These Brands Have Their Online Presence Down Pat, Lil’ Cult Followings And All

brands online presence

It’s not enough to simply have a good product – you need to know how to market it effectively in order to cut through all the noise. And while I don’t have a degree in Marketing (Communications, thank you), I consume enough content to know what stands out, and what doesn’t. Just like you.


Ahead, I pay tribute to businesses that are going above and beyond the stock-standard product offering – ones that have created communities, identifiable brand DNA and, perhaps most importantly, conversation.

Spell & The Gypsy Collective

Spell & The Gypsy Collective, owned by Byron Bay-based sisters Isabella Pennefather and Elizabeth Abegg, have fostered a community that everyone wants to be a part of. It doesn’t hurt that their following includes (but is by no means limited to) the likes of Alessandra Ambrosio, Elsa Pataky, Jessica Alba, Chrissy Teigen, Candice Swanepoel, Kate Hudson and Miley Cyrus, of course, but the way the brand goes about its marketing is admirable.

Sure, their product offering is free-spirited, nomadic and festival-relevant, but they also have a collaborative approach to social media and personalise / localise their brand through their accessible founders’ story. Add to that a recognisable brand DNA consistent throughout consumer communications and website aesthetic and you’ve got yourself one very marketable mix. It’s all in the detail.

Who wouldn’t want to wear a brand, whereby when you walk past someone else wearing it, you exchange the knowing nod? Love that.

Hello Social

If anyone’s going to know marketing and know it well, it’s a social media agency. Really, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Sydney-based business, founded by Max Doyle, found a way to make marketing memes a thing at all, let alone cool. That, my friends, is brand personality having a real moment.

Working in media myself, I was drawn to these memes, and you can bet your ass that I tagged colleagues, past and present, in the posts. Yes, there’s content out there that has widespread relatability, but you can’t deny the magic of niche relatability. It’s like having an inside joke. Everyone wants to be part of those.

That includes businesses looking for brand personality and voice, which means Hello Social are marketing themselves in exactly the right way, and to exactly the right crowd. Smart crew over there.

F45

If you look up “cult” in the dictionary, you’ll find the F45 movement as an example of it. Obviously a lie, but this could very well happen in the future. Webster’s and Oxford are updating that shit all the time.

Obviously F45 wasn’t a revolutionary idea in the sense that CrossFit already existed when it entered the scene, but I refuse to hear that it wasn’t revolutionary marketing. What CrossFit lacked in brand personality and audience, F45 jumped on and increased it tenfold through social amplification and consumer accountability. (Yes, that ungodly weekly price tag is actually genius in the language of customer satisfaction and retention.)

The term CrossFit was aligned with a cult mentality, competitiveness and strength (which was sometimes deemed undesirable), whereby F45 created some kind of exclusive inclusivity (it’s a thing) with people making exercising until you’re unwell some kind of cool-kid badge of honour. The community element doesn’t hurt, including but not limited to club-specific newsletters. Localising a worldwide phenomenon? Magic.

Besides, I think when a brand takes over some of Kings Cross‘ most iconic nightlife spots, they’ve gotta be doing something right.

These above businesses absolutely make marketing look easy, even though it most definitely is not. That being said, it can be an easier feat with platforms like Mailchimp. What? You thought I was gunna say Instagram? It takes so much more than that, my friends.

On top of what you know and love them for (eDMs), you can use Mailchimp for insights and data that’ll help you understand your audience better – that way you can shift, and perfect, your marketing approach.

You can also flex your design skills to match your brand personality, create ads true to your DNA and push out announcements your audience cares about via multiple platforms.

Because having an idea? That’s easy. But getting that into the hands of millions through a well thought out approach? That’s the real accomplishment.

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