Reading · FutureBrand in Australia

A new ~~year~~ habit

When I started writing this newsletter in 2021, I committed to publishing it on the first of the month, every month, if only to make it a ‘habit’ – and to hold myself to it.

60 newsletters later, it’s clear that it has indeed become habitual.

While starting a new habit is easy, much harder is making it stick. And so, finding a trigger for any new habit is what can often make the pivotal difference.

Another, more recent habit of mine is to do sets of 9 reps at the gym. Which, to be honest, my kids think is a bit weird.

But it’s a weird idea that works because 9 reps reminds me of the reason (or purpose?!) for why I go to the gym. To strengthen my body in order to play better golf. So, 9 reps reminds me of 9 holes – if I could do 18 reps, trust me, I would! – and every lift encourages me to get the end of the 9 reps, however challenging that might be.

Habits is something we’re mindful of forming at FutureBrand too.

For example, ‘We regularly try, buy, use our clients’ brands, products and services’. That way, we get into the habit of always building both the understanding and the trust that comes with knowing and feeling how our clients’ brands are positioned and experienced in real terms, first-hand.

Or there’s this habit: ‘From day one, we work as one team’. Which ensures we always get into the habit of establishing a team ethos from the very start with clients and colleagues alike, and we kick-start every project as we mean to continue, together, in sync.

Both of which enable us to adopt another habit of ours: ‘We share work early and often’. This way, we can consult and collaborate sooner, encouraging others to build on ideas and identify barriers in ways that unlock the capacity for us to work both more purposefully and more productively.

Those are just some of our ‘habits’, each one extrapolated from a key moment in how we have mapped our client experience, and then embedded across our ways of working.

Naturally, they didn’t become habits over night, that happened over time…

So perhaps the most productive question at this time of year is not to ask what ‘new’ resolution you might create for the new year. But rather, what ‘renewed’ commitment you might make that can compound your impact if you keep doing it, consistently.

Happy new ~~year~~ habit ;)

Hit 'Reply'

Golden double

Before the curtain closed on 2025, a golden Sydney sunset set the stage for the latest edition of the Transform Awards.

Many of you will have me heard me say a version of this catchphrase on more than one occasion:

‘A change is business.
Therefore, a change in brand.’

…so it was a very proud moment for everyone involved to win both the Gold trophies for Best Brand Evolution, back to back – both Best Brand Evolution, Corporate for IAG and Best Brand Evolution, Consumer for Strike.

If there’s one core capability in our wheelhouse, that is it.

Building your brand as a symbol of change.

(Not simply a change of symbol.)

Because, in the words of one of the clients involved, “When strategy, creativity and collaboration line up, the impact lasts well beyond launch day.”

Building your inside advantage

If your own people don’t believe in your brand, what makes you think your customers will?

Consequently, much brand-building works from the inside out – a pivotal dynamic that we have explored with the help of a decade of data from the FutureBrand Index to produce this latest Employer Brand study.

In case it’s a useful refresher for the new year, here’s the deep-dive I shared on ‘How to build a brand worth working for’, featuring an op-ed published in The Australian.

After all, the brands with the strongest perceptions not only create businesses more customers choose to ‘buy from’, but also more employees choose to ‘work for’.

Golf has its own growth agenda

In the lead-up to the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, our work with Golf Australia and the PGA of Australia was featured in the aptly named ‘The Growth Agenda’ in The Australian.

In the words of CEO James Sutherland:

“Golf is on the rise. Never in its history has the game grown as much as it has in the last five years, nor has it changed as much as it has in the last five years.”

So it is that more than 4 million Australians played some form of golf last year, representing an increase of 5.2% that is indicative of the broadening appeal of golf and the success of the strategy to reposition the sport for the future.

…not to forget the 112,698 golf fans who set a new record for golf in Australia just a few days after this article was published.

Visit any golf club, driving range, indoor simulator or mini golf venue, and you’ll see the change happening before your very eyes. Because ‘all golf is golf’, and that’s a strategy that’s now becoming reality.

FutureBrand news, views & insights: February 2026

Comments