We’re a global strategic consultancy dedicated to challengers.
Challengers are the ones who upend categories. Use brains instead of budgets. Move faster, think quicker, do more. Are bolder, braver and get unreasonable results.
But the benefits of challenger aren’t just for maverick brands and bootstrapped start-ups. Challenger is a mindset. It’s a way of thinking, working, being and doing.
We know the Challenger Mindset better than anyone in the world. We study it, write books about it, and create tools and frameworks to help you apply it.
We believe that the Challenger Mindset supercharges brands, businesses and teams, and we exist to help you to harness its power.
How we can help
We work with client teams to apply a Challenger Mindset to strategic briefs in areas of Business Strategy, Marketing Activation, Innovation and Internal Culture.
We’re proud to have worked with clients across the world in nearly every category, including packaged goods, financial services, luxury, B2B, entertainment, tech, pharmaceuticals and hospitality. Through collaborative projects we help companies such as LVMH, Coca-Cola, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson, UKTV and Organic Valley to embrace a Challenger Mindset.
While every client and project is different, our approach is designed to help your team to…
Re-energise your businesses
Refresh what your brand stands for, and bring it to life with a challenger brand positioning.
Change direction and plot your course
Rethink your strategic plan, and understand the steps it will take to get there.
Fire up bigger growth
Reach new audiences and super-charge marketing plans.
Generate fresher ideas
Help your team to break with their usual approaches to create ideas that stand out.
Walk the talk
Inspire your people to think and act differently, with the tools and mindset to get them where they need to go.
Make it matter
Define the business ambition and necessary values to galvanise your people.
Meet the team
Founder and Partner
Adam is interested in helping good people rise through difficult problems and learn how to harness the unstable magic of collective will.
He’s mostly easygoing but hates everything about the word ‘meh’ and believes the unironic use of the phrase ‘no problem’ should be a fireable offence.
See full bio here.
Adam Morgan
Strategy Director
Anne Marie was first introduced to eatbigfish as a client, having started her career as a strategic marketer leading businesses across several FMCG companies. She thrives on helping clients of all shapes and sizes unlock new avenues to growth through applying a challenger mindset.
When not talking challenger, Anne Marie can be found chasing their pandemic puppy around the streets of Toronto or texting pictures of said dog to her kids off studying at uni, having seen this is the most promising way to get an instant reply.
Anne Marie Armstrong
Project Co-ordinator
London
Aida Paye
Strategy Director
Ben helps our clients apply a challenger mindset to their brand and beyond. He has a soft spot for working with food and drinks brands but for him, there is nothing tastier than a brief to work with a large established brand looking to make the leap into the world of challenger.
He is adding new Ps to the marketing mix in his free time – namely pickling and painting. To varying degrees of success.
Benjamin Cooper
Strategist
Ellie graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Product Design and brings a creative approach to her thinking. She joined eatbigfish in 2019 as a Strategist and supports clients to deliver culturally relevant and inspiring challenger work.
Outside of work, you can find her learning to DJ, having a boogie, or scrolling through TikTok learning recipes she’ll probably never make.
Ellie Simmons
Strategy Director
Emily studied Philosophy and Psychology at Oxford University and has an MSc from University College London. She has spent over ten years working with brands and the people behind them. Her favourite part of the role is witnessing a team fall back in love with their brand (and their jobs) again.
When she’s not filling in post-it notes, she can be found walking her own feisty underdog Noodle the Schnoodle.
Emily Horswell
Team Coordinator
Emily’s friendly and outgoing attitude brings joy to the team on a daily basis, and her excellent organisational skills keep everyone working collaboratively and at their best.
Emily ran the London Marathon in 2021, raising money for the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, a charity very close to her and her family. She also spent some time working at a horse and cattle ranch in Arizona in 2018.
Emily Watson
Operations Director
Helen works across all areas of the company, connecting our operations, research and strategy teams. As well as being well-versed in all things challenger, creative and production, she has recently completed a masters degree in cultural studies, so spends a lot of time thinking contemporary consumer culture, and our place within it.
If she isn’t writing a to-do list, you will find her walking through a muddy forest or eating crisps in the pub with her dog Stephen.
Helen Redstone
Partner (EMEA)
Hugh has over twenty years of experience as a partner at eatbigfish. Something of an old dog, he knows his way around challenger thinking and strategy but is still keen to learn new tricks. Hugh is sometimes cast as ‘bad cop’ but that’s because what clients need is sometimes more important than what they want.
He wishes he was Harvey Specter but is more like Bill Bailey.
Hugh Derrick
Strategist
Based in Austin, Jenna is a strategist who believes strategic thinking has the power to help the right brands end up in the right hands and does the buyer just as much good as the business.
She loves the New York Times Crossword but can’t make it past Thursday’s. When she’s not being humbled by a word game, you can find her walking her dog Ollie around Lady Bird Lake, on a yoga mat or eating Nutella.
Jenna Dougherty
Project Coordinator
Joining eatbigfish in 2021, Kate has quickly become an invaluable member of the team as project coordinator. Kate is responsible for organising logistics and ensuring our workshops run smoothly.
A fan of Romanian techno, dancing and the hula hoop, Kate’s dream is to buy a camper van and travel across Europe.
Kate Costello
Strategist
Kirstin supports clients both big and small to bring a challenger mindset to their businesses.
She is an avid (yet mediocre) knitter and obsessed with creating the perfect wood-fired pizza.
Kirstin Piening
Strategist
Based in Austin, TX, Liston helps clients make brands useful for the whole of companies — not just inspiration for communications, but a lens through which broader business problems are solved and opportunities seized.
