The Founders is an Azzet finance series showcasing the inspiring journeys of visionary entrepreneurs who turned ideas into thriving businesses. Dive into captivating stories and insightful interviews with founders and CEOs. They share their challenges, triumphs, and industry insights in this ongoing series.
With Brand Rebellion’s third birthday coming up on 15 February this year, Bryden Campbell and her team will have plenty to celebrate.
Campbell always wanted to own a business and founded Brand Rebellion in 2022 after having her second child. She spent five years at the Canberra Innovation Network as marketing director.
One of her biggest inspirations for starting the business was seeing a gap in the market. This was where technology companies in particular needed help when communicating their achievements and products.
“That really put a big driver into wanting to try and, you know, see if we can create an organisation that not only helps them with their brand and marketing support but then also helps them build a workforce,” Campbell tells Azzet.
Since then, the business has experienced success, with Campbell winning the 2024 Canberra Business Woman of the Year award.
With almost 95,000 consultancy firms across the country, Brand Rebellion had their work cut out for them standing out from the competition.
Nothing but growth
Luckily for Campbell, she entered an ever-growing industry.
In the last three years, 51% of all consulting firms have seen their average revenues grow. Among boutique firms like Brand Rebellion, 69% have experienced revenue growth.
Brand Rebellion is no stranger to this trend, achieving 155% year-on-year revenue growth with secured work for the next 12 months to match 2024’s earnings.
“For a small and new business, that’s something we’re really proud of,” she says.
The business has seven employees, with five being part of the team since its inception in 2022.
While the team remains small, to further grow their business they have recently expanded their leadership team to include Jason Pereslon as a human experience partner.
“His expertise and vision align perfectly with Brand Rebellion’s mission to create deeper connections between brands and their people,” Campbell said in a statement.
“Together, we’re not just enhancing the value we deliver, we’re setting a bold strategic direction for the future of Brand Rebellion.”
Campbell also attributes Brand Rebellion’s growth to their ability to stand out from the crowd and offer something other consultancy firms aren’t.
Standing out
Over time, Brand Rebellion has worked with 50 clients across 15 industries, with 95% of retainer clients renewing their contracts annually.
The industries they have worked with include space, cyber, enterprise, government, defence, tourism and major events. They offer an innovative mix of branding, marketing, design and strategic workforce planning.
Due to working on both brand and consultancy, Campbell says they have competitors from all sides of the spectrum.
“When you look at the large consulting companies, they usually all have some sort of creative element where they try to sell as a big part of their services, but we established ourselves as sort of like this hybrid from the start,” she says.
Another way they stand out from the competition is through diversifying and not being everything to everyone. Instead of working primarily on management consulting, they tend to focus on the employees of an organisation, right through to the customer experience on the brand side of things.
“For us, that is our unique selling proposition; we're a human experience people-first, brand and workforce [business],” Campbell says.
“We don't do the management consulting, so we are quite specific in our offering, and I think that's what gives us that edge.”
She said they have also had to navigate competing with the entire country. Being from Canberra, she said they try to diversify their offerings to more than just government industries.
“It's about understanding the market, but then not isolating yourself into that market as well, and really making sure that you're appropriate and the right fit for businesses in other major cities where agencies probably typically play in as well,” she says.
From her previous work with the Canberra Innovation Network, Campbell said she did a lot of internal roles, allowing her to have transferable skills to bring to the table.
“We want to be able to able to strategise with these organisations from their brand perspective, on the inside side of things with employees, but then actually be able to talk to not only their partners and key investors but how that impacts the everyday person,” she says.
Thanks to their unique offerings, they have experienced exponential growth and hope to continue in the future.
Moving forward
As their third birthday draws closer, Brand Rebellion's future looks bright.
After the first years of trial and error, Campbell says they want to position themselves to be one of the premier brand and workforce consultancies in Australia.
“What I would love to have is an organisation where everyone is proficient in brand and workforce and human experience, and we can engage the right people on the right projects,” she says.
Campbell also says she wants to grow their client base to work on a larger scale.
“I also think on a client side, to be able to work with a large scale client end to end, from looking at their workforce right through to their brand and their consumer-facing strategy as well,” she says.
While there is a lot of work to be done to reach their long-term goals, Campbell is confident they can reach them.
“There are a lot of unknowns which is very exciting,” she says.
“Really building out the capability along those three streams and honing our craft is definitely our immediate future plan going forward.”
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