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Banksy has popped up in the heart of London this week, unveiling two new murals close to the capital’s Barbican Centre. Banksy has described the murals as an “(unofficial) collaboration” with the upcoming centre’s exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist who started his career off as…

The days of the casserole dish wedding gift are done. Global wedding registry site Zola has partnered-up with Airbnb to offer Airbnb gift cards as part of their offering. The move makes perfect sense to me. The experience economy shows no sign of weakening with the…

We are in organisation mode again for our annual charity art exhibition, Art with Heart and are on the lookout for artists who would like to contribute to this year’s show. Art with Heart is an art exhibition held in our studio, where we raise…

With the steady increase in readily available free stock imagery, I often wonder about illustrators and how they are staying afloat in the growing pool of image libraries. Are illustrators being put on the back burner because stock imagery is so easily obtainable? Or is…

Of Show Business & Branding A good mate of mine sent me an email this morning with a link to the trailer of The Greatest Showman, the first feature film of her great friend Michael Gracey. She was proud as punch and so she should…

In a fast changing digital world, we often get asked if business cards are still a necessity for your brand. While some people may see them as old fashioned, you would be surprised at how many people still like to carry cards and how important…

  With the average person spending around 1842 hours at work per year we believe happiness and a healthy work culture are an imperative part of day to day operations. Happiness at work has become serious business these days with more and more workplaces wanting…

Inspiring audacious entrepreneurship for the next generation of business leaders Background The Wade Institute for Entrepreneurship is a new Institute that offers a Masters of Entrepreneurship course at Ormond College, Melbourne University, named after successful Australian entrepreneur, Peter Wade. ‘We are a smart nation but still too few…

So you want a website and you want it now. There are alot of easy ‘web page builders’ out there these days which allow you to create your website using the drag and drop method. That’s fine if you need to launch your site in…

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…

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared he will “bring the school funding wars to an end” in a stunning policy turnaround. Malcolm Turnbull’s surprise announcement that the Coalition have decided to adopt David Gonski’s needs-based funding model for schools at a press conference yesterday accompanied…

It would appear MasterChef Judge and restaurant king George Calumbaris has tarnished his personal brand when it was recently revealed nearly 200 staff at his restaurants have been underpaid $2.6 million. George Calombaris’ company underpaid 162 of the 430 current staff at his restaurants including…

I recently came across this pic in my Facebook feed; it’s of a label sown into garments produced by a small U.S. brand for sale in the French market. The translation from French says: Wash with warm water Use mild soap Dry flat Do not…

AFL Women’s League An Untapped Brand Sponsorship Treasure Chest. If  last Friday night’s opening game of the AFLW is any indication, the belief that there’s no interest in women’s sport is fading fast. Even the AFL themselves were not prepared for the crowds that came…

Social Media has already transformed consumer expectations of brands There’s no denying the way people discover and buy things online has dramatically changed and continues to do-so. Only ten years ago we were talking about how online and Google were changing the way people buy.…

Is the age of the Goliath brand over? Author Ben Zifkin’s book The Rise of the Craft Brand, set’s out a compelling case for why smaller, craft-focused brands are set to become a force in the changing world of commerce. The world of brands and…

Today’s post is an article written by Brandhook, good friends of ours and the sharpest brand research and insights agency around. As we all know, recently Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America, defying nearly every prediction and pre-poll. In the lead…

The power of sound in brand differentiation In the battle for customers, brands have long engaged the senses in order to create unique and identifiable properties  they can own in the minds of their customers. All brands strategically or otherwise set-out to own a concept…

Why lululemon is the new breed of brand A few years back I recall seeing a former Nike VP of women’s wear speak. She was asked what was the biggest change she’d seen in that category during her time at Nike. Her answer was the…

How much are consumers really noticing your brand? In 2004 Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons shared the Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology, awarded for ‘achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think’, for the experiment they completed at Harvard that inspired The…

Leveraging a brand image building opportunity When we worked with skin care clinic Duquessa to create a new ‘skin sanctuary’ brand we could tell they were destined for stardom. And recently they had a little extra time in the spotlight, making a guest appearance on…

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…

Department store giant David Jones unveils new Spring/Summer 2016 collections and new brand promise. Department store giant David Jones has launched their new Spring/Summer 2016 collections, along with a new brand promise ‘One Name: Endless Possibilities’. The new campaign was launched over the weekend, with…

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…

For all brands authenticity is one of the real hot buttons in their efforts to connect with consumers and build highly engaged relationships. Brands are telling their story at every opportunity, spruiking provenance, craftsmanship and history – regardless of whether they’re a start-up or a…

When was the lat time you heard a really good story… from a brand? It’s part of the way we’re wired that we relate to stories with a level of engagement and emotion that is simply not attainable for functional messaging. And whilst all brands…

Does virtual reality present the next big challenge for brands? Could life get any busier? We’re already bombarded by thousands of messages – brand/news/social every hour. Will the brave new world of hyper, virtual reality make our life simpler, or even more cluttered? The promise…

Australian business ‘Green and Clean’ sells bottled Australian air to China The Chinese markets growing demand for all things Australian continues to boom, from iron ore, to real estate, to baby formula and now Australian air. With China’s emerging middle class becoming increasingly worried about…

The Brand Strategy of Stand Out Personality In the world of retail and hospitality, so many businesses get caught-up in the operational whirlwind of attracting, serving and delivering product to their customers that they find it challenging to take a breath, step back and assert…

All brands have associations – both positive and negative 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 differentiated value proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning to…

A true surfing legend – a snap of myself with Kelly Slater at the 2016 Rip Curl Pro. I was lucky enough to meet Kelly Slater over the long weekend at the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, and it’s fair to say I am a pretty…

American Apparel returns to its roots in an attempt to revive the brand American Apparel, the Los Angeles based clothing manufacturer and retailer known for basic apparel and risqué marketing campaigns, has decided to bring sexy back, and propel it back to being at the…

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…

A brand bringing you eco-friendly cleaning products – and award winning packaging design. Ecostore are offering substitute products to those other harsh chemical household products we all see in our major retailers. We all know these cleaning products contain many nasties, but sometimes we don’t…

As we blow the remnants of Christmas cobwebs from our brains and prepare to launch into 2016, we thought we’d indulge in a last little taste of the festive season. With retailers around the world looking to squeeze every last drop of Christmas cheer from…

  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…

An Inspiring TED Talk on how Marketing can be a Powerful Tool for Change Colombia is a country of exceptional beauty and promise, and it’s also a country where the F.A.R.C. guerrilla movement has incited violence for 50 years. The human cost of the war…

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…