Spinach

Dull advertising doesn’t just bore your audience, it costs money. Our ECD Dom Megna uncovers a gem of a report and digs into the numbers to make the strongest financial case yet for more interesting ads.

Dull advertising isn't just boring your audience, it's costing you money | Spinach Advertising Dull advertising. We know it, see it and have possibly been guilty of it. And there’s a million excuses why it ended up that way that aren’t your fault.

Nine paid $305 million for the Olympics. Was it worth it? Find out as Ben Willee, General Manager and Media Director at Spinach talks to Sean Aylmer on the Fear & Greed Podcast about the Olympics broadcasts and the overall state of the ad market.

Fear and Greed podcast, Nine paid $305 million for the Olympics. Was it worth it? | Spinach Advertising Broadcaster Nine spent $305 million buying the rights to the five Olympics, from Paris through to Brisbane. In terms of gold medals, Paris has been our most

Low brand awareness? Little true differentiation? There is a fix. Nicole Miranda, Spinach Director of Client Services, asserts that creative distinctiveness is the way brands can stand out.

Lessons in standing out from Trader Joe’s, Migros, Bonobos | Spinach Advertising A long-held marketing principle is that brand differentiation is fundamental to success.

We’re excited to be rebranding Coles Express to Reddy Express. Check out the new work.

Coles Express rebrands, unveils launch campaign via Spinach | Spinach Advertising Coles Express has transitioned its branding to Reddy Express, with a launch campaign from Melbourne-based creative agency Spinach.

Ben Willee, GM and media director of fully integrated agency Spinach, has a unique insight into why the upcoming privacy changes call for closer collaboration between media and creative.

What do privacy changes mean for the relationship between media and creative? | Spinach Advertising The government’s proposed changes to the Australian Privacy Act coupled with the departure of cookies mean big changes are ahead. But these aren’t just issues

Whether we’re experiencing an advertising recession or not, Ben Willee, Spinach GM and Media Director, reveals what advertisers should do when things get tough.

Are we in an advertising recession? | Spinach Advertising Are we in an advertising recession? SMI data says no but are we splitting hairs? Ben Willee asks the question and mulls the implications.

Is staff autonomy just as effective as a rewards program in keeping your best customers? Our latest piece on Inside Retail would suggest so. Read more from our ECD Dom Megna.

Lessons in loyalty from a company with no customers | Spinach Advertising After working in ad agencies across retail clients for more than 20 years I moved to a startup. It was a fascinating place – innovative and very well-run.

Coles is targeting both budget-conscious and more affluent customers looking for value, Craig Flanders, CEO of Spinach believes it makes perfect sense.

Why Coles is doubling down on home brands at both ends of the price spectrum | Spinach Advertising While the ongoing inquiries into supermarket pricing have been generating plenty of headlines in recent weeks, they barely came up during Coles’ Q3 earnings

With moves to curb fast fashion, and retailers pivoting towards circular models, Nicole Miranda, Spinach Director of Client Services, believes the future of fashion is looking decidedly sustainable.

As France weighs fast-fashion ban, is the circular economy the future of retail? | Spinach Advertising This week, France announced legislation to “limit the excesses of ultra-fast fashion”. Key measures include a ban on advertising for cheap textiles and an

Spinach has joined forces with Teer to optimise communications and planning with media partners. Ben Willee, Spinach Media Director, calls it a game changer.

Spinach partners with campaign management platform TEER | Spinach Advertising Integrated Melbourne agency Spinach has joined forces with Australian start-up TEER, a campaign management platform designed to assist media agencies in

Consumer confidence just got a boost, Craig Flanders, CEO of Spinach, believes all areas of the marketing mix need to be replanned to recognise this renewed optimism.

Consumer confidence just got a boost. How can you capitalise on it? | Spinach Advertising The Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold is set to have a ripple effect throughout the economy.

Will a lack of transparency over price spikes come back to bite the two supermarket chains? Craig Flanders, Spinach CEO believes they only have themselves to blame.

Is this the end of Australia’s supermarket duopoly? | Spinach Advertising The allegations of price-gouging during a cost-of-living crisis by Australian supermarkets Coles and Woolworths could finally be the death knell of the

2023, will it be remembered as the year people went ap***it for AI way too soon? Find out what else Dom Megna, our Executive Creative Director, believes stood out this year.

https://spinach.com.au/news/perspective-the-year-of-birth-death-and-ap***it/

Spinach – Perspective - The year of Birth, Death and Ap***it 2023. We all walked out of a long dust storm back into the office a few days a week. Great to see common sense prevail with flexible WFH arrangements. The relentless push to do more with less meant the people doing more for less ended up doing more for more for someone else. Many were […]

Was 2023 the year we started to respect other people’s time? Read why Nicole Miranda, our Director of Client Services, believes so and is energised by the opportunities we’ll have to create differently, together.

https://spinach.com.au/news/perspective-the-year-we-started-to-respect-peoples-time/

Spinach – Perspective - The year we started to respect people’s time Time has flown even faster this year than last, but on reflection, it also feels like the year of slowing down to speed up. In times of uncertainty, it appears we’ve found a way to protect ourselves and regain some of the control we lost over the pandemic. We’ve all read the gazillion opinion pi...

