Write directly. Our founding team replies to every note inside three working days.
We take on a small number of engagements each year — roughly twelve — and we stay in them. If your business is at an inflection point, we want to hear from you. We read everything. We reply to everything. We do not use an intake form that goes to a marketing team.
Submit a proper brief
Eight questions. Takes about twelve minutes. Gets you a call with the founding team inside three days.
Go to the brief The short wayEmail us directly
If writing a form is absurd for your situation, write a letter. Jackson reads every note that comes in.
hello@glow.com.au The Melbourne wayVisit the studio
We are based in Collingwood. If you are in town, come in. We make coffee we are quietly proud of.
Studio detailsTell us the actual brief. Not the nice version.
The more honest the brief, the better the first conversation. We are not going to audit your grammar. We are going to read for what you actually want to happen.
If you do not know the answer to a question — leave it. If there is something we did not ask — write it in the last box. The form is a scaffold, not a gate.
We are not the right partner for everyone. And we are picky about it.
- A consumer brand with a real P&L and a live inflection point.
- A founder or operator willing to be in the room for the strategy work.
- A commercial outcome you can name — revenue, retail doors, margin, CAC.
- At least a six-month horizon. Brand work does not ship in four weeks.
- An honest budget conversation — before scope gets ambitious.
- A logo refresh that needs to ship by Friday.
- A pitch that already has the answer — and wants us to dress it up.
- An RFP with six other agencies and a 72-hour turnaround.
- A category that requires us to write things we don't believe.
- A team that expects a deck, not a change. We make the change.
Four steps. Two weeks. No pitch theatre.
We read your brief
Always a person. Usually Jackson. Occasionally a practice director if it's obviously theirs.
A call with the founding team
45 minutes. No one junior. We ask the questions the brief left out. We tell you if we don't think we're right.
A proposal — not a pitch
One document. Scope, team, timeline, fee. Written plainly. No spec creative. No dog-and-pony.
We start
Kick-off on-site at the studio, at your offices, or over two sharp video sessions. The engagement begins.
Come in for a coffee.
Our studio is a four-storey industrial building off Smith Street in Collingwood, Melbourne. There is a print room, a model shop, a shoot space, and a kitchen that runs properly between twelve and two. Strategy work happens on the ground floor; pack prototyping on the second; our Glow Report desk on the third.
You are welcome to visit for a brief conversation, a studio tour, or — if you are in town on a Thursday — the informal Glow Report debrief we host the week after every publication.
Answers, plainly.
Do you work with early-stage brands?
Sometimes. We run a small number of pre-launch engagements each year, usually where the founder has operator experience, a commercial thesis we find interesting, and a real runway. We are not the right partner for a first-logo project under A$30k.
Are you a retainer or a project studio?
Both. Most engagements begin as a 12–24 week project and graduate into a multi-year relationship. We currently hold six active retainers. We are happy to structure either; we'll recommend whichever fits the brief honestly.
Will you do pitch creative?
No. We do not write spec work. Our proposals include strategic framing, case precedent, team, scope, and fee. If the creative thinking is the engagement, we do it inside the engagement — not for free in a pitch.
How does pricing work?
Fixed fee, tied to scope. For multi-practice engagements, a monthly retainer with a clear scope at each phase. Budgets below A$100k are rare; typical first-year engagements land A$250k–A$850k. We are transparent about this early so you can plan.
Do you work internationally?
Yes. Roughly half of our engagements are non-Australian. We work in ANZ, UK, EU, and North America regularly; have shipped work in 36 markets. We travel for kick-off and critical buyer pitches. We do not fly for regular working sessions.
Can you hire us just for packaging?
Usually not. If the packaging is truly the problem — SKU rationalisation on a healthy brand, for example — yes. More often, the packaging is a symptom of a brand architecture or positioning issue, and we'd rather solve both or neither.
Do you sell media?
No. We do not sell paid media, take buying commissions, or have referral relationships with media agencies. We advise on spend and mix; we do not place it. This is part of how we keep our advice honest.
Can I speak with a reference client?
Yes — after the first call, with permission. We will introduce you to the founder or operator of a relevant prior engagement. We make the introduction, not the pitch.