Australian journal · Est. 2004
Branding Agency
A journal of Australian brand strategy, identity and practice
Long-form essays for people who have to live with a brand after the launch deck.
Topic hub
How organisations choose a partner, write a brief that produces a usable first round, run a retainer after launch, and measure brand without pretending they have a global tracker budget.
6 essays in this hub. See the full archive.
Practice/22 April 2026
Most mid-market Australian brands do not have a continuous tracker, a brand-equity model or a research manager. They have a finance pack, a few complaints and a board that still asks whether the logo is working. You can still measure. You just have to stop pretending you are Unilever.
Elise Tan · 5 min read · Read the essay
Practice/25 March 2026
The launch deck is not a brand. What happens next — a manager with authority, a portal nobody opens, a retainer that buys meetings — decides whether the identity survives contact with procurement and the shop floor. Governance is half the work. Knowing when to fire the agency is the rest.
Marcus Hale · 9 min read · Read the essay
Practice/4 February 2026
Mid-market Australian organisations keep buying the wrong partner because the choice is framed as prestige. A freelancer, a studio and a network can each be the right answer. The question is who can finish the work you actually have, in the rooms you actually run, without a capability slide.
Elise Tan · 10 min read · Read the essay
Practice/14 January 2026
Most Australian brand books are museums of a launch week. A usable guideline is a short set of permissions and refusals a busy person can apply without calling the agency. If it cannot produce a PowerPoint, a van and a tender cover, it is not a guideline. It is a souvenir.
Priya Nair · 5 min read · Read the essay
Practice/24 December 2025
Australian procurement still buys brand work as if it were stationery: a scored RFT, a free strategy annex and a panel that rewards cheap compliant theatre. The matrix looks fair. It selects the wrong partner. Here is what the process gets wrong — and what a buyer can change.
Marcus Hale · 9 min read · Read the essay
Practice/4 November 2025
A brief that asks an agency to 'bring the brand to life' is a request for theatre. The first round is usable when the organisation has already named the audience, the constraint, the proof and what done looks like. Write that page before you book the room.
Elise Tan · 10 min read · Read the essay