Emotive boss Simon Joyce bought agency from ARN Media for one dollar, accounts reveal
Joyce: A dollar well spent
Emotive founder Simon Joyce and his chief operating officer Ben Keep picked up the agency for just one dollar when ARN Media sold it to them last May, newly released accounts reveal.
According to ARN Media’s disclosures for 2025, Joyce and Keep — who founded the agency a decade ago — will pay a further $1.5m depending on the agency’s performance.
The accounts show that in 2024, Emotive had revenue of $10.8m and delivered a profit before tax of $72,000. The 2025 accounts only covered the first five months that ARN was still a shareholder, and showed the agency ran at a loss for that period, although that is not uncommon during the slow trading months at the start of the year.
In June 2025, founding client Optus announced that it was switching its media and creative away from Emotive, M+C Saatchi and UM, and into Accenture Song.
At the time of the sale, Joyce paid tribute to now former ARN boss Ciaran Davis for backing the idea. He wrote: “Just over ten years ago, I pitched Ciaran Davis and ARN Media to take a stake in a creative agency, Emotive, which at the time was nothing more than a business plan wrapped in big belief. It was non-synergistic, high-risk, and almost unheard of…a media company investing in a creative agency. But they backed me and our vision to operate independently from day one. Starting a business is always nerve-racking, especially with three young kids and no Plan B. But Ciaran and the Emotive board gave us the runway to build something special. They never tried to shape us into something we weren’t.”
The Emotive team pictured last year
ARN Media has since focused on audio. The last remaining asset outside of that space is outdoor advertising business Cody. New ARN Media CEO Michael Stephenson told today’s analysts call that he has been making trips to Hong Kong as part of the sale process.
Joyce was unable to comment on Emotive’s buyout, but when asked about how Emotive is currently performing he told Mumbrella: “Business is fantastic. We’ve got the best team we’ve ever had, the quality of our work has found a new level , and we’ve had 12 new client wins.”
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