Sydney. August 17, 2026: Independent full-service media agency Bench Media has launched a new research and audience intelligence offering, Bench Lens, as it expands its strategic capabilities in response to a growing challenge for marketers: having more data than ever, but not necessarily greater clarity about where to invest.
The launch forms part of a broader evolution of Bench Media, which has also unveiled a refreshed brand identity following a period of client growth, senior appointments and expansion beyond its programmatic and digital origins.
Bench Lens has been developed to help brand marketers turn fragmented customer, category and market information into clearer strategic and media decisions.
The new offering combines tailored primary research through custom consumer panels with syndicated audience data, search and market-demand intelligence, competitive advertising analysis and proprietary cross-channel analytics. These inputs are interpreted through Bench Media’s strategy and media expertise to identify what matters and how it should shape the client’s next decision.
Rather than fitting clients into a fixed research package, Bench Lens is scoped around the commercial question they need to answer. Its applications include consumer profiling, market and competitor analysis, concept and creative testing, brand awareness and perception studies, and pre- and post-campaign research.
Bench Media co-founder and CEO Ori Gold said the increasing volume of marketing data had not necessarily made decision-making easier for marketers.
“Marketers have access to an extraordinary amount of data, but more data doesn’t automatically mean better decisions,” Gold said.
“In many cases, the challenge has shifted from finding information to working out which information matters. There are more platforms, dashboards, audience signals and measurement tools competing for attention, while marketers are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that their investment is driving growth.
“We want to help marketers understand what the evidence is telling them and, importantly, what they should do differently as a result. Bench Lens is designed to do just that.”
Bench Lens can operate as a standalone research engagement or feed directly into Bench Media’s strategy, planning and measurement work. For suitable projects, results can begin populating a live dashboard within 48 hours of responses starting to come in.
Strategy Lead Andrea Samuel will oversee the development and delivery of the new offering, working across Bench’s planning, media and technology teams.
“Research is only valuable if it changes what you do next,” Samuel said.
“We’ve built Bench Lens to go beyond presenting findings. We interpret what the research means for the brand, the audience and the media strategy, giving marketing teams a practical path forward.”
The launch coincides with a refreshed Bench Media brand, reflecting the agency’s evolution from its programmatic and digital roots into a senior-led, full-service media agency spanning strategy, research, integrated planning and buying, measurement and technology.
Its new positioning, “Turning possibility into breakthrough”, is intended to capture that broader remit and Bench’s focus on identifying growth opportunities for clients and translating them into measurable outcomes.
Gold said the rebrand was prompted by the agency’s existing identity no longer reflecting the business it had become.
“Bench has changed considerably over the past few years. Our brand was still telling the story of where we came from rather than where the business is today,” he said.
“This is much more than putting a new identity around the same agency. We’ve been deliberately building deeper strategic, research and measurement capability because the problems clients are asking us to solve are becoming more complex.”
The investment follows recent client wins including Hisense, Prospa and Bikes Online, alongside the senior appointments of Jess Torstensson as Client Growth Director and Andrea Samuel as Strategy Lead.
Bench Lens will sit alongside the agency’s proprietary Bench Connect analytics platform, connecting upfront research and audience intelligence with media strategy, execution and measurement.
Gold said the developments represented the next phase of Bench Media’s growth.
“The opportunity for independent agencies isn’t to replicate the holding company model on a smaller scale. It’s to be more agile about bringing together the right expertise, technology and intelligence around the problems clients need solved,” he said.
“That is the direction we’re taking Bench,” he concluded.
