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Emotive Branding – KFC finds it’s Romantic Side

For Mother’s day 2017, KFC US released a romance novella called Tender Wings of Desire. Interestingly, Mother’s Day is KFC’s best-performing day of sales in the year (sometimes truth is stranger than fiction). The book features Harland Sanders as the story’s love interest and seeks…

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Political Incorrectness and Brand Differentiation

Can Political Incorrectness ever be a valid brand communication strategy? OK, so this may be skirting the boundaries of sensitivity and taste, but sometimes the most interesting strategies are found where others fear to tread. When it comes to political correctness, most clients want to…

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Orchard Thieves launches brand inspired reversible ad

A brand narrative that’s built around Orchard Thieves’ simple worldview that if you start bold, you’ll end bold. Heineken’s cider brand, Orchard Thieves keeps true to the brand’s mantra of ‘Be bold’ with it’s latest ad. The story follows a group of friends on their…

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Marketing with meaning: Creating brand connections

As a marketeer I have recently started to notice the increase in meaningful marketing and the extent to which brands are seeking to create meaningful experiences that consumers can connect with and move people emotionally. Thank goodness, a change has been in the air for…

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Budweiser’s Immigrant Campaign creates a storm in a pint glass

How should a brand react when a campaign gets this kind of backlash? Budweiser’s 2017 Superbowl commercial features the story of the beer company founder’s ambitious journey from Germany to America in pursuit of his dream: to brew the ‘King of Beers’. The story combines…

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Found in translation. A masterclass in global branding from Samsung

Samsung’s new ad in India is a masterclass in localization for global brands. As more brands look to the huge markets in China and India with a mix of enthusiasm and consternation, Samsung’s latest ad campaign created for the Indian market is hitting the mark.…

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Is your male marketing off pitch?

Linx brand connects with the 21st Century Man One of the most significant trends for any brand marketing to males under 30 is the blurring and fragmentation of what it means to be a man in the 21st Century. Long held stereotypes of muscular, masculine,…

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Dept of finance campaign bad for their brand and the entire government

Game Changers branded content perpetuates the perception that the government is out of touch with most Australians During the past few days, The Australian Government’s Department of Finance has managed to create their place in history with a stunning fail in government advertising. In an…

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Short film uses sauce to spread the love for marriage equality

‘The Big Deal’ shifts the conversation and ignites the brand message of #EqualLove A short film for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is quickly becoming a powerful campaign for marriage equality in Australia. During the weekend, ‘The Big Deal’ video and #EqualLove started to be…

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Big brand Marvel releases their 2017 Superhero NRL Jerseys!

  The NRL’s ongoing collaborative superhero campaign with comic brand Marvel continues with their new jerseys for 2017! Wether your a fanatic fan of Marvel AND/OR the NRL sport, you can’t deny it is a compelling campaign and shows the power of collaboration between two forceful brands…

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Samsung Galaxy S7 Campaign – When reassuring brand ads get it wrong

Unbelievable Brand Messaging. It’s a Sunday night at our place and the new Samsung ad comes-onto the TV, kicking off with the statement: “At Samsung, safety has always been our priority”. It’s not often an ad is met with the instant derision to the extent…

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Showcasing the 2017 Super Bowl ads

It’s Super Bowl time again folks and a perfect opportunity to sit back put your feet up and watch some of the most expensive advertising of 2017. We’ve put together an assortment of ads features in this years Super Bowl as always there is a…

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Mercedes team up with The Coen Bros to channel Easy Rider for this year’s Superbowl

No doubting that the Superbowl attracts the big boys with the biggest budgets. And they don’t come much bigger than Mercedes-Benz and The Coen Brothers. Like a match made in first class on the red-eye from New York to Tokyo, this luxury auto brand and…

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Yellow tail launches major US brand push with Super Bowl ad

Yellow Tail uses Aussie humour and cliches to promote their wine brand to Americans. Aussie wine brand Yellow Tail is making headlines as an outsider buying up big on the US Super Bowl. It’s also the first wine brand to air a Super Bowl ad…

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Volley roots for change and outplays them all

Grass Roots campaign clearly differentiates and revives the brand Iconic Australian footwear brand Volley’s ‘grassroots’ campaign is doing wonders for the brand. Until recently, Volley was perhaps one of those brands that you might have questioned whether it still existed. Not any more. Volley are…

