12HIGH partnered with Water 3 to perform a digital audit. This resulted in a clear strategy and a new approach to digital marketing technology selection.
Water3 makes quality water easily accessible without the need for disposable plastic bottles. They have distributed hundreds of water dispensing machines all over Australia. From these machines, customers simply tap their RFID connected lids and fill up. All for a fraction of the price of bottled water. Even better, it comes in still and sparkled… and doesn’t kill any turtles!
Water3 engaged 12HIGH to perform a digital and eCommerce audit. The team had done an incredible job to establish the product in market. It was now time to set up to scale.
“With 12HIGH, it was kind of like, “Hey, come and see what we’re doing, help us understand what we’re missing. Because we don’t know where we’re at.” Damien Stone, Water3 Co-founder.
12HIGH worked with Water3 to deliver a customer journey review, competitor analysis, on site behaviour audit, technology stack review, marketing and sales analysis and an internal capabilities and process review.
“We’ve integrated a couple of third-party apps and software that we probably were going to try and do ourselves. It enabled us to have some candid conversations about the direction of our technology with an independent team there that’s not trying to sell a piece of software.” Damien Stone, Water3 Co-founder.
After a series of 1:1 interviews and a workshop, 12HIGH were able to deliver Water3 with:
- A concise summary of strengths and opportunities
- Prioritised digital and eCommerce focus areas to grow the business
- Identified quick wins for the Water3 team to immediately action
- A three month plan to kick start their transformation
A great team. An innovative product. A mission to save the world. 12HIGH are incredibly proud to have worked with Water3 to help them change the way we consume water.
“There’s a real range of businesses that could benefit from 12HIGH. Especially if you don’t have a solid digital strategy or if you’re not integrating technology into your processes. Every business could benefit from that.” Damien Stone, Water3 Co-founder.
The final Digital Social for the year saw a sold out event! Thanks to everyone in Brisbane’s digital scene who joined us. A good night – and a few too many Great Barrier Beers – was enjoyed by all.
Our guests
We were very lucky to have two very special guests join us on the night…
First up we had James Grugeon, founder of The Good Beer Co. James shared his experiences in establishing a beer brand for good. He shared his view on bootstrapping an organisation (see his beer bottling hands), the flawed crowd funding model and how co-creation can accelerate a movement.
“We need really big, established companies to be involved in social enterprise in away that is real and authentic.”
James Grugeon, Founder of The Good Beer Co.
Additionally, he spoke to how The Good Beer Co. are partnering with and challenging larger organisations through innovations such as their biodegradable six pack packaging. He summed up our feelings when he closed with “we all want to feel like we are doing something positive.” Well said.
Next up, we had Matt Traynor, Brand Manager at Outland Denim. Matt gave us great insight into how sustainable manufacturing is at the heart of Outland Denim. Matt also shared how becoming a BCorp is incredibly difficult but worthwhile (do it while you are small!)
We can prove that what we are doing is making a difference. We can create a roadmap for the fashion industry.
Matt Traynor, Brand Manager of Outland Denim
Not content with sustainability as the core DNA in their business, Outland Denim are aiming to be a leader for the fashion industry. While it is difficult to measure the commercial impact of their sustainability story, moments such as the Duchess of Sussex choosing to wear their jeans, shows how their story resonates. They are creating an aspirational brand engaging their customers and to changing their peers.
Our partners
As always, The Digital Social could not happen without our speakers and our partners. Please support them where you can.
- Troocoo. Andrew, Liana and the Troocoo team are integral to making The Digital Social happen. They support us by providing the venue, organising the logistics and supplying the food. If you have any recruitment needs (or are in the market yourself) please don’t hesitate to reach out to them.
- Ride Free Media. Nick and Ryan generously record some footage from the event to make sure we capture the goodness. Not only do they create amazing custom video, they are launching a brand new technology called Wrappt which makes pro video accessible to everyone. The Digital Social videos are created using Wrappt.
- 12HIGH. Yes, a self serving plug! But we are proud to be the organisers of this event and love pulling the digital community together. If you need to activate digital strategy, please reach out to Nathan.
