EDGE restructures puts strategy in the spotlight

Independent agency EDGE has restructured its senior leadership around a strategy-first model, arguing technology and automation are making marketing execution easier while increasing the value of knowing what businesses should actually do with it.

The restructure brings strategy, creative and performance closer together and includes five senior promotions.

Rather than organising client thinking around SEO, paid media, creative or individual platforms, EDGE said the new model will start with broader commercial objectives including growth, market share, customer acquisition and profitability.

EDGE CEO Rohan Dwyer said increasing access to similar technology was changing where agencies could create competitive advantage.

“Technology and automation have made execution more efficient and accessible than ever, but that only makes strategic thinking more valuable,” Dwyer said.

“When everyone has access to increasingly similar tools, the competitive advantage comes from understanding which levers to pull, when and why.”

That thinking sits behind the promotion of Luke Gosha into the newly created role of strategy and performance director following his recent arrival from London.

Gosha will oversee strategic and performance direction across EDGE’s client partnerships, spanning SEO, generative engine optimisation, answer engine optimisation, Google, Meta, paid media and creative services.

Dwyer said the agency created the position because an existing role did not reflect Gosha’s experience or the broader remit it wanted him to carry.

Gosha said the distinction was between selling marketing services and solving growth problems.

“Clients don't buy channels. They invest in growth,” Gosha said. “Our role is to understand what the business is trying to achieve, identify the barriers standing in its way and bring together the right strategic, creative and technical expertise to solve those challenges.”

The restructure also sees Valerie Condit promoted to head of SEO, covering SEO, AEO and GEO, while Susan Harangi moves from paid media supervisor to paid media lead. Tanya Siripatrachai becomes Meta senior specialist lead and Quentin Yeh moves into the role of Google senior specialist lead.

The changes arrive as agencies across the market grapple with a fairly fundamental question created by AI and automation: if execution becomes faster, cheaper and increasingly available to everyone, where does an agency continue to justify its value?

“Our clients aren’t looking at their businesses through the lens of SEO/GEO, paid media, creative or any other individual channel, and neither should we,” Dwyer said.

“They’re looking at growth, market share, customer acquisition, profitability and the challenges standing in the way.”