From humble beginnings through a decade of innovation and bold ideas, Red Herring Digital is celebrating 10 years!
What began as a shared vision between two friends has blossomed into a thriving digital marketing agency, delivering scroll-stopping creative and data-driven marketing solutions to Australian brands.
Over the last decade, we’ve grown with the industry and expanded our skills, celebrating all our successes, big and small. And while the tools and tactics have evolved, our commitment to provide a dedicated service backed by data hasn’t changed.
As we blow out the candles on our birthday cake, we’re taking a moment to reflect on our journey and share what’s next for Red Herring Digital.
The Early Days of Red Herring Digital
Phil, Head of Creative
Alex and I met in second year at the Australian Academy of Design in Port Melbourne. Me, a skinny, long-haired tech nerd, and Alex, rocking a fringe that can only be described as questionable
We bonded over a shared love of golf, late-night dirty techno, and Alex’s desperate need for someone to build his website in our digital design class. After uni, Alex went off to do his Masters while I freelanced, juggling design gigs, wedding photography, nightclub shoots at Mynt, and a glamorous career pushing trolleys at Coles.
Around 2014 when I got back from Europe we entered the RMIT business awards where we had progressed pretty far into the competition, but due to the business actually taking up most of our time we had to stop that and focus solely on red herring.
Alex, Managing Director
Phil and I worked on many projects together, our first being a promotional campaign for Visit Victoria featuring Werribee Mansion– and let’s just say, we’ve come a long way since this video.
Collectively, we have always had a strong passion for marketing, media, and comms.
During our university years, we realised our combined strengths while working together, paired with our love for business, and discussed the possibility of starting our own agency.
After uni, we kept in touch by playing golf, and in 2014, we decided to officially merge our freelancing businesses together once I had finished my Masters. Come 2015, after my Masters graduation, we officially started Red Herring Digital.
How did you find your first clients?
Phil, Head of Creative
After years of shooting nightclubs, festivals, weddings and cranking out a questionable amount of random graphic design work I’d built up quite the contact list. What I hadn’t built was any ability to actually sell.
Enter Alex. Fresh from his Masters and stints at companies like Tabcorp, he had the sales skills and marketing know-how I sorely lacked. In other words, I had the connections, he had the persuasion and together, it lined up perfectly.
Alex, Managing Director
As we merged our businesses, we formed an existing customer base, which was great, but we still had plenty of capacity.
We attended numerous networking events, met many professionals, explored existing connections, and continued to grow steadily year by year.
One of Red Herring Digital’s first official clients was RMS Traders, who are still with us today.
Who do you want to thank for helping you reach this milestone?
Alex, Managing Director
The list is long, but in short, our family and friends have shown us a great deal of support over the years, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.
Support comes in many different ways, and we would like to thank those who have modeled for us at shoots, trusted Red Herring Digital to work with their business, or referred us to their work. Each bit of support has contributed to the agency we’ve been able to create.
Phil, Head of Creative
There are so many people to thank for helping bring this little business of ours all the way to its tenth year. First up, our parents who had to put up with us invading each other’s houses three to five days a week when we were just starting out. Alex rocking up to my place with his iMac still in the original box, both of us crammed around my tiny bedroom desk. Then there were the days at Alex’s dad’s dining table (always with a plate of pickles handy), or at his mum’s house, pausing to give the labs a cuddle while we tried to figure out Facebook ads.
A massive thanks to Alana, who’s been with us for nine of those ten years. Back when she was studying Marketing at RMIT, she stepped in to save me from my complete inability to edit video into anything watchable or style any of our shoots and now she’s the strategic powerhouse (and might i add a little bit, nay a lot of a perfectionist, and very detail oriented {just ask some of our clients about the docs they’ve received}) dreaming up and driving the great work we do today.
And to Tom Shaw, who joined us at the start of COVID as our account manager, a great personality (maybe a touch NQR at times, WOOF!) to liaise with our clients and taking a mountain of work off our plate so we could focus on growing the business to where it is today.
Finally, to everyone who has worked with us and everyone else currently working with us Renee, Zahra and Renata, josh, Aries and Kim (who’s currently fixing my shithouse grammer) now at RHD you’re the soul of this business.
And lastly Alex, we compliment each other so well in the differing work we do, it really allows us to focus on separate parts of the business and not constantly tripping over each other.
What are the plans for Red Herring Digital moving forward?
Ten years in, and we’re just getting started. It’s been a decade of big ideas, bold campaigns, fun shoots, and a suspicious amount of “work meetings” over coffee and lunch.
Our plans moving forward are to strengthen our partnerships, continue improving and refining our offering, seek to attract new, quality partnerships with like-minded Australian brands and build long-term relationships.
We’ll keep backing our team to do great work, build on our strengths, and pursue opportunities that fuel creativity, push boundaries, and deliver meaningful results for our clients.
To every client, partner, and team member who has been a part of our story so far, thank you. You have shaped Red Herring Digital into what it is today, and we’re excited to see what the next chapter holds.
If you’re ready to see what a decade of digital expertise can do for your brand, schedule a strategy session today.
