In building digital assets you want to be three things:


Be genuine. Be available. Be targeted.

Being genuine means lets think about your ‘why ‘ and share it .. introduce your team, some of your key industry partners and even some of your tight five (customers) .. it could be that you already know why they chose you, but if you don’t lets go and find out. You’ll find these conversations heart warming. Then share those insights with your audience, through your digital content. Showcasing your partnerships says a lot about your culture and your ethos. And to be honest your consumers are also your partners .. they are key to your success. Consumers today are looking to differentiate between the myriad of products, so lead with being genuine, open, transparent, grateful and humble.

Being available means making your social content and your website easy for your guests to navigate and reach you across multiple avenues - email, phone, Facebook, Linked in, Instagram. Please don’t spoil the experience with ‘join our newsletter’ pop-ups. Simply be available .. share why you believe in what you do and share your costs .. yes don’t hide them and make people email you for pricing .. no-one has time for this and you risk loosing such a powerful opportunity. Potential clients may look for cheaper options and that is fine, not every client is going to align with what you offer and pay what you want. Instead, be everything to the ones who choose you.


Being targeted means producing content and a narrative specifically for your target audience. To do this we need to know who they are, what they enjoy doing, what language and tone they use, their lifestyles, their goals, their aspirations
and their stressors .. knowing this helps to build targeted and genuine content of value.



My last thought here is to consider adopting an ‘attract’ over ‘chase’ mindset. This means you build a strong brand, develop a personality, share your story and position content in front of your audience. Don’t talk things up .. lead with integrity and in turn, attract engagement and loyalty.

I love the following digital assets (aka websites) .. they understand brand and beautifully deliver. There is not a salesy’ word in sight. Their visuals are spectacular and evoke a ‘feeling’ of clarity (depth of brand) and class. They quietly share their story and invite you to be part of their journey. For me these are beautiful examples of ‘new’ school integrity led (soft) digital design. Disclaimer: I am in no way related to these businesses, I celebrate them, and showcase how ‘best’, ‘boss’, ‘dope’ and ‘king’ can feel (a.k.a look)..
* click on their image and it will shoot you to their site(s) ..

Treespace .. their digital awareness is bang on, minimal and visually engaging. A perfect example of attract over chase.

Davaar is the farm, brand and brainchild of Kate Macdonald. Kate and her family farm in Te Anau, a rugged and beautiful landscape in the deep South of New Zealand, producing lambs and exceptional ‘strong wool’ which they partner to craft into a curated selection of beautiful New Zealand produced woolen wear.

Is there anything more to say about Nina and Craigs refined eye for detail @ Ellei Home which is carried across their digital asset(s) .. I love it.

An outstanding concept and visual display of imagery leading the show .. hinter your concept and site is stellar .. bravo bravo bravo.

Ruataniwha Hut is the brainchild of Andrew Stroud .. the site is as clean as the property which sits in the Ruataniwha National Park in Ben Ohau … beautiful.