Independent Australian editorial · est. 2019
The archive
Every long-form piece on the desk, from city scenes to retainers. Start with a hub if you would rather read in sequence.
Filed under Working together
Missing baselines, borrowed credit and numbers that cannot be reproduced are the tells. Here is how Australian marketers interrogate a case study without pretending to have been in the room.
5 August 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under Working together
First-party lists, pixels and ad accounts are now a legal and operational problem, not a tracking footnote. Here is what Australian marketers should make agencies do — and stop doing — after the 2024 reforms.
22 July 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under Working together
Panels, tenders and security questionnaires are the product. A beautiful capability deck is not a submission. Here is how Australian public and enterprise buyers — and the shops that want their work — should behave.
8 July 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under Working together
The useful clauses are dull — IP, termination, media liability, a change process that can survive a steering group. An SLA that promises “excellence” is decoration.
24 June 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under Creative and social
A creator specialist is not a social retainer with better first names. Disclosure, contracts and fit are the job — and AANA and Ad Standards will treat the post as advertising.
17 June 2026
Also filed in Creative and social
Filed under Working together
Ending a retainer is an operational job — notice, data, money, manners — not a vibe. Here is when to leave, and how to leave without losing the work or the plot.
10 June 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under SEM agencies
A bonus on incremental profit can be a clean deal. A guaranteed return on ad spend is usually a story about attribution, not a promise the market can keep.
3 June 2026
Also filed in SEM agencies
Filed under SEM agencies
iOS limits, thinner cookies and first-party data have changed how Australian agencies buy and report media. GA4, Consent Mode and clean rooms, without the fog.
20 May 2026
Also filed in SEM agencies
Filed under Creative and social
Australian B2B and B2C teams keep asking whether to hire a content agency or build the desk themselves. The answer is a staffing and taste problem, not a channel one.
13 May 2026
Also filed in Creative and social
Filed under SEO agencies
Google Business Profiles, NAP consistency, reviews and store pages — the unglamorous work that decides whether a suburb search finds your shop or the one down the road.
6 May 2026
Also filed in SEO agencies
Filed under Working together
Onboarding is not a workshop with sticky notes. It is access, a measurement truce, a first ship date and the moment you find out who actually sits on the account.
29 April 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under City scenes
Adelaide and regional Australia are mid-market on purpose. Defence, wine and education shape the South Australian brief; distance shapes the rest. The advantage is senior time. The pitch should be small, written and priced.
22 April 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under Choosing an agency
Full-service is a sales category, not a capability. The useful choice is whether you need one throat to choke or a roster you can actually manage.
14 April 2026
Also filed in Choosing an agency
Filed under Creative and social
A content calendar is not a social practice. Community, paid social, creator work and after-hours risk are different jobs. Buy the ones you need.
8 April 2026
Also filed in Creative and social
Filed under City scenes
Tasmania is a small pond with a sharp visitor economy and produce brands that sell far beyond the island. A local shop knows the texture. A mainland retainer knows the tooling. The brief should say which problem you actually have.
2 April 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under Choosing an agency
A proposal is a sales document wearing a strategy costume. Read the team, the GST, the lock-in and the measurement claims before you fall for the insights slide.
26 March 2026
Also filed in Choosing an agency
Filed under SEO agencies
Hours, content, technical work, digital PR and a monthly PDF. Here is how those line items usually stack in Australia, and which invoices are mostly theatre.
18 March 2026
Also filed in SEO agencies
Filed under City scenes
Perth marketing still moves with the resources cycle, even when the brand is not a miner. FIFO audiences, a three-hour summer gap with the east, and the choice between a local shop and a fly-in team are the facts a brief should face.
11 March 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under Creative and social
Australian pitches still split the room into mood films and dashboards. The work does not. Here is how to brief one shop — or two — without buying a civil war.
8 March 2026
Also filed in Creative and social
Filed under Choosing an agency
A forty-page RFP usually earns a junior and a recycled deck. A short, honest brief — budget, FY timing, constraints and the decision you need — gets the people you actually want.
4 March 2026
Also filed in Choosing an agency
Filed under SEM agencies
Account structure, brand versus non-brand, in-house versus agency, and why a media commission is not the same thing as a management fee.
25 February 2026
Also filed in SEM agencies
Filed under City scenes
South-East Queensland is a real mid-market: tourism, construction, health, education and state government. The ‘Sydney quality without Sydney overhead’ line is sometimes true. It is a staffing claim, not a postcode discount.
18 February 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under Working together
Australian shops will sell you a monthly, a fixed fee or a kicker tied to a number. Each model trains different behaviour. Choose the training, not the adjective.
12 February 2026
Also filed in Working together
Filed under Choosing an agency
Most Australian marketers survive a pitch rather than choose a shop. Here is a due-diligence process that privileges the work, the commercial model, and who will actually sit on the account.
10 February 2026
Also filed in Choosing an agency
Filed under SEO agencies
A buyer's method for reading an SEO pitch — ignore vanity traffic, treat page-one guarantees as a warning, and ask who is actually building the links.
4 February 2026
Also filed in SEO agencies
Filed under City scenes
Sydney charges more because the client mix and the rent say so. Financial services, national brand work and a Surry Hills–Pyrmont–North Sydney map still shape the scene. National capability is a claim that should be unpacked.
28 January 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under City scenes
Melbourne’s agency scene is a culture map, not a ranking. Holding-group floors, laneway creative and Collingwood performance shops sell different manners. The brief should name the decision, not the postcode.
21 January 2026
Also filed in City scenes
Filed under Working together
Desk ranges for retainers, projects and media in the Australian market — GST included in the conversation, and what a “from $3,000 a month” tile is hiding.
15 January 2026
Also filed in Working together