2025 CB HOT LIST: Top 10 Small Shops ~ Bear Meets Eagle on Fire named CB Small Agency of the Year

For the third year in a row, indie hotshop Beat Meets Eagle On Fire has come out on top to win Campaign Brief’s Small Agency of the Year title. The agency enjoyed an impressive year of account wins, globally celebrated work and year-on-year growth.

It comes as no surprise Bear Meets Eagle On Fire enjoyed its biggest year to date in 2024. As well as hiring new collaborators and producing fun inhouse projects to keep creative energy high, the studio also won the highly coveted Bankwest creative account and launched a major new brand platform for Telstra, including hit campaigns ‘Better on a Better Network’ and ‘Together Is For Christmas’.

Commenting on the standout year, Bear Meets Eagle On Fire founder and chief creative officer, Micah Walker, told CB: “I think we had the opportunity to show what we can do at scale on a variety of projects. The accolades are lovely of course, but what really matters to all of us is the opportunity to make ambitious and distinctive work.”

On a mission to become Australia’s favourite digital bank, Bankwest appointed the studio to create a new brand platform and brand redesign at the end of last year.

Says Walker: “We’re really excited about Bankwest. They’re eager to do better things and have been great partners.”

BMEOF also continued to build on its previous year’s work with a new campaign for ROLLiN’ Insurance, keeping the team busy creating a new brand platform and vision.

The studio also developed a visual identity for +61 – the bespoke agency model created to put creative thinking back at the heart of Telstra’s business.

BMEOF prides itself on staffing, resourcing and operating differently to the tractional agency model. The agency keeps its number of permanent staff deliberately small, and scale bespoke project teams around this group, as project needs dictate.

Says Walker: “The goal was never to have a lot of people; it was to create an environment and culture where the only focus is making better work. The people who join Bear know that’s why they’re here and the clients who partner with us get to work directly with talented and motivated teams who care harder. I think it’s a much more rewarding and healthy dynamic, but it is different and likely not for everyone.”

The agency managed to pick up a host of shiny metal in 2024, including Shots Agency of the Year, LIA’s Regional Independent Agency of the Year and Campaign Brief Small Agency of the Year, along with a host of gold trophies as award shows including LIA, Ciclope, AWARD Awards and Shots.

Looking to the future Walker adds: “We have some great work in the pipeline for Telstra and Bankwest, so obviously that’s lovely to come back to after a bit of break. We also have some design projects and our own product, which I’m hoping to give more love to this year.”

The Work seen and noted in 2024:

Telstra – Together Is For Christmas
Telstra launched the next chapter of its new platform ‘Wherever we go’ via Bear Meets Eagle On Fire and +61, that focused on the real magic of Christmas – spending time with those most important to us. Directed by Steve Rogers through Revolver, the film tells the story of an accidental singing superstar – Little Donkey – who goes on a whirlwind journey across the world, before realising he misses his family at Christmas time. The integrated campaign also extended into retail through two trading campaigns for Black Friday and Christmas Sale – which focussed on elevating the in-store experience and making Telstra the gifting destination of choice this Christmas.

Telstra – Wherever We Go platform
Telstra launched its new brand platform “Wherever we go” with an integrated campaign via Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and +61 led by a whimsical animated film called ‘Duet’. ‘Duet’ featured two characters who journey together through a wondrous world in perfect harmony, as a metaphor for partnership. Brought to life by Oscar nominated animation duo, Smith and Foulkes, ‘Duet’ was set to a whistling composition of the iconic ‘Islands in the Stream’. In out-of-home, close to 3000 sites, including 40 special builds and painted wall murals, featured graphic illustrations by Ben Hassler that were painstakingly recreated in layers of paper with artist Kyle Bean and photographer Carl Kleiner.

Telstra – Four Bars OOH campaign
To reinforce its position as Australia’s best mobile network, Telstra launched a visually distinctive out-of-home campaign called ‘Four Bars’ via Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, +61 and OMD. The campaign was built around the graphic of four network bars. The campaign had over ten executions, some of which were designed to work as singles, while others were specifically designed to play off one another or as a series of consecutive placements.

Telstra – Better on a Better Network
Telstra launched ‘Better on a Better Network’ via Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, +61 and OMD Australia to demonstrate Telstra’s position as the largest and most reliable telecommunications provider. The campaign featured 26 stop-motion films, each of which focused on a specific location around Australia and the uniquely idiosyncratic characters who live there and benefit from better coverage. The result was an undeniably Australian series of spots built around the idea that everywhere is better on a better network. Cast from a wide variety of authentic Aussies from all over the country, the characters came to life as everything from father and son krills and blokey wattle flowers, to larping Tasmanian devils and teenage goth cockatoos. To bring this series to life, BMEOF and +61 partnered with award winning director Jeff Low at Revolver. Low brought on acclaimed animation director Tobias Fouracre, whose experience on Isle of Dogs and Fantastic Mr Fox made the duo perfectly suited to bring the unique production to life.

ROLLiN’ Insurance – Smooth
Since its launch in 2021, ROLLiN’ Insurance has been on a mission to shake up the traditionally square insurance category and cater to the lives and needs of a younger audience. By highlighting the brand’s smooth and easy quote process, the new campaign built on the freed-up feeling you get from insurance that lets you roll the way you do. The retro-psychedelic style builds on the ROLLiN’s irreverent and distinctive aesthetic – and showed a character who kept getting smoother and funkier until he turned into a car and rolled away.

DUMP TRUMP
Last year Bear Meets Eagle On Fire partnered with independent artists in the New York City area, on an anti-Trump design protest project. The result was a series of orange ‘DUMP TRUMP’ garbage bags emblazoned with the contentious political figure’s face. The swollen orange bags, strewn across the city streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn just days before the election, were a visceral metaphor for a candidate who had run one of the most divisive and contentious campaigns for President, in US history. In a sign of the ever-increasing political temperature in the US, Bear’s creative and production partners in the US — designers, printers, photographers and even the volunteers who helped place the bags across the city, asked to remain anonymous around their involvement in the project.