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When it comes to branding – the approval process is a critical component. I was reading recently about a project to rebrand New York City’s privately owned public spaces (or POPS). The rebrand is being run by The New York City Department of City Planning,…

Measuring the positive impact of rebranding. One of the challenges for many businesses looking to rebrand is establishing hard metrics to measure impact and return on investment. We always like our clients to come to a branding project with clarity on what these metrics may…

Creating Positive Emotional Place Branding. There’s a reason why we think of place branding it is often the Northern European countries we think of as leaders in this space… it’s because they continually invest time, energy and an open mind in their place making brand…

In branding, doing is more important than saying. How do you build a unique and valued dimension to your brand proposition, one that connects your values with those of your core audience? You walk the talk, demonstrating your beliefs through remarkable brand gestures. It’s not…

The web is ablaze with ‘social commentary’ on Tiffany’s ‘Everyday Object Collection’. At first sight the US$1500 Tiffany 18k gold paperclip is a brilliant example of the power of brand. After-all, anyone can head down to the local stationery store and pick-up a regular gold…

For as long as I’ve been working in branding, I can’t remember a target audience our clients felt they knew as little about as Gen Z. To be fair, part of this confusion comes from a lack of clarity around the age bracket Gen Z…

Branding in the Virtual Experience Economy In the hullabaloo of last week’s Super Bowl you may have missed the news that DJ Marshmello played a gig to an audience of 10 million. Yep, not a typo. In a first (of many?) an estimated 10 million…

Few brand purchase decisions we make are as strong a reflection of how we see ourselves as consumers and how we wish the world to see us as  choice of the car we drive. Even those who claim to not care what brand of car…

An engaging way to deliver the service experience your customers want, when they want it. Understanding when to provide service to the contemporary consumer and when to leave them to shop under their own steam is a challenge for retailers. Bug them with unwanted offers…

Born out of the Entrepreneurial Masters Program Truly Deeply Founder; David Ansett undertook at MIT in Boston, we’ve developed our own agile approach to branding. Today’s business environment demands organisations across every category be more responsive; to changing technology, category disruption and fast changing customer…

Did retail set itself-up for disruption? In Australia we’ve heard alot of talk over recent years of how tough life is for retail brands. There’s no doubt the category is under pressure as competition increases and consumer behavior and expectations shift. In a recent interview,…

Are banking brands finally getting ahead of the consumer curve? Reading an article this week about Chase Bank in the US, I noted for the second time in a week a services brand seeking to be “the apple genius bar” for their category. Not surprisingly,…

Don’t throw the marketing baby out with the bathwater. This recent ad for Tiffany & Co. reminded me of the power of media placement. As the brand world continues to evolve and become more complex, it’s useful to keep in mind that some of the…

Westfield acts to level the playing field in this increasingly Amazon dominated marketplace. The world of retail has been shaken by the emergence of Amazon as the world’s leading platform like no other development in my 25 years of branding. If retailers aren’t kept awake…

The world of retail has changed. Online shopping, online product and brand comparison, and the new shopping habits of consumers have significantly changed the retail landscape. Retailers, shopping strips and shopping centres have had to get agile in evolving the way they connect with and…

KFC Creates a Halloween Costume of their Iconic Colonel Sanders. Over the last two decades, fast food retail brand KFC have invested in an increasingly focused manner on bringing their founder Colonel Harland Sanders into the branding spotlight. They have reprised his image and locked-it…

Experiential Marketing for Brands There’s as much mystery around experiential marketing for brands as there is interest and curiosity. Whether you’re planning a pop-up or a mobile brand taste, experiential can be a very effective way to engage consumers with your brand.  How much will…

The Greatest Barrier to Creativity. I recently read a great short article on Creative Review where three of the UK’s creative pioneers were asked their view on the greatest barriers to producing creative work. The article interviewed Caroline Pay, Joint Chief Creative Officer of Grey…

The new cannabis category takes a professional approach to packaging design Harmony Extracts is a cannabis concentrate company that uses state-of-the-art extraction technologies to transform marijuana plants into high-quality, potent concentrates. A new company based in Denver, Colorado, which is one of the nearly 30…

The Big Changes in Branding. In my time working in the design and branding industry (some 25 years) the internet has been the single greatest thing we’ve seen. At the start of my career Apple launched their first Mac computer, the first step in a…

