: “Both internally and externally, teams and clients can always benefit from different or outsider thinking. There’s always an opportunity for that fresh idea or just a third party point of view that maybe hasn’t been thought of. I know, because I’ve spent so much time in agencies, it’s easy just to start not seeing the forest for the trees.”
Why Marble, and why now?
Kirkby says her ultimate goal is about building something solid, creative, and enduring… something with weight. Her approach is adaptable, but deeply strategic. “It doesn’t matter what company it is either, because we’re bringing in what are essentially transferable skills,” she said.
“I’ve a comprehensive depth of experience across various categories that I’ve serviced and worked on. A lot of my work is audience-centric, so I think about consumers and how they behave and think.”
And that, she believes, is the key. “That strength in understanding consumers and how they tick can be translated across any amount of legacy that a brand might have. So even if there’s someone in-house who has serviced them perfectly for 15 years, it is still super beneficial to just bring in a little bit of provocative thinking to shake things up. Plus, I know my heartland and our results will speak for themselves. I’ve got a lot of confidence in what I can bring to the table with the right type of client.”
For agencies and publishers navigating talent shortages, tightening budgets, or overloaded teams, We Are Marble might be the plug-and-play solution they’ve been quietly hoping for.