YoungShand.

We're excited to partner with TSB New Zealand to tell their awesome story. A great NZ-owned business, supported by a proudly Kiwi-owned agency. What a great way to end the year - and a superb way to start the next one. Thanks to Vesna, Nick and all the TSB crew for choosing to trust us with their brilliant brand. It's on.

Challengers don’t just build campaigns – they build momentum. In a world where third-party cookies are disappearing and AI is rewriting the rules of search, the battlefield has shifted. This is your wake-up call: it’s not just about bigger ad budgets or louder campaigns any more, it’s about smarter ecosystems that work for you every day. I’m excited to share our latest piece, “Unlocking Your Digital Ecosystem”, published by the Marketing Association, which shows how challenger brands can unleash their true potential by turning their website, content and CRM into one integrated growth engine. Here are three key shifts we cover: • Your website isn’t just a brochure. It’s your 24/7 sales assistant. • Your content must cut through the noise: be useful, distinctive and search-optimised. • Your CRM is your strategic asset. Use it to personalise, automate and leverage your media budget. For challenger brands, this isn’t optional. It’s the only way to build a sustainable advantage in an era where the “old playbook” is broken. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gAn89gBe If you’re ready to stop competing on media muscle alone and start building platforms, insights and systems that scale, this might be interesting for you. #DigitalEcosystem #ChallengerBrand #MarketingStrategy #ContentStrategy #YSBuiltForBold

A couple of years ago, we worked with a brand going up against competitors spending three times their budget. They couldn’t outspend them. They couldn’t outshout them. So we had to outsmart them instead. That’s the reality for most New Zealand brands, we’re challengers by default. Smaller budgets, smaller teams, but often much bigger ideas. Over the past three years, I’ve been digging into what really drives challenger growth – not the theory, but the patterns that keep showing up in the work and the data. Next month, I’m running a webinar with the Marketing Association to share the four most unexpected lessons from that research – including how being bold, starting slow, and building smarter ecosystems help small brands punch way above their weight. If you’re a NZ marketer trying to grow faster (without spending like the category leader), this one’s for you. 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/g5MFX_B6 Free for MA members – and I promise: no jargon, no fluff, no sales. Just a few ideas that might shift how you think about growth.

We helped Carpet Court and Curtain Studio reimagined their ecommerce experience, building a dual-brand store on a single Shopify platform. One backend. Two distinct customer journeys. Less admin, better visibility, and a platform ready to grow with the brands. #Shopify #eCommerce #DigitalTransformation #CustomerExperience #RetailInnovation #YSBuiltForBold

We helped Carpet Court and Curtain Studio reimagined their ecommerce experience, building a dual-brand store on a single Shopify platform. One backend. Two distinct customer journeys. Less admin, better visibility, and a platform ready to grow with the brands. #Shopify #eCommerce #DigitalTransformation #CustomerExperience #RetailInnovation #YSBuiltForBold

Most banking brands exist in a fantasy world. Polished stock photography, legally approved layouts, and couples looking unnaturally calm about their 30-year mortgages. It’s clean, safe, and completely forgettable in a category where institutions waste tens of millions just to look identical to each other. In our latest Rebel Collective piece, YS Executive Creative Director Scott Maddox breaks down how we approached evolving the brand identity and design system for TSB. This is the important, often forgotten work that has to happen before we even start thinking about making an ad. Scott makes a point that every commercial strategist should keep in mind: Boldness doesn't always mean screaming louder, cranking the saturation, or speeding up the edit. In an increasingly impersonal sector built on cold efficiency, the boldest thing you can do is have the confidence to be grounded, empathetic, and unmistakably human. Because real life isn't pristine stock photography. It’s living payday to payday, running a business, or getting hit with an eye-watering vet bill when your two-year-old spoodle eats two kilos of flour. If you’re trying to build brand distinctiveness in a low-interest or heavily regulated category, Scott’s piece is a sharp look at how to break out of category sameness. A link to the article is in the comments...