Two worlds collided in Darwin last Friday when a scruffy-haired advertising guru from Melbourne, dressed in a black t-shirt and faded jeans, sauntered onto a stage to address a large audience of big-hat-wearing northern cattle producers.

Acknowledging the irony of addressing the industry which invented branding about the importance of branding, it seems fair to say the speaker left a strong impression on the crowd with a series of illuminating and often hilarious anecdotes from previous campaigns including starting a war between Vegemite and Marmite during the 2019 Ashes Test series in England.

The speaker, Adam Ferrier, one of Australia’s most prominent advertising figures and the founder of the globally award-winning Thinkerbell creative agency, was quick to concede to the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association conference audience on Friday that his knowledge of the Australian cattle industry is virtually nil.

But he added that his own lack of familiarity reflected a much broader disconnect between urban consumers and rural producers.

Marketing could play an important role in bridging that gap, he said.

“I think a massive amount of your issues come down to the fact that people don’t know you,” he said.

“They don’t relate to your industry. They can’t see your industry.”

Mr Ferrier said that when his own niece decided to move from St Kilda to the Northern Territory to become a jillaroo a few years ago, his entire family was “in shock”.

“We thought she had fallen off the face of the earth,” he recalled. “We were all very, very worried for her welfare because we had no idea what she was doing, where she was going, or why she was doing it.

“She loved her experience. She’s now working as a jillaroo in South Australia, and that’s her chosen career. But for a little family from St Kilda, it was completely foreign to us.”

Marketing, he explained, is all about making the unfamiliar familiar. It builds trust, understanding, and in turn value.

“What marketing does is make people or things familiar to you,” he said. “The more familiar you are with something, the more you trust it, the more value you put into it, the more you support it, the more you like it.

“Most advertising works through something called the ‘mere exposure effect.’ Essentially, the more you see something, the more you like it, the more you trust it, and the more you value it.”

Reflecting on earlier speakers he listened to at the NTCA conference, Mr Ferrier said it seemed as though the cattle industry was “under attack.”

“If I know nothing about your industry, I don’t trust it,” he said. “You have to brand yourselves more—both as individual entities and as a collective—and make your story heard.”

He highlighted how successful brands establish Distinctive Brand Assets and clear brand promises to build recognition and trust. “It’s about finding and sustaining an idea that your brand stands for, then rolling it out over and over again.”

Beyond just logos and slogans, branding was about creating emotional connections. Consumers relate to narratives, and the cattle industry had an abundance of powerful stories to tell—about the dedication of farmers, the sustainability of grazing practices, and the care taken in animal welfare.

“You have so much to offer contemporary society right now,” Ferrier said. “But at the moment, it’s all completely behind a veil.

“What I implore you to do is have a clear brand promise, establish strong brand codes, and get yourselves out there. Be as famous as possible.

“Use your distinctive assets. Use the hat. Clearly communicate your value. And don’t be afraid of making mistakes—because even if you do, your value will increase simply by making people more aware of what you do.”