Our new brand campaign for Homebuyers Centre helps first home buyers identify when they’re first home ready. See what’s getting everyone excited.

https://spinach.com.au/news/homebuyers-centre-ready-when-you-are-brand-campaign/

Spinach – Homebuyers Centre ‘ready when you are’ brand campaign Targeting young first homebuyers who may not realise they are ready to enter the property market. Integrated agency Spinach has created an all-new contemporary brand platform for Homebuyers Centre targeting young first homebuyers who may not realise they are ready to enter the property market. Homeb...

Since we launched our new campaign for Black Swan Dips, people across Australia have been diving in. If you haven’t seen it check it out.

https://spinach.com.au/news/spinach-refreshes-black-swan-dip-brand-with-new-creative-swan-dive-in/

Spinach – Spinach refreshes Black Swan dip brand with new creative, ‘Swan Dive In’ Melbourne-based integrated agency Spinach has been appointed by food manufacturer Monde Nissin to lead a brand relaunch for its Black Swan dips, following a competitive pitch. The agency was tasked with developing the campaign to connect the Black Swan brand to foodies, by emphasising its culinary c...

Big creative energy at Spinach this week. We're super proud of our design ace and all round wonderful human, Jenna Tomkins and her Top 10 result in AWARD School. Congrats legend.

Today, we’re excited to announce the acquisition of Digital Balance Australia, a leading digital analytics and optimisation consultancy.

In an increasingly complex data landscape Digital Balance helps brands unlock the value of their data and drive deeper customer engagement and business growth.

Digital Balance provides a range of services including support and training across MarTech enablement and strategy; digital analytics and data insights; optimisation and experimentation; omnichannel customer experience and

Our two companies will operate autonomously but collaborate when it serves the best interests of individual clients.

Read about it below.

Spinach – We’re excited to welcome Digital Balance to the Spinach Group Today, we’re excited to announce the acquisition of Digital Balance, a leading digital analytics and optimisation consultancy. In an increasingly complex data landscape Digital Balance helps brands unlock the value of their data and drive deeper customer engagement and business growth. Digital Bal...

We’re super excited to have worked with our friends at Mr Chen's Dumplings to launch their new brand platform. Produced and directed in-house this fun video, OOH and social campaign gets Mr Chen’s dumplings front and centre on the family dinner table. Check it out.

Spinach – Spinach launches ‘Make it dumpling day’ brand platform for Mr Chen’s Dumplings front and centre as part of the daily family meal routine. Spinach, integrated Melbourne agency, has created an all-new brand platform for Mr Chen’s, designed to put dumplings front and centre as part of the daily family meal routine. Created, designed and executed in-house by Spinach, t...

In this interview with Little Black Book, our ECD Dom Megna, reveals what kind of creative person he is and how, by the age of 12, he knew copywriting was his thing.

Spinach – Dom Megna on Being Innately Curious but Not Innately Creative Dom Megna, ECD for Melbourne based independent agency Spinach Advertising talks being a copywriter at age 12. Dom Megna is an old ad nerd and executive creative director of Melbourne indie Spinach Advertising. After stints at Grey Worldwide and BADJAR, Dom spent 15 years at CHE Proximity, the last 1...

Proud to be working with the Australian Conservation Foundation to help . Even if it means tearing down the Sydney Opera House and some iconic sports stadiums.

Most Australians are aware of nature destruction in places like the Amazon, but they have no idea about the scale and magnitude of destruction in our own backyard.

Check out our new work, then please sign the petition or donate.

https://spinach.com.au/news/spinach-bulldozes-sydney-opera-house-mcg-in-australian-conservation-foundation-campaign/

Spinach – Spinach bulldozes Sydney Opera House, MCG in Australian Conservation Foundation campaign Melbourne-based Spinach has launched a new campaign with the Australian Conservation Foundation featuring the demolition of iconic landmarks including the Sydney Opera House and the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The campaign, called ‘Save our big backyard’, aims to raise awareness about Australia’...