We are always looking for complimentary partners to help make The Digital Social bigger and better. If you would like to be involved please yell out!
Thank you Chris!
And lastly but not leastly, we want to send a massive thank you to Chris Chambers. Chris was instrumental in getting The Digital Social up and running. He is passing the baton along so that he can focus on some of his other very noble pursuits – he just got to Everest Base Camp to raise money for MND! I’m sure we’ll see Chris at many more Digital Social’s but we want to thank him for being such a legend.
See you next time
The next Digital Social will be in February or March next year. If you have attended any of our previous events, we will give you a heads up before it goes public so you can secure your tickets. Also, if you have any feedback for the next event let us know. Shoot us an email or send us a Facebook message.
Have a great Christmas everyone and see you in the new year!
Cheers,
The Digital Social crew
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What a night! Last month saw the fourth instalment of The Digital Social at The Mill in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. We had 80 digital legends turn up to have a drink, hear from our guest speaker, catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones. As always, great fun!
For those who don’t know The Digital Social, it is an event started by Chris Chambers and myself two years ago. Being long overdue for a catch up, Chris and I decided to grab a beer at a brewery in Milton the coming Friday. Rather than just him and I talk about the Canberra Raiders all afternoon, we threw it open on LinkedIn for anyone to come down and join us. We had 70 drink crashers (and the kernel of an idea)! Since then, we have been lucky enough to partner with recruitment agency, Troocoo, who have helped us organise the event, get the word out and keep people fed.
Our vision for The Digital Social is that we want to maintain a semi-regular, free and very relaxed event which celebrates the often unspoken successes of the Brisbane digital community. We believe that digital is a diverse topic and we want to bring people of different backgrounds together in a relaxed atmosphere – beer is a great connector – to see how we can facilitate great things happening.
In the most recent Digital Social, we heard from Myles Lawlor, Head of Technology at YouFoodz. Myles was very open and generous with his knowledge. He shared with us how YouFoodz approach predictive modelling, selling in customer centricity and scaling a high growth business. He also shared his favourite YouFoodz meal – lemon chicken in case you were wondering.
If you were there on the night, we would love your feedback. We want to make this an event owned by Brisbane’s digital community – consider some feedback your price of entry!
Thanks again to our partners, Troocoo. If you need good talent or are looking for opportunities, reach out to Andrew Pyke. Also, massive thanks to Ride Free Media who filmed the event on their brand new DIY smartphone video production app. The new product is available only via request so get in touch with Nick if you’re interested in finding out more!
The next event is pencilled in for October. If you have any ideas on the format or ideas for guest speakers, please shout out. Follow The Digital Social on Facebook and LinkedInto stay up to date for the next announcement. See you then!
Cheers
Nathan
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Today marks the inaugural flight for 12HIGH.
In 1903, another first flight took place: the first sustained, controlled flight by man. The first flight lasted only 12 seconds. It wasn’t completed by the modern day Dreamliner, but rather a machine that had been tinkered, altered and improved off the back of numerous failed attempts and prototypes. It took 12 seconds to deem the notion of flight possible. 12 seconds to transform everything about how mankind would go on to live, work and play.
The name 12HIGH has special meaning to me, as it embodies my guiding principle: clear direction with rapid action. The Wright Brothers didn’t write off the hundreds of failed attempts made to achieve flight as time wasted, they learned from them. They had a very clear vision of where they needed to go, and used their learnings and experience to execute significant action.
12HIGH aims to deliver more twelve second moments for our clients by activating strategy rapidly.
I had an amazing six years as Group Digital Manager at Super Retail Group. In that time I was lucky to work with a talented team to help transform a traditional retail business into a truly omnichannel organisation. We drove huge eCommerce sales growth (120%+ last year). We replatformed our web and eCommerce platform onto Salesforce Commerce Cloud. We used design thinking, lean design and agile methodologies to establish our Test & Learn capability. We were awarded best multichannel retailer on multiple occasions and my personal contribution was recognised by the industry, awarding me a spot in Australia’s Top 50 People in eCommerce for four years running.