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Digital to continue to take more share in 2017

Planning your budgets for 2017? Here’s what the experts are predicting in ad spend. Business Insider recently released a report that collated prediction findings from the big media houses for 2017. They found that Ad spend will increase in absolute terms, but year-on-year growth will…

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SCN’s new brand architecture favours national advertisers over local listeners

D-Day approaches as Southern Cross Austereo (SCN) rebrands regional radio as Triple M or Hit. Next week, most of SCNs regional stations will get a new name and identity to align with the company’s city stations. This is largely a corporate brand architecture approach to…

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If big brand Google was a guy

Everything you ask Google sounds a lot more stupid when you actually ask Google. A common phrase around the office is ….. “just google it!” This great little Youtube 5 part series brings to light some of the silliest & funniest google searches. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3  …

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H&M’s wonderful new Christmas ad shot by Wes Anderson

  Come Together – A Christmas Brand Gesture As the ‘content as entertainment’ train continues to gain momentum, Global retail brand H&M have teamed-up with film maker Wes Anderson to create a Christmas ad that is as quirkily cinematic as it is retail oriented. True…

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Man-Up; Creating a powerful brand campaign around this important issue

A powerful brand campaign to match an equally important issue. The ABC recently aired a brilliant three part series from radio personality Gus Worland. Man Up is an eye opening exploration of male suicide in Australia, it seeks to encourage conversation and awareness across the…

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Christmas ads 2016: The different approaches to brand storytelling

Can you believe it’s that crazy time of year again? Once again the big brands are fighting to stay top of mind and relevant. For retail brands, this is the key time of the year where they need to enhance their connection with their customers…

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Why I love being a brand manager at Truly Deeply

  Have you thought about switching to brand? For any account handler / client service person looking to scratch an itch in their career path, in particular those working in traditional advertising big agencies, I’d love to give some accounts of my perspective in my…

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Brilliant brand storytelling from Burberry takes branded content to a new level

For brands obsessed with branded content Burberry has just upped the ante significantly. English fashion brand Burberry has released a three-minute trailer for an epic but non-existent movie about the brand and it’s fabulous. Burberry takes brand storytelling to another level. The faux trailer promotes…

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100 years of brand differentiation – Audi stays ahead of the curve

“There’s no point in pushing forward if you’re always going the same way as everyone else”. This is a great line from a recent Audi ad which demonstrates the power of always putting yourself where your competitors aren’t and offering something different to your market. Audi…

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Air New Zealand stands out from the flock and gets Aussies talking

Air New Zealand uses a talking duck to reposition the brand. Air New Zealand and a talking duck has been all over Facebook in past few days. Judging on the amount of friends who shared the airline’s latest campaign, it’s off to a great start.…

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FU ’16 campaign brand secures media plan of the year

The branded campaign FU 2016 for season 4 of House of Cards has just taken out Adweek’s Grand Prize for media plan of the year in the USA. While the rest of the world struggles with the possibility of Donald Trump being the next president,…

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Mercedes Man – star brand extension or stinker?

Mercedes has followed a number of fashion brands and celebrities who have tried to leverage their status to create a brand fragrance. Their new range of fragrances are now available at Chemist Warehouse but is this good for the Mercedes brand? For many premium fashion…

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Woolworths free fruit for kids campaign builds on their differentiated brand proposition

Deliciously Good Brand Differentiation Australian Supermarket brand Woolworths have teamed up with celebrity endorser and fresh food campaigner; Jamie Oliver to introduce their latest in store brand initiative – fresh fruit. Launched in-store and driven by an above the line TVC campaign, Woolworths have come…

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Why branding’s the most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal

Tough to argue with this kinda science!!! Dave Ansett David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the…

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Consumer are smarter than you think (don’t try and trick the girls)

Reality Check for Marketers That awkward moment marketers realise they’re not fooling this feisty four year old with their marketing charms. From the mouths of babes… Dave Ansett David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands…

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Google Analytics looks at UX In Real Life

Are you distracting your customers and deterring them from buying what they really want on your site?     For the holiday season, the team at Google Analytics thought it would be helpful (and fun) to demonstrate how missteps on the digital shelf play out in real…

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Milk brands need genuine brand differentiation to survive

Time for Lion Group to step up. It’s milk brands, including PURA and Dairy Farmers are suffering from no real brand differentiation and now they are fighting a legal as well as marketing battle. For decades, full cream milk has been just been milk. The…

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Wearing mental health on your chest

A creative new range of creative T-Shirts have been developed to combat mental health.

