Chicken Dinner hires Dentsu’s Lucy Thompson as head of growth

Independent agency Chicken Dinner has appointed former Dentsu group digital director Lucy Thompson as its first head of growth.

Thompson spent two years at Dentsu, working across digital strategy and performance media for Carat Perth clients including WA Government, Cash Converters and Revo Fitness. She has also worked across brands including Kurt Geiger and Stokke.

In the new role, she will focus on the agency’s next phase of growth, including 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."

Ben Drew, founder and managing director of Chicken Dinner, said Thompson would help scale the agency without diluting its delivery model.

“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."