Brands that stand the test of time
The stories of three businesses whose 20 years with DAIS has given them an advantage despite the cadence of trends exponentially increasing.
For Jack Perlinksi and the team at brand agency DAIS, seeing that a former client’s brand is still going strong years after the original brief is delivered is something that brings them great pride.
Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort, the Redcliffe Dolphins and Brisbane’s Royal on the Park hotel use the design and collateral that was produced over 20 years ago to build valuable, recognised brands that has resulted in longevity, market leadership and investment.
“These are brands from different eras that gained significant value from the identity that we built way back when. We created them and set them free.”
“Knowing the company has produced timeless work and value for money is as rewarding as it gets”, says Jack.
Royal Gorge was one of DAIS’s first major international projects. Despite the business changing ownership during that time, the brand remained strong enough to be retained.
The team positioned, designed and produced all of the web collateral including pioneering interactive trail maps and live condition reports for the Royal Gorge ski resort.
“This was some pretty ground-breaking stuff back then,” said Jack. “Since then, not much has changed.”
The team was dealing with bandwidth, dial up modems and coding to create the user experience. While that might not sound like much today, it was extremely experimental 20 years ago.
Having a brand that imbued the identity of the business created a sense of timelessness to Royal Gorge’s branding.
“They are just as contemporary and relevant to today’s generation,” said Jack. “It’s an emotional connection, and you don’t want them to change. Designing properly at the beginning means that they now have built an emotional and commercial market equity.”
“For a boutique brand agency in Brisbane, Queensland, delivering projects in the United States of America at that time was pretty cool.”
Closer to home, is Brisbane’s iconic Royal on the Park hotel. Formerly known as the Brisbane Park Royal, DAIS was brought in to entirely rebrand the business after it was sold to the Sultan of Brunei in 2003.
“We had 30 days in which to completely rebrand and reposition that hotel from a legal perspective,” said Jack. “There could not be a single thing related to Park Royal left.”
The team pulled off an entire rebrand that involved renaming the hotel and everything from signage, matchboxes, and business cards in just one month.
“We presented a whole new brand concept which is still the current logo. It got accepted the first time and from then it has not altered at all in its look and feel,” Jack said.
DAIS continued to work with the hotel as their brand agency for around eight years after the initial month-long rebranding sprint.
“Every time I’m in town, I walk past that building and I am so proud of the fact that it stands there the way it does,” said Jack.
They are the kind of projects that are the reason why we exist. Give us the impossible and we’ll make it possible.
“Give us no time and we’ll do our best in that scenario. I still have the original hand drawing of the Royal in the Park identity in a notebook in my desk drawer.”
The Redcliffe Dolphins rugby league team is now seeing their brand flourish on the back of work that began more than 17 years ago.
Following an unexpected legal challenge over the rights to and ownership of the Dolphins’ name, the Redcliffe Dolphins and their legal team worked with brand agency DAIS in 2005 to establish strong brand foundations, clear trademark ownership and brand identity.
“The Redcliffe Dolphins had to protect their position and have the legal argument about the equity and value of their brand,” said Jack. “We were part of the process to measure, prove and validate that the Redcliffe Dolphins have a high commercial and community equity value in the word dolphin and had primary rights to the trademark.”
Winning the court case, the Redcliffe Dolphins knew they needed to protect their brand moving forward.
“It injected a passion to protect and understand the value of their brand,” said Jack.
To put a valuation on the brand, forced them to change the mindset at board level of what the brand was worth and how to leverage it.
In 2021, the NRL was looking to add a 17th team to the national competition and with a powerful brand and community image the Redcliffe Dolphins were well positioned and a strong contender – and won.
“They created a whole diverse ecosystem of commercial entities, ventures and licenses, using the Redcliffe Dolphins brand to create a greater value to the visibility of the brand, helping them build their prowess as an NRL team and club.
“To the point today where they have transcended now to the upper echelons and are now the newest NRL team in the competition.”
While DAIS isn’t actively working with the three brands, they are still proud of their hard work.
“We don’t necessarily have to work on brands today to still be proud of them today,” said Jack. “Ownership, management and leadership changes and brands move into different relationships. It’s so nice to come back and wonder how it’s going and it’s still going. To me that’s amazing.”
“Every one of these brands has a culture and a call to people who are deeply passionate,” he added. “It’s about authenticity and bringing their true self and message to the forefront.
“They are brought into the product personality and the promise that these brands make. They exist as part of people’s memories, history, and DNA.
“That’s why if you design it well and have that underpinning, they don’t need to change. That’s why these brands endure.”
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