Three brand makers walk into a bar to talk consumer connection

Mr Yum’s Table Talk series of events continued with a presentation at Forrester's in Surry Hills with Archie Rose Distilling Co's Head of Marketing Victoria Tulloch, creative director and co-founder of Hawke’s Brewing Co Nathan Lennon and Gerald Torto from global design agency Re (M&C Saatchi). Facilitated by Mr Yum's Dan Stock, the three talked brand creation, connection and identity and Mr Yum shared its new look branding on the day.

Archie Rose

In creating Archie Rose, Tulloch explained that from day one, founder Will Edwards sought to form a legacy brand built upon authenticity and committed to innovation, education, quality and integrity.

She said that eight years on, Archie Rose is now at “an inflection point” as the business prepares to venture beyond Australia, transitioning from its life as a small – but successful - craft Australian brand to becoming one of Australia’s leading export brands.

She explained that intrinsic to the brand's success is the Archie Rose experience which is an essential part of the way the brand is understood by consumers. The distillery in Rosebery is kind of an Archie Rose shrine - where events happen, collaborations come to life and consumers interact directly with the brand to see what is being made, to taste it and to even craft their own.

This is an essential element of creating and brand, she said, that is "not just as product on the shelves but an immersive brand experience."

Hawke’s Brewing Co

The same can be said for Hawke’s Brewing Co which has now opened its own destination: the wildly successful Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre nestled inside the 2,100 sqm brewery in Sydney’s Marrickville.

Five years ago, Lennon and his business partner David Gibson convinced the former prime minister of Australia be the figurehead of a beer brand. Signed with a handshake and the promise that a royalty would go in perpetuity to Landcare Australia, Lennon and Gibson moved started brewing beer in 'Lennon’s Gran’s garage in Coogee' with the blessing of Bob Hawke and his family.

Seen by some – incorrectly - as a gimmick, the Hawke’s Leisure Centre has become an important part of the brand’s story. Lennon and Gibson have a real connection to Bob Hawke and all that he stood for politically and personally. They have never seen Hawke’s Brewing as anything but a legacy brand evolving from their genuine admiration for Hawke and all that he encompasses as an Australian icon.

The Marrickville venue brings an opportunity for consumers to experience Hawke’s Brewing Co as it lives and breathes, meticulously outfitted with nostalgic Hawke memorabilia. The next milestone for the brand will be establishing that same story in Melbourne and Queensland.

Mr Yum

For online ordering platform, Mr Yum is a brand experience.

Australian based co-founders Kim Teo, Adrian Osman, Kerry Osborn and Andrei Miulescu had quietly taken note of the announcement in 2017 that with the iOS 11 beta, the camera app on i-phones would be able to read QR Codes.

 “There’s going to be something in this,” they thought.

Set up and ready to go by the time the pandemic arrived, Mr Yum became a huge beneficiary of the ‘situation’ when not only did all online ordering shift to QR Codes, but every consumer on the planet became very quickly skilled at the QR check-in and check-out of here, there and everywhere. Even our grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers got smart in the practice of QR codes.

Mr Yum boomed. It banked $AUD100 million in two rounds of funding last year and is now an international business of more than 200 employees with its head office in Melbourne and operations in the UK, US and New Zealand. A spokesperson for Mr Yum described its people as being driven by “an energy and ambition to transform the way the hospitality industry operates".

When M&C Saatchi's design agency, Re arrived, the horse had well and truly bolted.

Project Manager Torto and his team were working retrospectively in some ways…asking what is Mr Yum now?

"We were trying to understand a story that was already written," he said.

He and his team had to get inside the brand and ask: how do consumers experience Mr Yum? And how do we capture the energy of Mr Yum and its people?

At its heart, Mr Yum is an intersection of technology, humans and food, said Torto.

He and his team had to answer the question: “How do we bring that to life? How do we accentuate that personality?”

The new Mr Yum branding is vibrant and poppish. It captures that energy. It is young, fresh, animated, eye-catching and dynamic.

Because, as he explained, “Brand design is an experience. Brands need to show up in different places. And businesses need to ask ‘Is our brand holding us back? Or is it propelling us forward?’”

He recommends brand managers ask this question of their branding every three to five years. And if it is not, that you give him a call.