Michelle Randall Sharnock and Kirsten Dugmore have founded Kirelley, a company centered around evidence-based marketing designed to drive brand growth.
In 2024, Michelle Randall Sharnock was the only South African named by World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) among a global cohort of “attention innovators reshaping the rules of advertising”.
WARC said Randall Sharnock’s work “highlights the transformative power of attention metrics in reshaping South Africa’s media industry”, adding that her advocacy has “sparked industry-wide conversations”, nudging the market away from low-CPM thinking towards attention-led investment.
A year on, Randall Sharnock and her sister, Kirsten Dugmore, have launched Kirelley – a business focused on building evidence-based marketing capability to power sustainable brand and business growth.
Industry response
“It’s been an interesting start to the year, put it that way,” she says. “The standout has been the industry’s response. Launching a new business is no small feat – there’s always a touch of imposter syndrome – but the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. A lot of what we’re hearing is: ‘it’s about bloody time’.”
While the sisters followed separate career paths, both built their foundations in media – as did their mother, Gill Randall, former CEO of Spark Media.
“There’s no denying the passion,” Randall Sharnock says. “We’ve spent years understanding – and, frankly, preaching – evidence-based marketing and the principles of brand growth. Now we get to bring that together and, hopefully, make a real difference.”
Global best practice, locally
A key focus for Kirelley is making global best practice accessible locally. While international leaders continue to advance research into effectiveness, cost remains a barrier for South African marketers.
“There are excellent courses globally,” she says, “but scaling that learning locally is a challenge.”
Kirelley’s answer is a 12-module programme spanning marketing disciplines, with a strong emphasis on creative effectiveness and attention.
“Attention is front and centre,” she notes. “Particularly in digital, we’ve lost our way when it comes to what drives memorable, impactful creative.”
The company has just received news from the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA) that it has secured CPD accreditation – a move Randall Sharnock believes is critical to elevating industry standards.
Agency interest has been strong.
Shared language
“There’s real appetite to align with global thinking and build a shared language between clients, media and creative partners,” she says. “That alignment is where you start to see meaningful progress.”
Crucially, she argues, this shift must be led from the top.
“Evidence-based marketing principles need to sit at executive level. Without that, it’s difficult to cascade the thinking effectively.”
Some brands are already enrolling cross-functional teams – clients and agencies together – to ensure consistency in approach.
Education remains a long-term play. Kirelley is working closely with the AAA School of Advertising to embed these principles at a foundational level, while also eyeing scale beyond South Africa.
By the end of 2026, the ambition is to launch an online platform to expand reach across the continent.
Scale across Africa
“The goal isn’t just South Africa,” she says. “We want to scale this across Africa.”
For Randall Sharnock, the broader challenge is cultural.
“As an industry, we tend to chase the new – often at the expense of the fundamentals. We get swept up in efficiency at the cost of effectiveness. But we need to be careful. We’ve never spent more on advertising, and we’ve never seen less effect.”
Last word to Mike Follett of Lumen:“The launch of Kirelley really excites me. As media becomes more cluttered and competitive, attention has become one of the most important, and often overlooked, drivers of effectiveness. Without attention, even the best media plans and creative ideas struggle to deliver impact.
“At Lumen, we see this clearly in the evidence every day. What I value about working with Michelle Randall and Kirst Dugmore is their commitment to practical, evidence-led education and their shared focus on bringing attention to the forefront of how media effectiveness is understood and applied. I’m excited to collaborate with them in helping build stronger marketing capability across South Africa and the continent.”
For an industry under pressure to prove its impact, that shift may be long overdue.
Michelle Randall Sharnock and Kirsten Dugmore founded Kirelley in 2025. Kirelley builds evidence-based marketing capability that drives sustainable brand and business growth.
