‘2025 is the year we reprioritise’ ⁠– Jonathan Dalli, Founder & CEO, Concept Stadium

Established in 2010 by Jonathan Dalli and Jonathan Chetcuti, Concept Stadium has grown into a fully-fledged Creative Agency and Marketing Advisory Hub in 15 years of business. In 2025, however, the business returns to its roots, with its CEO pledging a bespoke advisory service which will forge long-term partnerships with startups, scaleups and multinationals. This is the key take-home point of the Agency’s Re-Branding.

Concept Stadium is about to come full circle, according to Jonathan Dalli, the co-founder of the marketing agency established in 2010. “Our four main pillars – brand, web, digital, and communications – will remain at the heart of what we do. But this year, we want to return to where it all started, keeping our spate of services as a fully-fledged agency while offering our clients the tailored partnership of a boutique and bespoke creative agency and marketing advisory hub.”

The goal, he continues, is to continue injecting creativity into the process. “2025 is the year we reprioritise. There’s a misconception that businesses such as ours are simply execution specialists. But we’re storytellers, and products or services are sold through the power of storytelling. This is what drives us, and we want to be there with our clients from the very beginning of their journeys, to help them optimise revenue.”

Like many narrative arts, there’s a lot of the personal imbued in the operations and culture at Concept Stadium, with the bespoke elements of the business’ offering attributable to Jonathan’s hands-on approach with clients and staff. “I keep in touch regularly with our clients and stakeholders, and I ask team members to join me at activations, meetings or events we’re responsible for. It’s not only about empowering them but also about giving back, a form of mentoring and, I’ll admit, it’s a bit selfish too. I don’t want to be one of those CEOs locked in their office working on ‘strategy’. That was never my idea of fun. I want to be out there, speaking to people and understanding their needs,” Jonathan asserts.

To this end, the CEO’s approach is one of constant development. “The team at Concept Stadium has learnt a lot over the years, particularly last year when we attended the Dublin Tech Summit 2024, London Tech Week 2024, GITEX Global 2024 in Dubai, and Web Summit 2024 in Lisbon. Over the next few months, we’re keen to capitalise on that. We plan to do so by becoming more agile, through scrumming and by targeting startups, scaleups and multinationals to establish ourselves as a marketing advisory hub of choice, while staying aligned with the creative agency business offering.”

The assistance the creative agency and marketing advisory hub can offer could be invaluable from a company’s early stages, he asserts. “When we spoke to potential clients in Dublin and London, and explained our offering, they didn’t initially grasp the potential firepower at their disposal. However, when we outlined how we could build a profile for their business to prepare for their next seed funding round, they sat up and listened. This is how we differentiate ourselves from others in this space: We listen to our clients and offer something targeted. We don’t provide off-the-shelf solutions. We also don’t sell at all costs; we sell what our clients need.”

Moreover, in targeting multinationals, Jonathan is keen to leverage Malta’s market conditions as a test case for clients seeking to expand. “We want to grow with our partners, so we encourage them to use the island to test a product launch, for example. If it succeeds here, we can leverage what we’ve learnt to expand their markets or product offering elsewhere.”

The goal, he reiterates, is to provide targeted solutions – to be “less ‘rate card’ and more nimble” in bringing added value to the table. “For instance, we organise brand immersion sessions, where we sit down with our clients and give them the time they need. We don’t just issue proposals; I need to think about how we can truly add value for this client.”

This marriage of creativity and commerce is central to Concept Stadium’s philosophy, Jonathan continues, adding that from the company’s earliest days, he and his late business partner and co-founder, Jonathan Chetcuti, referred to themselves as “commercial creatives”. This dialogue allows the company to “bring an artistic perspective to brand, web, digital, and communications without forgetting the commercial angle. If we forgot the latter, we’d be like a painter whose work hangs in a hotel lobby but who struggles to monetise. So, a question we’re constantly asking ourselves is: How can we enhance our clients’ customer experience? This remains at the core of everything we do – our service, our client interactions, our idea generation, and even our working environment.”

Concept Stadium has recently instituted a feedback process, whereby their offering is anonymously assessed by clients, helping the firm  streamline and refine its processes and services. “We take metrics seriously, so we ask our partners to score us. Many marketeers suffer from the ‘echo chamber effect’, but we ask ourselves: What has been the tangible outcome of our campaigns and communications for our clients and their portfolios? We’re not an agency that simply moves on after a quick win, but we maintain a constant, open dialogue with our stakeholders.”

Looking ahead, Jonathan is keen to consolidate the lessons learnt over the years. “Our staff complement has grown – when I come to the office, it’s a packed space, and this is an incredible milestone. The company is on the right path, but we’re constantly learning and evolving. If you learn something, whether through experience or education, the worst thing you can do is park that knowledge.”

With this in mind, the company will continue to expand. “Last year, our focus was on putting Concept Stadium on a global platform without, of course, losing sight of our roots and our ‘people first’ philosophy. This was central to our trips to Dublin, London, Lisbon, and Dubai last year. We also restructured the management team to create a solid framework and establish operational excellence,” Jonathan says.

Jonathan is keen to establish a lasting legacy, driven in part by the loss of his business partner in 2020, who sadly passed away at the age of 41. “When we first set up The Concept Stadium, Jonathan Chetcuti and I called it ‘your marketing partner’, and today, we aim to continue Jon’s legacy through our work, as well as through other projects that integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles into our vision,” the co-founder explains, referencing the completion of the Jonathan Chetcuti Programme, which sponsored sailor Richard Schultheis in his sporting career. On a personal level and representing the programme, Jonathan completed the Camino de Santiago twice, first with the goal of raising funds for a school in Ethiopia, and the second time, raising €16,000 for Hospice Malta’s new St Michael’s centre.

After the first camino, Jonathan recalls travelling to Ethiopia to inaugurate recreational grounds in a school in Jimma Bonga. “The experience was deeply enriching, and the people we met greeted us with warm, big smiles, keen to share their aspirations,” Jonathan says. On the last day, a young boy approached him. “We talked about football, and then he asked for a selfie. We looked up, but the boy took off his flip-flop to use instead of a phone. That, for me, was a moment of realisation – how much we take for granted, and the universality of aspirations,” he concludes.    

This article is part of the serialisation of 50 interviews featured in Malta CEOs 2025 – the sister brand to MaltaCEOs.mt and an annual high-end publication bringing together some of the country’s most influential business leaders