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About Fully Charged Media

A named expert, backed by a real team.

Fully Charged Media is led by Darren Craig, with 13 years building digital growth for tourism, ecommerce and ski rental businesses. The longest-serving Queenstown digital agency. A real person you actually deal with, backed by a team and trusted delivery partners.

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Illustration of Darren Craig of Fully Charged Media, a Queenstown digital marketing agency
Illustration of the thinking behind Fully Charged Media: measurement, analytics and honest strategy
Why we started

Good advice was too hard to find

Darren came to marketing from software engineering, after more than 20 years building serious systems online, banking among them. That background made one thing obvious: most businesses were being sold websites or digital marketing by people who did not really understand them.

Marketers who dabbled. Developers running Google Ads with no idea. Websites sold by graphic designers with no understanding of the performance, analytics or SEO behind them. Money going out the door every month with nobody checking whether it actually worked.

So we built Fully Charged Media to do it the way we would do it for our own business. Measure everything, own everything, and only ever recommend what we would genuinely do in your shoes. No exaggerated claims, no hiding behind reports you cannot read. Just the work, done properly.

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The name

Why "Fully Charged Media"?

Naming a business feels a bit like naming your first child. It is far harder than it has any right to be. We spent weeks chasing funky, trendy names, holding up just about every object in the room to see if we could hang a brand off it, hunting for that one clever, unique word. None of it stuck.

What stuck was a simple idea: every business is a media company now, whether it wants to be or not. You are all producing media every single day, print, digital, ads, content, the lot. And when we looked closely at how most businesses were showing up online, they were not fully charged. Their presence was half-baked, running at half power, and it was quietly costing them a fortune.

So Fully Charged Media is simply what we want every business we work with to be: switched on, running at full tilt, with everything done properly. That is the whole idea, in three words.

The "media" part has caused the odd bit of confusion. People sometimes assume we are the video guys, or the creative shop that charges a small fortune for something that looks lovely and does very little. We are not that. We are the ones who make your media actually work, and actually make you money.

While we are on labels: we are not mad on the word "agency" either. We use it because people understand it, but we would far rather you thought of us as your digital growth partners. We partner with our clients, we do not just work for them. We genuinely have their best interests at heart, and we have no interest in being treated as one more interchangeable service provider. It is also why we do not do RFPs. That is a race to compete on price, and price is the wrong thing to choose us on. Choose us on the work, and on what it delivers.

Trained by the best

Years of learning from the world's leading experts, overseas conferences and mastermind groups. Real, current depth, and still learning every week.

Done right the first time

We fix what the pretty-pitch shops break. Broken tracking, slow sites, weak technical work. It lowers your total cost of ownership.

Honest, always

Everything in your own account, full transparency, and we tell you what you need, not just what you want to hear. If your campaigns are struggling, you will know about it. If your results are great, we will still be checking them with you to make sure they feel right and the data matches.

Results without proximity

We deliver for clients we have never met, in places we have never visited. Do you want local, or do you want results?

Illustration of Darren Craig, founder of Fully Charged Media
Who you deal with

You work with the expert, not a junior

Fully Charged Media is led by Darren Craig. Over 20 years across technology and marketing, 13 of them building digital growth for tourism, ecommerce and ski rental businesses. Certified in Google Ads and Analytics, and still in the rooms where this is taught, at overseas conferences and mastermind groups, every year.

He is backed by a real team and trusted delivery partners, so the work gets done at pace, but the thinking and the accountability stay with the named expert. You always know who you are dealing with.

Based in Queenstown, working with clients across New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Europe and the USA. Around 70 countries travelled, and happiest on a mountain once the day's work is done.

  • Google Ads certified
  • Google Analytics certified
  • 13 years in digital growth
  • Queenstown based, working worldwide
The company we keep

Mentored by the best

Not team members, but people and groups we are proud to have learned from, and have met in person at events around the world.

We have been mentored by some of the genuine greats: Ryan Deiss of DigitalMarketer, Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula, and Mike Rhodes, who built AgencySavvy, the home of top-tier Google Ads professionals, and is now our AI mentor. We have also spent time on Meta marketing with the likes of Molly Pittman.

Training has never been something we skimp on. What Darren has spent on it, and on travelling to events, over the years would make plenty of bigger businesses wince. All of it finds its way back into our clients' accounts, one way or another.

On Mike in particular: Darren has been lucky enough to sit in a small room with him in San Diego and Lisbon, and fortunate enough to hike New Zealand's backcountry and mountain bike with him too.

Darren with Ryan Deiss in San Diego
With Ryan Deiss (DigitalMarketer), San Diego
Darren with Jeff Walker at a Launch Club event in Palm Springs
With Jeff Walker (Product Launch Formula), Palm Springs
Darren with Molly Pittman in San Diego
With Molly Pittman, San Diego
Darren mountain biking with Mike Rhodes in Wanaka, New Zealand
Mountain biking with Mike Rhodes, Wanaka
Facebook comment from Mike Rhodes reading: Trust Darren. He is smart
A kind word from Mike, on Facebook
Darren at a Google Partners event in Sydney
At a Google Partners event, Sydney
Darren on a panel at DigitalMarketer Down Under on the Gold Coast
On a panel at DigitalMarketer Down Under, Gold Coast

The work is delivered by a lean team working around the globe, not a Queenstown office. Meet the team →

FAQ

About us questions

Who will I actually be dealing with?

You are more than likely to be dealing with Darren, who founded Fully Charged Media and is backed by a real team and trusted delivery partners. Any digital marketing implementation is handled by an internal team. You always know who you are working with, and you are not handed off to a junior.

Are you a one-man band?

No. There is a real team and delivery capability behind the named expert. Big enough to deliver, small enough to care.

Do I have to be in Queenstown or New Zealand?

Not at all. We were established and based in Queenstown, New Zealand, and work with clients across New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Europe and the USA. At the time of this website going live we were working in the European time zone. We understand markets we are not sitting in, and the results show it.

What kind of clients do you work best with?

Owners who want a trusted partner and let the experts they hire do their best work. We are honest about fit, on both sides.

We work with people who want to invest in their digital growth and do not want the feeling of being burned by an agency. If you have had a website built for $100 by someone on Fiverr and now want us to fix it, get it visible and bulk it up on the back of those savings, we are probably not the best fit.

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Book a Growth Plan Session

We dig into your business, your data and your market, then tell you straight where the real growth is. A focused, paid session that is worth it whether or not we work together after.

We work best with owners who want a trusted partner and let the experts they hire do their best work.