Because ANZ rebrands to go ‘beyond the obvious’
Brand activation agency Because ANZ has undertaken a complete rebrand including a new name, Mumbrella can reveal.
Now known as Curious Nation, the nearly 15-year-old agency was entering a new chapter and its name no longer reflected its purpose, according to co-founders Meredith Cranmer and Gareth Brock.
The agency was co-founded in 2011 as a joint venture with Sharon Richey, founder of Because UK. Richey remains a shareholder of the local business, while Cranmer and Brock remain the primary shareholders. It will continue to operate independently.
Speaking to Mumbrella, the pair said last year when they started working “on” the business instead of “in” it, they felt the name wasn’t capturing the essence of where the agency was heading.
“It was one of things Gareth and I were talking about, and before we knew it, we had set the wheels in motion,” Cranmer said. “We had done some work on refining the positioning of Because, and then realised that actually, after almost 15 years of being Because, this felt like more of a new chapter.”
Brock and Cranmer
“Curiosity has always been a foundation of what we do … It’s one of the key things around igniting brand growth,” Brock said. “We’d gone through quite a few names and were keen on a number of them, but they were trademarked or just too close to others, so after a while, we had to go back to the drawing board.
“And in a workshop with our brand consultant, ‘curious’ came through really strongly.”
Curious, by his definition, is about “being real, being human, and seeing it for ourselves”. It’s already heavily embedded in the agency’s culture with its Curiosity Fund — where the team are given spending money every quarter to discover something new — so using that for the new name “just made sense”.
The agency will continue to focus on brand activations at its core.
“It’s not just about grabbing attention, it’s about going a little bit beyond that and making genuine connections, and curiosity is one fundamental way to do that,” Cranmer said. “I think curiosity, and these real life engagements and experiences, are going to become more and more important in the media mix.”
Curious Nation is working to embed curiosity into the business to a greater extent. The agency says it will help brands explore things ‘beyond the obvious’, especially brands that typically play it safe, to help them innovate and “push a bit more” against the norm.
Curiosity will also be integrated into its cultural strategy, and the agency will bolster its thought leadership and masterclass offering too.
Long term, the agency has “no desire to be the biggest”, but “certainly want[s] to be the best”, according to Cranmer.
It currently has a headcount of around 15, which she said is “often such a vanity metric”.
Curious Nation’s current client roster includes Sydney Water, Woolworths, Big W, Asahi, Kraft Heinz, AGL Energy, ABB, Trade Me Property, the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa’s Big Gay Out, and Watercare.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
topics
agency
BEcause
Because ANZ
Brand activation
Curiosity
Curious Nation
Gareth Brock
Meredith Cranmer
rebrand
Sharon Richey
Have your say