REFLECTING ON THE YEAR THAT WAS

An uncertain 2023

If there was ever an elephant in the room, it would have to be the uncertainty of 2023. Whilst there have been numerous challenges over the past couple of years for businesses to navigate, I believe it’s the rising interest rates that will inflict the most pain. Whether that’s directly or indirectly. Either way, it’s something that’s predicted to remain throughout 2023.

However, like all difficult things, you’ve got to look for the upside. And that’s where entrepreneurs, challenger brands and agents of change shine the brightest. Rather than put heads in the sand, pull back or play it safe, they’ll make bold moves, take risks and continue to innovate like never before. This is something we at Hunter both support and celebrate.

A new website for 2023

With that in mind, I’d like to announce that we’ve been working in the background on our new website. It’s in the final stages of the build, we’ll then populate the CMS, and undertake testing with the aim of going live in mid-to-late January 2023. The site isn’t just a new design, but a pivot for our business as a whole. A shift from a pure food and beverage branding agency, to a company that is more true to what we’ve been doing since we started… which is championing the founders, marketers and leadership teams with big audacious plans.

Introducing Rightful

Talking about pivots and audacious plans, we’ve started a side-hustle food and beverage innovation business called Rightful. It’s been in the planning and testing phase for the last 3-4 years or so and now we’re starting to share it more widely. If you’d like to find out more about what we’re doing you can head to the story on our blog here or reach out directly.

Celebrating our clients

It’s always difficult at this time of the year to take stock of what we’ve achieved for our clients and their businesses. The champagne moments at the end of a series of sprints never came. Rather it was more like a never-ending ultra marathon undertaken over the last couple of years. So it's only natural that we’re feeling a little exhausted on the final push towards that holiday break finishing line. Notable milestones that are fresh in our brains would include the global rebrand for 2XU. A branding rethink and business model transformation for the plant-based medicine company Cannatrek. New brand development, identity and packaging for Universal. A brand overhaul and brand architecture for Pure Dairy. Business model innovation and branding work for El Patio… and finally, but not least would have been the creative and brand strategy work for Canterbury of New Zealand.

Celebrating team and family

I’ve always thought that co-founding and/or running a business can be deeply self-indulgent. After all, you’re the person responsible for making the big strategic decisions. Theoretically, these decisions are made on sound judgement, but then again, they’re also made using intuition and gut feeling. Of which, you’d say comes from years and years of experience. Either way, it’s always a gamble and you’d be naive to think otherwise. But I don’t want to go down the philosophical rabbit hole today.

Instead, I’d like to acknowledge all the people that allow us to bring our ideas to life. First off, I’d like to give a big collective hug to our families who sit right behind us on this entrepreneurial roller-coaster. Not quite knowing what’s happening next, but instead putting faith in what we’re doing isn’t going to derail the cart.

Next, there’s our team… and honestly what an amazingly wonderful team we have. They’re an absolute dream. Not only in the work they produce, but also in the positive attitude and unrelenting passion they bring to the table each day. And if I’m overcompensating or biased, then just ask any of our clients or look at the google reviews.

Still on the list

I read somewhere that successful entrepreneurs don’t have to-do lists. Well, that’s not very practical if you’ve got a bunch of ideas in your head that you want to action. With time, capacity and priorities fighting each other we’ve decided to push our newsletter launch into early 2023.?

Truth be told, anyone can create a newsletter, but then we’re not anyone. The pressure is on us as creators to do something worth opening and I believe we’re not there just yet. So a big thanks to everyone who signed up for our newsletter… we appreciate your patience and hope to see you in your inbox soon.

Happy holidays

Our team will be taking a well-deserved break from 22.12.22 until 09.01.23. And as such, we’ll be downing tools and taking time out to recharge our batteries. So on that note, I’d like to wish you all a wonderful break and look forward to seeing you all in the new year.