Adam Sharon-Zipser.
Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Time in current role/time at the company:
I co-founded Elephant Room 12 years ago.
Over that time, we’ve grown into a 40+ person team partnering with Australia’s leading retail brands including Bed Threads, Ksubi, Assembly Label, Aje, Go-To and many others. More broadly, I’ve spent the past 15 years working closely with retail brands to build scalable online growth systems. The focus has stayed consistent. Strong foundations, commercial clarity and evolving with technology.
How would you describe what the company does?
Elephant Room is a growth partner for ecommerce brands.
We align paid media, retention, creative and analytics into one connected system with a clear line to revenue, margin and lifetime value. It’s less about managing channels and more about engineering sustainable growth.
Our role is to bring commercial clarity and technical capability together, so brands can expand sustainably rather than chase short-term spikes.
What do you do day to day?
A mix of strategy, systems and leadership.
I stay close to performance data and growth modelling, particularly where AI and automation can improve forecasting, creative testing and efficiency. I also work directly with clients on long-term strategy and with our team on capability development.
Define your job in one word:
Builder.
I got into the industry because:
I helped transition my family’s traditional bricks-and-mortar rag trade business into a pure direct-to-consumer online store.
That gave me exposure to the full operating model and technology systems, from purchasing and operations through to product, media, acquisition and retention. I saw firsthand how the right decisions across those levers could directly impact revenue and long-term brand value. I was very early on Google Shopping, and the business started while Meta Ads was just beginning in Australia. It provided me with a unique opportunity to scale these channels as an early advertiser and package this service into the agency model it is today.
With an engineering background, I was drawn to the intersection of retail, performance and technology. Building systems that scale felt far more interesting than just running campaigns.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Scaling capability without diluting quality.
As we grow and take on larger, more complex brands, the challenge is ensuring our thinking remains sharp and commercially grounded. That means investing in better systems, better data infrastructure and smarter use of AI so performance management can become more predictable and scalable powered by bright and amazing people but supported by easy-to-use systems with fast and accessible insights.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Short-termism disguised as growth.
Too many brands optimise for next month’s metrics instead of building durable infrastructure and ultimately, a brand that builds effective valence. Activity is often mistaken for progress.
We need stronger alignment between marketing performance and real business outcomes, alongside more structured use of AI to improve forecasting, fatigue, saturation, retention modelling and operational efficiency.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
My brother Roby is the biggest driver I know with the hardest work ethic. Watching him scale Hipages from two people in a garage to an ASX listing has given me a front row seat to what real persistence, scale and growth look like.
He has lived every stage of growth. The uncertainty, the setbacks, the pressure, the responsibility. What stands out most is not just the ambition, but the diligence. Always present, always available for his team, clients, partners and family above all.
He taught me that scaling a business is not about one big moment. It is about showing up every day, building strong systems, backing your people and thinking strategically about your long-term leverage.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Build then break something. Then fix it.
There is no substitute for operating experience. Work inside a brand, start a store or help someone scale. Find something that makes your delivery superpower uniquely you. Something that cannot easily be cloned, mimicked or prompted.
Get commercially fluent. Understand operating margins, cash flow cycles, and lifetime value. Understanding what incremental profit means for a business, build an engine to move every new $1 from your top line directly to your bottom line.
And embrace AI early. The operators who create leverage through technology will move faster than everyone else. It’s technology that is transforming the world; people did not buy horses the day the combustion engine was released to society.
If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I'd be:
Likely building a tech product. Staying close to my engineering roots, I remain deeply interested in AI-driven tools that produce value and remove inefficiencies from how teams work. Or playing tennis if I were more athletically gifted.
My philosophy is:
Over-communicate and always surprise and delight.
My favourite advert is:
Should’ve Gone to Specsavers airport out-of-home campaign.
It is simple, repeatable and built on a strong insight. One line that has scaled for years.
It’s a reminder that consistency and clarity outperform complexity. Especially when attention is low and noise is high.
Music and TV streaming habits: what do you subscribe to?
Spotify - usual mix of business podcasts (The Contrarians by Adam and Adir is a standout for me, I also love the Acquired podcast - in particular the Costco episode).
I tend to watch less and less linear TV. I gravitate towards streaming when I have the time, with all the usual suspects. I’ve always loved the sci-fi genre, a callout to Star Trek (Voyager in particular).
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I love to cook, especially for large groups. It's probably the only time I won’t reply on Slack.
In five years’ time, I'll be:
Still building.
Ideally, scaling Elephant Room into a stronger global growth partner, with deeper AI integration across acquisition, retention and measurement. The best people deliver the best value, augmented by systems and technology.
And hopefully protecting a bit more time for tennis.
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