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Food brands let you see what you get, sometimes.

  See what you get food packaging, once it’s not the amount sugar. The Australian Government has just launched a new food labelling initiative that highlights the food’s country of origin with a campaign declaring ‘See what you’re getting’. The new labelling must be rolled…

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The Cookie Monster & iPhone’s Siri team-up for a branded content masterclass

Online Branded Content – Layer Upon Layer Upon From the (not-so) new world of created content for brands comes the curated ‘out-take’ footage. When Apple co-opted the Cookie Monster to star alongside Siri in their online promo for the iPhone 6, they were looking to…

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Qantas disrupts the market by diversifying to health insurance

Yesterday Qantas Airlines have launched an addition to their diversified business portfolio, Qantas Assure, health insurance for Qantas Frequent Flyer Members. Their big budget ATL campaign features cool-as-f*ck Hollywood actor, Christopher Walken, so you can only imagine how much they’ve spent! This big move is significant for both the…

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Brands leading the way in positive portrayal of women

Is sexism in advertising diminishing? Getty Images released a statistic this week citing that search terms for “empowered women” has increased by over 700% in the last year, which is showing the seismic shift towards brands portraying women in a more positive, non discriminatory, non sexist…

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NDIS forces not-for-profit brands to market.

Not-for-profit providers pushed to market The National Disability Insurance Scheme, NDIS, was designed to support a better life for Australians with a significant and permanent disability, and also their families and carers. But the implementation of it, is having far reaching and costly implications for the not-for-profit…

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Jeep leverages Batman Vs Superman brand association in first ad release

If you’ve got a positive brand association, flaunt it! Brand placements in feature films is big business. Brand owners like auto maker FCA who own Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and FIAT brands in the US market clearly see a Hollywood blockbusters as an A grade engagement…

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Burger brand Carl’s Jr. has young hungry Aussie males in its sights

US burger brand disrupts the category with old school American attitude. Carl’s Jr. also known as Hardee’s, is the latest burger brand to hit the Australian shores. It’s bold, irreverent and unapologetic and it is focused on young hungry Aussie blokes.

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How does a new breed Home Building brand do TV?

Brand engagement remains critical for challenger brands. We love when one of our brands takes flight. The task for any brand that seeks to challenge their market is how to stand apart when engaging through mainstream media. TVCs for example are a high cost/high risk/high…

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#MyCalvins campaign takes over the internet

Calvin Klein has launched its latest Spring 2016 collection with another viral social media campaign. This time there was no need for large scale advertisements; but simply the profile of some big name celebrities and the hashtag #MyCalvins to capture the worlds attention. This digital…

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Sauce brand plays with fire to grow brand

Hot sauce brand Sriracha has made the remarkable move of licensing it’s brand to internet startup Sriracha2Go. While licensing food brands and production isn’t anything new (think beer brands) this seems like a risky move for a growing and thriving brand. 

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New Tourism Australia Ad – A Smart & Stunning Piece of Place Branding

Creating an ad to capture the spirit of a place is one hell of a task. Only slightly easier than creating the overarching place brand. Having worked on more than a few place branding projects, I fully comprehend the challenge of competing attributes and stakeholders.…

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Brand patriotism: Lamb is back in the spotlight with controversial Australia Day ad

This Australia Day Meat and Livestock Australia has outdone themselves in their ‘Operation Boomerang’ campaign, with some help from their biggest critics. While many brands have tried to milk national pride and celebration for brand benefit, it’s hard to go past the dedication of Meat…

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Is it love? Or is it Memorex? The Rise and Fall of a Tech Company Who Touched Many

Memorex is a consumer electronics brand that was best known for it’s recordable media for DVD and CD drives, and who can forget those classic cassette tapes! The story of this brand began in 1961 in Silicon Valley and by the early 80’s they were a…

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20 of the best Ads on Wheels

Ode to the creative truck/bus/taxi ad As a branding agency we spend most of our lives living, breathing and dreaming of ways to communicate brands in ways that have relevance and value to the lives of our client’s consumers. As the world changes, we surf…

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