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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…

Would you launch a new newspaper brand today? Newsprint is dead, or so we keep hearing. So what do you do if your business is Newsprint? This is the kind of challenge lots of brands have. What do you do when your whole category is heading…

The embargo has been lifted, so what’s next for brands wanting to enter Cuba?  When the US embargo was first placed on Cuba in 1960 (a whopping 55 years ago), it was referred to as “the blockade”. The embargo restricted trade and exports to Cuba, except…

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.

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…

One Brand’s Loss in another Brand’s Gain The US Olympic Committee’s recent announcement that their athletes may choose to sit-out this year’s Games in Brazil if they have health concerns over the Zika virus may prove to be an ominous sign. Facing a whole host…

Uber has just announced a brand re-fresh to align with their current brand strategy and philosophy but more than that they have engaged their audience by communicating their brand story and the reason for change. On their website Uber said “We’ve always felt there was a cognitive…

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. 

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…

  (Brand) names have baggage When creating a new name or identity for something there’s always the challenge of seconding guessing due to current associations. But by knowing you’re following a plan, backing yourself and a little patience it can all work out. Names are an…

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…

  The Lexington Parking Authority in Kentucky, USA has launched a brilliant ‘Food for Fines’ program It’s not often the concept of a parking ticket and inspiring brand engagement appear in the same line of thought, but that’s exactly what this innovative thinking parking authority…

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…

A Branding Challenge for market Leaders Microsoft has launched the latest evolution of their brand mark at the opening of its new store in Boston. The task of keeping a brand’s visual language fresh and relevant to the market is critical (we recently wrote a…

Not all brand activities are born equal. This is a brand principle that Nike know better than most brands as the recent release of the ‘Nike sole’. The Nike sole has been developed to fit onto the ‘flex-run’ prosthetic running blade, designed for by Nike…

A High Class Brand Problem So what do you do when you’re the global market leader? When your brand and packaging is recognized in almost every corner of the world? When your product and brand already command a premium price? What on earth do you…

Welcome to the New Retail Era The world of retail is changing more rapidly than ever. On-line stores compete with off-line stores, fashion boutiques feature new ranges every month, and it seems almost everything can be made in China for next to nothing, creating undifferentiated…

All Brands Have Meaning Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the minds of the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to both differentiate themselves from their…

All Brands Have Meaning Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to both differentiate themselves from their competitors and to…

Building Your Brand’s Visual Properties When creating a corporate image for our clients brands, we focus on building unique brand properties that can be leveraged to become brand assets. A brand’s typeface is one of the visual properties we incorporate into the brand design process,…

The hidden code All brands project an image through the visual language of their brand identity. Customers and markets use the code contained within their visual language to make logical and emotional associations that drive their responses to trust, lust, aspire and desire the brand……

We recently sold our house through Marshall White, hiring an off-site self-storage unit in the process. We not only invested a reasonable sum in doing that, but also hours of weekend time carting our much loved (if little needed) household junk over to the storage…

Like all new frontiers, social media is a lawless place where anything goes, especially when it comes to brand. Everyone seems to have moved into these boom towns with a population of more than 12 million people projected for Twitterville alone this year. It’s a on-line,…

Beers aint beers Everything about the Coopers brand oozes authenticity. Coopers in South Australia is a family owned brewery with a long history of making fine ale (as opposed to making beer). Coopers is a brand with high beer cred for taste and quality. But…