Long before becoming the CEO and founder of growth marketing agency, Chicken Dinner, Ben Drew was already mastering what makes people pay attention. Growing up in Perth, he was a curious kid always tinkering, creating, and selling small ventures. He carried that entrepreneurial spark into his adult life, where, whilst studying at Curtin University, he launched an events company that quickly evolved into Western Australia’s well-known festival brand “Seasons.”
By 2019, he was selling 15,000 tickets per event, including WA’s largest ticketed events on 2018/19 New Year’s Eve and Australia Day in 2020. That early success taught him a vital lesson: personality resonates.
When the COVID lockdowns hit hard in 2020, Ben pivoted to what he calls “the next chapter” and joined Google’s Growth team in Sydney, where he spent four years working with Australia’s fastest-growing brands. But even in such a high-performing environment, he noticed that marketing was becoming predictable, repetitive, and, worst of all, lacking in personality.
“Businesses were sick to death of safe, low-risk, microwaved marketing,” he says. More importantly, agency teams rarely understood the brands and individuals behind them. So in July 2024, when the itch for entrepreneurship struck again, Ben stepped away from Google. He launched Chicken Dinner with a clear mission to deliver marketing that connects, converts, and actually feels human.
At its core, Chicken Dinner solves an interesting contradiction that leaves many scratching their heads — how to be human in an increasingly automated world. “Automation isn’t here to replace human connection, it’s here to amplify it,” Ben explains. The agency flips the typical formula. Instead of expecting junior teams to churn out recycled campaigns, it uses AI and automation to eliminate repetitive, low-value work, freeing up its team of high-stakes marketers to focus on what matters. Personality, creativity, and a genuine understanding of each client’s business are at the heart of every campaign they deliver.
Ben speaks proudly of the team he’s assembled: a tight-knit crew of senior “10x marketers” hired for their creativity and character, not just their resumes. “Clients aren’t treated as numbers, they’re partners,” he says. “Every campaign starts with understanding their brand, who they are, who they serve, and where they want to go.”
That’s key in a world where AI-generated content is everywhere, which leaves many consumers feeling disconnected from the brand. Chicken Dinner faces this head-on by letting technology handle grunt work, while people focus on the spark. It’s a counterintuitive approach: using automation to make marketing more human.
Many agencies treat AI as an afterthought or a threat to their roles. Chicken Dinner does the opposite. By embedding AI and automation deeply into their workflow, from campaign optimization to internal administration, the team can spend more time with their clients, innovating and creating real impact.
As Chicken Dinner expands across Australia and into the U.S, their model continues to attract brands looking for partners, not providers. They’re not just offering services, they’re offering a new type of agency that is people-first, creativity-led, and AI-enabled. One where personality and automation work together: AI wears the apron, but people do the cooking.
