revX · January 12, 2026

Multiplied x Badger Holdings: Turning Guesswork Into Growth

In an industry where marketers still rely heavily on instinct, Dylan Price stands firmly on the other side. As Tech Research Officer at Badger Holdings - and very much a marketer at heart - he argues that modern marketing has one non-negotiable: your data must speak back to your platforms. Without that feedback loop, everything else is just guesswork.

That wasn’t how his career started. Like most marketers, Dylan built personas based on assumptions and gut feel. But over the past decade, the evolution of digital infrastructure, especially around CAPIs and CRM integration, reshaped everything. When your conversions flow directly back into Meta or Google, the platforms stop guessing and start learning and your results shift from unpredictable to intentional.

One of his strongest lessons came from discovering that the audience he thought he was targeting wasn’t the audience actually converting. Instead of leaning on stereotypes or assumed customer profiles, Dylan learned to let the data tell its own story. When the right feedback loops were in place, patterns emerged that no persona workshop could have predicted. Clean data sharpened targeting, improved efficiency and consistently brought acquisition costs down, proving that instinct can’t compete with evidence.

This analytical lens extends to how he evaluates channels. When asked which platforms he’d scrap forever, Dylan didn’t choose based on preference. Instead, he describes himself as “anti-waste.” Google Display, once pitched as a cheap lead engine, often delivered high impressions with low commercial value. LinkedIn Ads, despite beautiful targeting options, rarely justified their cost per lead, especially in B2B environments. His rule is simple: if a channel can’t prove its economic contribution, it shouldn’t earn your budget.

Some of Dylan’s biggest wins began as small experiments. During COVID, when in-person events disappeared overnight, his team tried a new approach: running niche online webinars. The first session attracted far more attendees than expected, and what started as a workaround quickly became a high-performing engine - eventually drawing over a thousand people to a single tax update webinar. That early test proved how quickly digital moments can scale when they solve a real need.

Not every success translated perfectly across markets, though. A CRM model that performed brilliantly in Australia and New Zealand fell flat in South Africa. Email engagement looked completely different locally. The shift to WhatsApp - immediate, mobile and behaviourally aligned - unlocked the performance the team had expected from email. It highlighted an important principle: global “best practice” only works when the local context agrees.

One of Dylan’s toughest lessons had nothing to do with data or channels. Early on, he assumed that scaling the marketing team would naturally increase output. It didn’t. It created complexity, slowed execution and added operational pressure. The real breakthrough came when they went leaner, automated more, and removed unnecessary layers. Suddenly, budgets opened up, delivery sped up and the team had clarity again. For Dylan, effective marketing isn’t about having more people, it’s about having the right structure and the right tools.

Despite all the technological evolution, Dylan says there’s one part of his journey he’d repeat exactly the same way: the way he builds team culture. Psychological safety and empowerment, he believes, outperform any tactic or tool. A team that feels safe enough to challenge ideas, take risks and experiment without fear will always outperform a team that’s afraid to fail. Systems change. Algorithms change. But a strong culture multiplies everything it touches.

Throughout our conversation, one theme kept resurfacing: the marketers who win today aren’t the ones with the flashiest creative or the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who experiment early, localise intelligently, automate deliberately and trust the truth their data reveals.

In Dylan’s world, marketing isn’t about guessing anymore. It’s about creating the conditions where the answers speak for themselves.