2020 ended on a high for us. After more than two decades in business, our two agencies became one. We distilled down all of our experiences, mixing the digital smarts of BirdBrain with the brand building world of Luminosity to create one, all-in-house agency.

Now that our new brand has launched and the dust has settled, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the past and what the future might hold. While our rebrand enabled us to better integrate our services and streamline our operations, more importantly, it led us to refine our purpose.

In my experience, the best businesses are driven by a purpose that is greater than just survival. When a business focusses on products and services alone, the only way to compete is to continually find ways to be smarter, cheaper and faster. The problem is someone will inevitably come along who can do it better.

Our work is designed to help our clients discover and communicate who they are and why they exist. We’ve seen firsthand how a clearly articulated purpose can unite a team, provide strategic direction and drive long-term, sustainable results.

We’ve also experienced the consequences of straying from this path and losing sight of the bigger picture.

How we got here

My personal business journey began in 1995 when I started DiskBank, a CD and DVD manufacturing business. I was 24 years old, fresh out of uni and full of confidence. From day one, I was fixated on what I thought every business owner should be doing – growing their business.

For 10 years, the business experienced unfettered growth in revenue, staff and locations. As we expanded across the country, it seemed as though we were on an unstoppable growth trajectory, until the bottom fell out of the CD and DVD market.

What came next was a very difficult period where I was forced to make some tough decisions. As revenue plummeted, I began to close offices, liquidate equipment and let quality staff go. By solely focussing on growth, we had built an unsustainable business model that struggled to survive when the industry began to decline.

In the end, we managed to resuscitate DiskBank, adapting to the shift in the multimedia market and evolving part of the business into what would eventually become Distl. Not wanting to endure the same experience again, I adjusted my approach toward building an unstoppable business with the strength to weather any storm.

It was this change in mindset that led us to define our purpose and establish a vision that guides everything we do at Distl.

Defining our purpose

Over the years, I’ve discovered a passion for helping businesses achieve results in the short as well as long term. While leads, traffic and revenue are all important, building long term brand equity will ensure sustainable success over time.

Equity is value. Commercial. Intellectual. Financial. Emotional. It’s that elusive something that the best brands appear to conjure out of thin air, generating the critical mass and momentum that fuels success.

While business growth can be good, it’s equity growth that will build real financial worth and fortify your business. Understanding the true value of brand equity is what led us to define our purpose:

To build Australia’s most unstoppable brands.

Our four service areas, strategy, branding, web and marketing are the key components that are needed to build equity and build resilience. By providing fully integrated solutions that leverage each of these core areas, we are able to deliver short term results as well as long term success for our clients.

What does it all mean for you?

“As brands strive for differentiation, relevance and growth, a clear purpose brought to life in compelling ways is often the difference between success and failure,” – Afdhel Aziz.

Every aspect of our business is now aligned to our purpose, ensuring everything we do is designed to deliver real value to our clients.

If you’re an existing client and you would like to know more about how our approach impacts what we do for your business, get in touch with your account manager today.

For prospective clients, I welcome you to contact me to see how we can use strategy, branding, web and marketing to help you build an unstoppable brand.

David Metcalf

Director