Thanks to partnerships between retailers and entertainment brands the retail landscape is changing at rapid pace. Craig Flanders, Spinach CEO, reveals why retailers and streaming services are a match made in heaven.

https://spinach.com.au/news/why-retailers-and-streamers-are-a-match-made-in-heaven/

Spinach – Why retailers and streamers are a match made in heaven Late last year, Wesfarmers – the folks behind Bunnings, Kmart, Officeworks, Catch and Target – announced it had done a deal with Disney for a subscription bundle combining Disney+ and OnePass. OnePass is a membership program that gives customers free delivery and deals across the Wesfarmers bran...

In this weeks’ Unmade podcast, Ben Willee our Media Director and GM, covers a range of issues including: the short-term and long-term media outlook, the importance of the Olympics to Nine and the arrival of ChatGPT.

https://spinach.com.au/news/unmade-podcast-ben-willee-discusses-the-short-and-long-term-media-outlook/

Spinach – Unmade podcast. Ben Willee discusses the short and long-term media outlook This week’s Unmade podcast features Ben Willee, GM and media director of Spinach Advertising. The interview, with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, focuses on the short term and long term media outlook (Without predicting a recession, Willee is considering for the eventuality); he offers his interpretation...

Super proud to have launched Goodies with our friends at Nutri-V. Sharing our spirit of innovation, Goodies have been developed in conjunction with the CSIRO. They taste amazing too.

Spinach – Spinach launches sustainable vegetable brand Nutri V Integrated Melbourne agency Spinach has created and launched the brand for Nutri V, a new food manufacturing start-up. Working with Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, Nutri V has developed a processing system to turn surplus. Australian-grown vegetables into powders that can be used a...

With more than 20 years’ experience building brands across the agency spectrum and client-side, Dom has joined us to help make our Spinach client brands even stronger.

Spinach – Spinach adds former CHEP creative as ECD Spinach has added former CHEP creative Dom Megna as the Melbourne-based agency’s new ECD, effective immediately. Megna joins the agency from his most recent role, working client-side as head of brand and creativity at funeral industry start-up, Bare Cremation, after more than two decades of agency...

With increased mortgage payments and rising inflation our MD, Craig Flanders, asks what does the future hold for the discretionary dollar? Will the JB Hi Fi party continue to rage or is everyone getting off the dancefloor?

Spinach – Will the war on inflation crash the JB Hi-Fi party? It was a case of right place, right products, right time for JB Hi-Fi, a brand that has raked in ample coin during Covid lockdowns. The retailer had what everyone wanted for a life that revolved around the home. TVs, computers, stuff to shut the kids up – JB was our saviour. Coupled with a […]

With record high petrol prices, rising interest rates, and inflation a reality, our MD Craig Flanders, suggests that empathy and transparency can help consumers and brands through difficult times.

Spinach – Why brands need to meet inflation with empathy In May, the Australian retail sector recorded its fifth consecutive month of growth, with retail spending experiencing a 10.4 per cent increase over 12 months and a 0.9 per cent increase for the month. It wasn’t all good news, however, as higher prices contributed to the growth, particularly in fo...

As digital out-of-home starts to embrace programmatic, our Media Director, Ben Willee, assess the potential pitfalls and opportunities for advertisers, agencies and OOH providers.

Spinach – Is digital OOH headed the way of display advertising? When programmatic came for digital display, CPMs plummeted. With more agencies trading digital out-of-home programmatically, is the same thing going to happen in the OOH sector? Spinach’s Ben Willee assesses the opportunity and asks what it means for advertisers. I know it sounds ridiculous but on...

With a growing expectation that businesses become positive forces for good, our MD, Craig Flanders, discusses why it’s time to go hard on soft measures such as sustainability and ethics.



https://spinach.com.au/news/ethics-and-empathy-its-time-to-go-hard-on-soft-measures/

Spinach – Ethics and empathy: It’s time to go hard on soft measures The four Ps – product, price, place and promotion – have been the strategic marketing pillars of business for longer than even I’ve been in the game. Their use, and attendant monitoring of their progress, create the hard measures on which retailers and brand marketers live and die. Seemingly ....

It’s becoming ever more difficult to reach people with personalised, targeted offerings. Our MD Craig Flanders believes the solution is to collect your own data directly from customers, but if you haven’t started, you better get to it quick.



https://spinach.com.au/news/is-personalisation-the-new-loyalty-program/

Spinach – Is personalisation the new loyalty program? According to KPMG, ‘earn and burn’ loyalty programs are losing their lustre and instead, the way forward is for retailers to pursue personalisation at scale. But this is a circular argument. The irony is you need some sort of loyalty program to generate the data you need to truly personalise you...