Friday Funny – Signs with a sense of humour. The business of business is enough to make most people lose their sense of humour, but there are some wonderful souls who keep their smiles-up through the rough and tumble, and when that humour is allowed…

Head of Salmat eCommerce, Ben Popplestone recently attended the Magento Imagine 2017 event in Las Vegas which brought together 2500 eCommerce experts from 45 countries to discuss the latest in online retail.  A hot topic at the event was the expansion of Amazon into new…

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…

Unhealthy is the New Healthy We spend a fair amount of time talking to and working with hospitality businesses from start-ups to chains who are all looking to nail the perfect customer proposition. Owning a small chain of three pasta bars myself, I’m all too…

Feel like staying home this weekend? curling-up on the couch under a cozy rug in your PJs with candles burning, a glass of red from Vino Mofo, dinner from UberEats and a movie on Netflix?  Turns-out you’re not alone, but part of the global consumer…

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…

Data is the new black – an interesting thought for the week. For the 20th century, oil was the most lucrative industry in the world spawning billionaires, creating wealthy nations from sand, and keeping antitrust regulators on their game. After fleetingly handing the mantle over…

With Amazon’s launch into the Australian market around the corner, the picture of what that means for Australian consumers and retailers is becoming clearer. For Australian consumers, Amazon is likely to wind-up offering everything from fresh and non perishable groceries, beauty products, wine, clothing and…

Simple Personal Branding is great for Brand Building Recently I bumped-into a friend of mine; Graeme Goldman at a business event. Graeme is one of Australia’s brilliant entrepreneurs quietly going about growing impressive businesses and brands. His retail watch business, 8th Avenue Watch Co is…

We live in disruptive times for brands and business. You might have missed the news coming out of the US on Monday this week that saw the share value of Elon Musk’s Tesla brand continue to rise strongly. If there’s been a noteworthy trend in…

Sooma is all about simplifying the mattress buying process, designing the perfect mattress and caring for the planet. The Challenge. Our client is a manufacturer of high quality foam. They wanted to sell mattresses direct to the public but they couldn’t use their B2B brand.…

Has artificial intelligence come of age? Tech firm Vinclu has created the ultimate companion for a new generation of overworked Japanese. Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she’s the AI persona at the heart of Gatebox, a $2,500 product that acts as a home assistant…

The gold medal for the longest running strong economy goes to… On April 1st Australia is to to achieve a truly remarkable milestone, and one that most of us will be floored to discover. Australia will likely be able to lay claim to the title…

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.…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

Welcome home Vegemite – Back where you belong. With Australia Day around the corner, the recent announcement that publicly listed (and Australian owned) Bega Cheese is set to purchase Vegemite and a hand-full of other Kraft brands in a $460 million deal made my day.…

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.…

Setting the colour trend for 2017 Annually global colour standard; Pantone release their trend prediction for the colour of the year, a color that reflects the current cultural climate. The colour of the year is a symbolic color selection; a color snapshot of what we…

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…

Micro Influencers can build your brand for less than you think. When most brand owners, managers and marketers think of social media influencers, they picture top shelf celebrities with millions of followers charging $100,000 per mention. And whilst these mega-stars are leveraging their huge followings…

  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…

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…

  Meaningful branding builds deeper customer loyalty An unwritten law of commerce is that we do business with those we like. This applies equally to B2B sales as it does to B2C where it’s often about how much we like the brand rather than the…

It’s been a little while since we showcased our latest brand identity work. We’ve been pretty busy over the last couple of years working on brands for clients across a whole range of categories from education to property, food to festivals, and health to technology.…

There’s more to branding than meets the eye Recently a small, independent supermarket opened at our local shopping strip. I was immediately drawn to the name and brand identity which are  naively unethical and amusing in equal measures. It turns out this is the fifth…

New Tech Driving New Brand Trends Technology in general, and AI (artificial intelligence) in particular has been on the ‘new tech’ radar for years and the subject of Hollywood movies for longer still. But few who are not working in the tech space have grasped…

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…

Apple’s ‘Made in China’ Brand Messaging Maybe I’m a little late to the party, but on the weekend I notices for the first time the small print on the back of my iPhone 6 which says: ‘Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China’. I…