About this podcast
Building a brand is hard, but proving its ROI is harder. The Brand Hunch podcast explores how top brand and marketing leaders are bridging the gap between creative hunches and their bottom line, with persectives from Canva, Specsavers, RM Williams, Kantar, Who Is Elijah, and so many more. Because sometimes, the more you believe in a creative direction, the harder it is to defend it... especially when boardroom pressure pushes you toward the predictable path. I’m your host, Lindsay Rogers, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Sydney-based brand growth agency, Chello. In my experience, the hardest part of building a great brand isn't having the idea; it's operationalising it so the whole business feels it and lives it. Each episode, we get into the weeds with CMOs, founders, and revenue leaders who are proving that brand is the ultimate commercial driver. We skip the surface-level advice to uncover the real stories: the instincts they fought for, the ways they connected brand love to the bottom line, and their approach to growing great brands.
If you prefer to read interviews, check out our Substack: https://thebrandhunch.substack.com/
And if you're interested in what we do at Chello, check out our website https://www.chello.com.au/ or get in touch at [email protected] 👋
Episodes
The newest 20 of 40 episodes
- Beyond the 60/40 rule: balancing marketing science with scale-up reality · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 40Poo, glorious poo! 🎵 Recognise that from anywhere? If you're a dog owner, you just might! It's the tagline for a new West End-style musical brand campaign from Lyka — an…
- One brand, 130 owners: how Blooms The Chemist gets buy-in across their network · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 39What does the lead marketing role look like in a highly regulated, highly price-sensitive category? Lindsay chats to Yvette Costi, Chief Marketing Officer at Blooms The Chemist…
- Future Demand’s Telstra playbook with James Hurman & Brent Smart · 46 min · Season 1 Episode 38In a world where brands struggle to balance immediate sales and long-term growth, two marketing powerhouses share their secrets for sustainable success. In this episode, Lindsay…
- The two-channel strategy: using focus as your secret weapon for growth · 57 min · Season 1 Episode 37Jaimee Vilela spent fifteen years running marketing for other people's brands before backing a hunch and purchasing Cooki Haircare, a shampoo bar business doing four sales a day…
- The great Australian lamb ads: mastering long-term creative consistency · 55 min · Season 1 Episode 36Nathan Low spent fifteen years at Unilever before landing the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer role at Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), where he now looks after the…
- The transformer mindset: why the best marketers own the numbers, not just the brand · 47 min · Episode 35From Arnott's to My Muscle Chef, me&u and now Verandah Brands, Clementine Churchill has built a career on refusing to separate marketing from the rest of the business. In this…
- The risks and rewards of building a global challenger brand, locally · 46 min · Episode 34Catherine Dix, Managing Director ANZ, waterdrop®, joins Lindsay to unpack three years of building a global challenger brand from the ground up here in ANZ. From holding off on…
- From the boardroom to the bottom line: the commercial case for brand investment · 44 min · Episode 33Sudeep Gohil has seen the industry from almost every angle, and he's got some opinions that are worth the listen. In this episode, Lindsay sits down with the former founding…
- Brand as an operating system: the report, the tensions, the hot takes · 31 min · Episode 32Too many agencies assume what brands are doing. At Chello, we went out and asked them. In this episode, Lindsay sits down with Chello's Strategy Director Tom Dabner and…
- Stop broadcasting, start connecting: the rules of modern PR · 51 min · Episode 31What does great PR actually look like in 2026, and why are so many brands still getting it wrong? Lindsay sits down with James Hutchinson, CEO of global PR powerhouse Sling &…
- A modern tastemaker on building premium brands in a copycat world · 47 min · Episode 30What does “good taste” actually mean, and is it something you're born with? In this episode, we chat with Zhoe Low, Marketing Director at MoveActive and former GM of Marketing &…
- The long game: why Specsavers never looked away from its brand platform · 38 min · Episode 29In this live episode, recorded at Content Summit Australia, Lindsay sits down with Anri Mc Hugh, Head of Marketing - Awareness & Consideration at Specsavers ANZ, to explore one…
- High performance, higher purpose: From Formula 1 to philanthropy · 43 min · Episode 28Having held senior marketing roles at Formula 1, World Rugby, Rugby Australia, and now Guide Dogs Australia, Marissa Pace knows a thing or two about life in the fast lane. In…
- Putting the ‘cult’ in culture: Lessons from a decade in hospitality · 44 min · Episode 27In this episode, we sit down with Nick Parmar, a seasoned Brand Director who’s helped build a host of culturally-attuned brands from New York to APAC and the Middle East. Nick…
- Curiosity and conscientiousness: habits that spark effective management · 41 min · Episode 26In this episode, we chat to Georgie Leslie, CMO at Future Group, about what it really takes to lead in a category most people tend to ignore (spoiler: it’s superannuation). We…
- Let go to level up: how to build high-performance marketing teams · 44 min · Episode 25In this episode, we chat with Matt Gudge about the messy, brilliant reality of marketing in high-growth businesses, from tourism during COVID to scaling complex marketplaces and…
- Employer brand: embedding company culture from the inside out · 46 min · Episode 24In this episode, we chat with Ainsley Pope about the side of brand most people never see: the inside. From her work at Westpac and PwC to building the employer brand function at…
- A brand built on banter: exploring Better Beer’s cult status · 43 min · Episode 23In this episode, we sit down with Hannah Vinden to unpack how Better Beer went from a scrappy startup to one of Australia’s favourite beer brands. (Spoiler: most of it was down…
- From legacy to longevity: Scaling a heritage brand into new markets · 47 min · Episode 22R.M.Williams is many things; handcrafted, hard-wearing, and quintessentially Australian. But how do you keep a 1932 icon relevant for a 2025 audience? In this episode, Lindsay…
- Activate hustle mode: building a brand from the ground up · 39 min · Episode 21In this episode of The Brand Hunch podcast, we chat to Raquel Bouris, Creative Director and Founder of cult fragrance brand Who Is Elijah. From a $12K investment to a $20M…







