AnalogFolk Australia on how to brand build in a digital world

AnalogFolk Australia is a creative agency based in Sydney that builds brands for a digital world through ideas, content and experiences that are grounded in effectiveness. 

The agency recently became an independent and locally owned business, with CEO Matt Robinson and Chief Strategy Officer Ben Hourahine buying out parent company UK parent company AnalogFolk Group Marketing and Technology.

Ben says the agency doesn’t believe in separating out either traditional channels or digital marketing – they believe the best brand leaders must do both. 

AnalogFolk’s clients include TAL, Lark Whisky, Bayer, Curtin University, Proximo Spirits, Pet Circle and ROKT. Tracksuit is tracking five of the brands AnalogFolk currently works with.

“Some of our clients have called us a 'grown up start-up' because we have the experience and expertise of an award winning creative agency, mixed with the entrepreneurialism and agility of a start-up,” Chief Strategy Officer and Owner Ben Hourahine says. 

“We love that description. We want our clients to have the most innovative and most effective platforms they can, which is why we have our partnership with Tracksuit. In just over a year, we have bought 5 of our clients' brands onto the platform. It’s actually been a game changer for us and them, in a very short space of time.”

Using Tracksuit to track impact 💥

One of those clients that’s now on the Tracksuit app is Lark Distillery, a whisky distillery based in Tasmania. 

Lark Distillery’s Instagram bio states the brand is ‘Made of Tasmania’, and this key value prop shines through in their brand associations on their Tracksuit dashboard. Key words consumers associate with the brand include Tasmanian, Australian, quality and premium.

The business’s strong local presence in Tasmania is also reflected in its data, as since February, another 20,000 people have become aware of the brand (+14%) and another 18,000 people (+12%) are considering using the brand in the state.

So far in 2023, Lark Distillery has run some exciting marketing activity, including a beverage created in collaboration with craft beer brand Garage Project and an inclusive campaign showcasing its signature collection and spreading the word that whisky can be the drink of choice for everyone (including Mum on Mother’s Day). 

Going forward, Lark Distillery will be using the Tracksuit app to map the impact of its brand marketing activity with active consumers of whisky and other dark spirits across Australia. 

Ben says a lot of their clients are new-to-market or challenger brands, so Tracksuit’s data is their first experience of an accurate read of brand awareness in their market. 

For other businesses who are more established or have tried brand tracking before, he says the beauty of using Tracksuit is they now have access to monthly data instead of quarterly or yearly reporting through an annual dip. 

“This is also brilliant for us as their agency because we can track the impact of our work in real time, too,” Ben says. 

Digital marketing 🤝 brand building

Digital platforms like Google and Facebook has accelerated the amount of data available to businesses that can be used to optimize their marketing and advertising. 

However, this measurability tends to lead businesses to favor performance marketing over brand marketing, which historically has been less easy to measure. 

Ben says AnalogFolk Australia uses a data-driven framework called the Digital Brand Amplifier to ensure clients use both brand strength and digital technology to create the best possible outcomes for their business. 

“The ‘Digital Brand Amplifier’ is our comprehensive approach to brand marketing in the digital age. We kick the process off with a thought-leadership session and a deep brand audit. The bedrock of this though is tracking data as we go to market – the brand data feedback loop we get from Tracksuit is an absolutely critical component here,” he says. 

While we unfortunately can’t give away the Digital Brand Amplifier for free, we can give you access to Ben’s brain. 

Here’s his advice on how brands can grow their business in 2023 👇

1. Make sure you are 'data fit' for 2023 and use digital spaces more effectively to grow your brand.

"In a more challenging economic environment, every business has to be what I would call 'data fit.' Can you track your marketing return or not? If so, when, how often, and what metrics are measured? That's how to assess your fitness and ensure brand marketing is viewed as a growth investment and not just a cost."

2. Rethink where your brand can play in today's modern digital environments.

"With budgets under pressure, there are lots of opportunities to use digital channels to drive more effective brand growth in 2023, rather than relying on traditional channels for brand marketing alone. We have achieved award-winning results for our clients in this space and love collaborating with Tracksuit to calculate the brand impact." 

Find out more about AnalogFolk Australia and their work on their website.