Outside of eatbigfish, you’ll generally find Liston in a record or bookstore or supporting a handful of consistently mediocre sports teams.
Liston Pitman
Finance Controller
Working alongside our Finance Director, Lucky manages the UK team’s expenses and invoicing. She has boundless amounts of infectious energy and positivity, and is always the last one standing at any office party.
Lucky Begum
Partner (North America)
Mark has helped Audi break the “Rule of Three” in luxury cars, Sony PlayStation win the console wars, and Charles Schwab become the leading US investing brand. He’s also warmed up a crowd for Ellen DeGeneres.
He’s been at eatbigfish from the beginning and thinks he’s seen and done it all. He’s desperate to find clients who’ll prove him wrong.
See full bio here.
Mark Barden
Project Coordinator
Meg supports our strategy team out of Austin to ensure our North America projects run smoothly and brilliantly.
She has a Blue Heeler, who has ‘the world's best smile’ and we have to agree.
Meg Phippin
Strategy Director
After eight years at eatbigfish London, Nick can now be found in Santa Monica as he sets up a new expansion of the challenger brand experts in Southern California. Joining eatbigfish from the world of advertising in 2010, Nick has worked with clients on five continents and in international waters.
His passion for challenger brands lies in the fact that they can’t afford to be mediocre, something that can’t be said of many market leaders out there.
Nick Geoghegan
Finance Director
Peter is a qualified chartered accountant and has looked after the numbers at eatbigfish since 2013. Before he joined the company, Peter specialised in finance in the music industry, working at various music businesses, including the famous London nightclub Ministry of Sound.
In his spare time, Peter’s obsession with music continues as he regularly DJs on some of London’s biggest underground radio stations.
Peter Fauchon
Office Manager
Having joined eatbigfish over 10 years ago, Rosie has had various roles across the company from Project Coordination to EA. Now the Office Manager she is responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly at our London office. She also organises our fabulous company parties and events.
Outside of the office Rosie can be found in SW London walking her Dalmatian and chasing after her toddler who is usually running off in the opposite direction.
Rosie Dean
Researcher
Ruth carries out much of our research into the challenger brands we write about in our publications, including our books and The Challenger Project. She supports our strategy and content teams to help keep up to date with the latest facts and data on the challengers we are profiling, interviewing and using as case studies. She is also an ardent proofreader for eatbigfish output.
Outside of work, she’s very keen on jazz, history of art, the Rambert School of Dance and…cats.
Ruth Morgan
Commercial Manager (North America)
Sam started working with eatbigfish in a finance role but moved across the pond and has since transitioned to commercial manager. She provides invaluable support to the North America team, managing scheduling, finance and logistics.
Samantha Johns
Strategy Director
Susie joined eatbigfish in 2021 from the world of media planning with an eclectic mix of experience working with brands from pies and chips to banking and luxury retail. She loves nothing more than a good problem to solve, and especially loves working with brands that are somewhat overlooked.
Outside of work she is often found pretending to be a chef, or more likely leaving it to the experts and doing her bit to get London’s restaurant industry back on its feet.
Susie Milburn
Executive Assistant
As EA to Partners Adam and Hugh, Tamika manages their jam-packed schedules and client commitments with a firm hand and a friendly smile. A graduate of Surface Design and Printed Textiles at the University of Northampton, outside of work she loves to design, print and draw - creating her own range of t-shirts for friends and family.
Tamika Nwokolo-Gentles
Strategist
Having studied Psychology at Edinburgh, Tara has always been interested in what makes people tick. She began her career as a planner in advertising where she quickly realised she enjoyed solving the juicier strategic issues for clients. This led her to joining the consultancy world and eatbigfish in 2022.
Outside of work she enjoys being active (she is learning to surf…somewhat slowly) or seeing where her TikTok algorithm takes her.
Tara Henderson
Commercial Partner
Teresa is the lynchpin of the business and all of our operations. She makes sure we’re profitable, on time, in the right place, and have everything we need to do good work.
She lives in between London and Brighton, and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the most fabulous places to eat in both cities.
Teresa Murphy
Strategy Director
Originally a creative, Toby joined the strategy team at eatbigfish nearly ten years ago. Whether it’s digging deeper into a category he’s already familiar with or one he’s never previously given a moment’s thought to, Toby is fascinated by helping teams reignite their sense of ambition and passion for their brand.
In his spare time, Toby is working on an argument for why team bios should be ordered by surname and welcomes suggestions.
Toby Brown
Strategy Director
With a ICF Accredited Diploma in Body-Oriented Coaching Zoe specialises in perception and change. With experience both client and consultancy side she is focussed on embedding a challenger mindset at the heart of an organisation, she helps businesses navigate the change they need to transform. Half Cypriot, half Australian you will find her preparing vast amounts of Levantine cuisine or in the Sussex sea where she swims all year round.
Zoe Zambakides
Associates
Associate
David Blyth is an experienced marketing strategy practitioner with over 25 years global
and continent-wide experience in leading Brand, Insight, Marketing, People, Research
and Technology projects for blue- chip companies.
David and his team represent eatbigfish in Africa, leading our Challenger business across the continent.
David Blyth
Associate
As employee #3 at eatbigfish Olivia spent twelve years facilitating workshops with a
diverse range of clients to develop their brand identity and five-year strategic plans.
Now operating as an associate Strategy and Creative Director Olivia specialises in Challenger brand strategy and design for start-ups and scale-ups.
Olivia Knight
Associate
Tony is an expert in innovation, brand strategy and consumer insight with over 25
years of industry experience.
As an associate of eatbigfish, he works with the
principles of A Beautiful Constraint, equipping teams with the practical tools to put
the theories into practice.
Tony Franco