But there was one opportunity which kept standing out; the ability to turn business strategy into rapid action. And it’s not an opportunity limited to one organisation.
I have seen it in previous roles and heard it first hand from other business leaders. We spend huge amounts of time, money and effort to create strategies, often with large consultancy partners, which sit in bottom drawers gathering dust. We constantly prioritise, reprioritise and re-reprioritise what we might do. We spend more time talking and meeting about change than acting on it. We paralyse ourselves and our organisations because we are scared to fail.
If action without strategy is wasted effort, strategy without action is self-destruction. Given the pace at which our customers, technology and competitors are changing; a failure to act quickly is our quickest path to irrelevance. And I don’t know any organisation who is aiming for irrelevance.
So how do we change so that we can activate our strategy quickly?
We need to be able to think big but act small. We need to continually test and learn new ideas. We need to be flexible and respond quickly to change. We need our teams to be empowered and creative for continual innovation. We need our customers to validate our assumptions. We need to co-create for better outcomes. We need clear goals for quick decisions. We need to think of tomorrow and act today. We need to continually progress to remain relevant.
At 12HIGH, we translate strategy into short and long term action plans focused on validated customer insights, rapid action and continual innovation. We specialise in developing and activating digital, customer and eCommerce strategies to meet larger organisational objectives. Our test and learn methodology, the OODA Loop, combines design thinking, lean design and agile practises, to deliver rapid insights, prototyping and customer validation for any business problem.
That’s 12HIGH on day one. We have the vision and the experience to transform business strategy into action. And it starts today.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I would love to continue the conversation. If 12HIGH’s approach resonates with you and your organisation, please reach out for a free initial consultation. If it doesn’t resonate, I’d love to know why. In true test and learn fashion, your feedback will be invaluable to shaping how 12HIGH continually transforms into the future.
Onwards and upwards,
Nathan
12HIGH actively transforms business strategy.
Business strategy is too often passive. It is too rigid. It is too often theoretical. It is too often presumptuous.
We believe business strategy is your greatest weapon. It shouldn’t be treated as a chore. But in order for strategy to be effective, we need to change how we approach it.
Business strategy needs to be focused. It is easy to gravitate towards the shiny things. The loud things. The easy things. We use a mixture of data and empathy, measured against your organisational goals, to identify the biggest gaps and opportunities for your business. We pursue progress of these opportunities at pace.
Business strategy needs to be flexible. As Mike Tyson once said;
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Your strategy is your guide but it doesn’t mean you follow it blindly. We break your strategy down into what we can do tomorrow, what we will achieve over the next 90 days and larger, long-term projects. By revisiting these tactics regularly we can adjust our actions while remaining true to our strategic approach.
Business strategy needs to be inquisitive. How often do you see a business strategy admitted it that it doesn’t have all the answers? Rarely. Strategy is implicitly self-assured. However, the right questions are often more valuable than the supposed answers. By using a Test & Learn approach we not only test what we think we know but get some answers on what we don’t know.
Business strategy needs to be tested. Strategy is easy to form if we approach it as a presumptuous and theoretical exercise. At it’s most dangerous, strategy is a collection of well paid opinions. We believe strategy needs to be co-created by a diverse group – including our customers. By getting real validation form customers we set ourselves up for success early and don’t wait until execution to find out the uncomfortable truths.
Business strategy needs to be actionable. Annual strategy papers which are approached as a compliance exercise and stored in bottom drawers are not only useless but wasteful.
We want strategy to be your most valued companion.
It should be front and center in what you measure, where you invest and what you create. By ensuring that your strategy has actions which you can commence today, with a long term view for the future, means you get instant and long term value from the exercise.
This is how 12HIGH approaches business strategy. We specialise in digital strategy but use our test and learn approach (including our OODA methodology) to apply digital thinking to any business problem. We would love the opportunity to transform your strategy as well. And no, we promise we won’t bring Mike Tyson with us.
Nathan is the founder and lead strategist at 12HIGH. 12HIGH specialises in establishing digital strategy including digital transformation, Test & Learn capabilities, eCommerce optimisation and customer connection. Contact 12HIGH now.
