A look at select brands, institutions, and leaders who’ve put our thinking to work—and seen it hold. Our approach might differ each time, but the end result is always a brand that customers trust.
U.S. Department of State
Strategic Messaging for Foreign Service Recruitment
When the U.S. Department of State sought to increase college student signups for the Foreign Service Officer Exam, they faced a familiar challenge: how to make a complex, high-stakes career path resonate with young, skeptical audiences. Brand Dummy was engaged to decode the behavioural barriers and reframe the opportunity—not as a bureaucratic test, but as a gateway to global impact.
We began by pressure-testing the existing messaging against student values, emotional drivers, and decision-making heuristics. Through on-campus insight work at the University of Michigan, we identified key friction points—misconceptions about the exam, perceived lack of relevance, and a disconnect between students’ self-concept and the brand of diplomacy. Our solution: a modular campaign that reframed the exam as a challenge worth taking, aligned with students’ desire for purpose, travel, and influence.
The result was a measurable lift in interest and signups, driven by messaging that didn’t just inform—it resonated. By anchoring the campaign in behavioural insight and narrative clarity, we helped the Department of State connect with a new generation of potential diplomats on their terms.
This project exemplifies Brand Dummy’s core philosophy: resilience isn’t just about surviving scrutiny—it’s about earning trust through clarity, relevance, and strategic empathy.
Digital Crew
Mapping Brand Perception Across Borders
In partnership with Digital Crew, Brand Dummy helped develop the Australian Brands in China (ABC) Index—a pioneering research initiative designed to decode how Australian brands are perceived by Chinese consumers. The challenge was clear: bridge the gap between brand intent and cross-cultural reception, using behavioural insight as the connective tissue.
We led the strategic design of the 2018 and 2019 indices, surveying thousands of mainland Chinese consumers across diverse Chinese regions, evaluating 102 Australian brands across industries from beauty and baby formula to wine, education, and tourism. The goal wasn’t just to rank—it was to reveal. We uncovered how trust, relevance, and emotional resonance shift across cultural contexts, and how Australian brands can better position themselves in one of the world’s most complex consumer markets.
The ABC Index became a strategic compass for brands navigating China’s digital and cultural terrain—offering not just data, but defensible insight. It exemplifies Brand Dummy’s core philosophy: pressure-test your assumptions, decode the audience, and build trust that travels.
This project reflects our commitment to resilient branding—especially when the stakes are global and the signals are nuanced.
Download the 2018 ABC Index.
Read media coverage in The Australian, Industry Update, AustChamShanghai, Inside FMCG, and Australian Financial Review.
SumoSalad
Decoding Digital Health for Smarter Social Strategy
SumoSalad approached Brand Dummy with a clear challenge: how to better connect with Australian consumers through social media. The brand was already known for fresh, fast, and healthy meals—but its digital presence lacked the behavioural precision needed to drive engagement and loyalty online.
We began by mapping the social media habits of SumoSalad’s core audience—identifying not just where they spent time, but how they interacted with food content, health narratives, and brand voices. Our research uncovered key behavioural patterns: moments of decision-making, emotional triggers, and content fatigue. We translated these insights into a modular social strategy that aligned platform, message, and timing with consumer psychology.
The result was a shift from generic posting to strategic storytelling—content that resonated, converted, and reinforced SumoSalad’s brand values. By grounding the strategy in behavioural insight, we helped SumoSalad move from broadcasting to bonding.
This project reflects Brand Dummy’s core approach: decode the behaviour, pressure-test the message, and build trust where it matters most.
Heritage Bank
Behavioural Insight for Home Loan Engagement
Heritage Bank engaged Brand Dummy to decode the financial habits of Australian consumers—specifically, why so many borrowers fail to engage with the home loan market even when better rates are available. Based in Brisbane, Heritage Bank wanted to understand not just what consumers were doing, but why they weren’t doing more.
Our research revealed a behavioural blind spot: many Australians underestimate the savings from switching lenders and overestimate the effort required. Even when the financial upside is clear, inertia wins. We helped Heritage Bank reframe this challenge—not as a pricing problem, but as a trust and engagement problem. By identifying emotional and cognitive barriers to switching, we designed messaging strategies that prompted action, not just awareness.
The work gained national media attention and was cited by the Australian Government as evidence of the behavioural frictions impeding competition in the mortgage market. It exemplifies Brand Dummy’s approach: pressure-test assumptions, decode consumer psychology, and build strategies that move people—not just metrics.
Because in financial services, trust isn’t just earned—it has to be activated.
Download the ACCS Home Loan Price Inquiry.
Read media coverage in News.com.au and The Australian.