Simon Hammond

Simon Hammond (born 23 January 1962) is an Australian author, entrepreneur, journalist, business advisor and international keynote speaker.

Born in the United Kingdom, Simon Hammond relocated to Australia in 1969, at age seven. He lived in Adelaide with his family through the assisted migration scheme before the family moved to Melbourne. Hammond still resides in Melbourne today.

Simon attended Salesian College in Victoria from 1974 to 1979, before studying a Bachelor of Journalism at RMIT in 1980.

Director and founder of Hammond Thinking in Melbourne, Australia, Simon Hammond is the author of three books on brand strategy and has founded four brand communications agencies.

Viewpoints

Simon Hammond developed the BE Brand philosophy, maintaining that when a business stands for something based on the emotive drivers of its customer, this will lead to connection and sense of belonging. The BE Brand business strategy process is used in 11 countries across four continents.

Career

Journalism

Simon began his career in Journalism in 1980 as a Cadet reporter at the Knox Sherbrooke News for Leader Newspapers The Leader. In 1982 he joined Mark Day's The Truth in Melbourne where he worked on the investigative team. In 1984 he became Victoria's youngest ever A grade journalist when he took over 4x4 magazine for Syme magazines at age 22. He joined 3AW as Assistant Chief of Staff, before becoming Magazine Development Manager for Syme Magazines in 1986. He ran his own talkback motoring radio show on radio 3UZ for 3 years between 1986 and 1989. In 1988 he established his first brand communications business, Dare Concepts. Since leaving full-time journalism, Simon has been a contributor to The Herald Sun and is a regular commentator on Channel 7's Today Tonight program.

Business Ventures

Simon has established brand communication agencies and methodologies throughout Australia, the USA, Asia, Europe and the UK.

After leaving the world of journalism in 1988, Simon established his first communications agency with Robyn, Dare Concepts. Dare was initially founded as a PR company but quickly transitioned into a 'big ideas' advertising agency. Dare was well known for its mould-breaking stunts such as the orchestrated kidnapping of a Victorian minister or breaking the land speed record for a caravan.

By 1993, Dare had become a juggernaut in the Melbourne creative industry, gathering large clients like GSK and Land Rover. But wanting to venture increasingly into advertising, Simon founded The Edge gain with wife Robyn Nelson, and new business partner Ron Barnacle. The Edge made a massive splash when it debuted it's still revered 'roo cull' trilogy of ads for youth outreach service 'Open Family'. 'Roo Cull' showed Australian street kids gunned down, 'Cry Wolf' threw street kids to wolves and 'Waltzing Matilda' included a young Australian putting on blackface and receiving more aid as a result.

After unresolvable creative differences with partner Ron Barnacle caused Simon to split from The Edge in 1996, Hammond returned to Dare which had been running alongside The Edge and took the reins back from wife Robyn, rebranding it Hammond Dare. The Edge was eventually sold in 2000 and merged with Clemenger Harvie to form Clemenger Harvie Edge, now CHE.

As time passed, Hammond Dare received more acclaim and Simon formed an idea to make his agency a destination. So, in 2001 SEE was launched, transitioning clients and staff directly from Hammond Dare. SEE became Hammond's largest and best known agency between its 2001 inception and its 2007 sale to Photon Group (now Enero Group). In this time, Simon found tremendous growth, most notably becoming a published author and developing his most valuable IP - BE Branding. SEE landed massive clients like NAB while creating a creative space that attracted talent from around the country. The business grew large enough to expand into a second location. After selling in 2006, Photon group transitioned SEE into Belong, which would herald a period of change for Simon.

His philosophical business model, BE Brands, has been used by business globally since 2003.

After briefly helming the new Photon Group-run business for two years, Simon left for greener pastures. This would usher in the end of era, with the 21-year old business in his rear view mirror, it would be another 10 years before Simon fronted a creative agency. In the years since, he co-founded Bastion Brands in 2009 and The Be Counsel in 2010 as well as his one-man operation Hammond Thinking in 2012. Now under Bastion Collective, Bastion Brands continues to be a huge success without Simon's involvement. Similarly The Be Counsel ran for many years with Simon as a silent partner, and it wasn't until 2018 that Simon stepped up to helm the agency.

In November 2019, Simon began his newest business venture 50 Crates. Focusing on the use of the BE Branding philosophy in conjunction with the Socratic method, 50 Crates aims to challenge business leaders by "asking the questions that are hard to ask" and transitions The Be Counsel into Simon's biggest creative venture since SEE in 2001.

Hammond's new creative studio and event centre is set to open mid 2020 in Graham Street, Port Melbourne.

Writing

Simon Hammond has authored three books on the BE Brand philosophy.

Guts: All It Takes To Be Successful In Business (and Life)[1] In 2004, Zatzit Pty Ltd published Hammond’s first book, ‘Guts’. This book explores his business manifesto and personal development. He explains his formula to success using a range of powerful social insights (SINS). The production of Guts led to the formulation of BE Brands.

BE Brands: Simon Hammond’s Creative Brand Revolution[2][3][4] In 2006, Wiley Books published Hammond’s second book, BE Brands. The namesake of Hammond’s brand philosophy, this book examines brave brands that have emerged “in a world of risk aversion and corporate blandness”. Focused on the future of customer-centric businesses, Hammond uses popular culture observations, consumer behaviour insights and practical experience to establish the top twenty brands in Australia and what can be learnt from their business transformations.[5][6]

CEO of Earth: A Ground-Breaking Guide to Building the Ultimate Brand[7] In 2009, Wright Books published Hammond’s third book, CEO of Earth. In contrast to Hammond’s non-fiction publications, CEO of Earth is a fictional tale of an advertising intern, Fysh Reynolds, mistaken as the ‘leader of Earth’ by some tourist traders from another planet. Before he can explain the misunderstanding, Reynolds finds himself in charge of tourism for planet Earth. This tale of branding the ultimate product illustrates how textbook approaches to marketing might work on the biggest brand conceivable and what ‘old school’ methods would need to change for Earth to be the universal brand of choice. In 2013, CEO of Earth was translated into Spanish and became digitally available in ibooks and kindle.

Speaking

Simon Hammond is a frequent keynote speaker, with appearances at The Melbourne International Fashion Festival and Melbourne International Business Forum.[8][9][10][11]

Hammond is also the creator and producer of Lectern Rock. Launched in 2008, Lectern Rock is a theatrical rock seminar program, designed to change the way audiences are engaged on business topics.[12][13] This program toured Australia four times between 2008 and 2011, seen by over 10,000 businesses in Australia. Lectern Rock is known as Podium Rock outside of Australia and has toured the USA.[14][15][16][17]

Community Work

Simon Hammond has been active in community and charitable pursuits. He took on pro bono work for Anglicare and Open Family.[18][19][20] Hammond also spent time as a board member of Open Family from 1993 - 1995.

Hammond worked for Lifeline for seven years as both a counselor and trainer.

In 1975 he was honoured with a Queen Scout award. Hammond was awarded the inaugural literary award at Salesian college in 1979.

Bibliography
  1. Hammond, Simon (2004). Guts: All It Takes To Be Successful In Business (and Life). Australia: Zatzit Pty. Ltd. ISBN 9780975709504.
  2. Hammond, Simon (2006). Be brands : Simon Hammond's creative brand revolution. Camberwell, Vic.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0731404556.
  3. Binning, David (June 30, 2006). "Believe in your brand". The Australian. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  4. Jawin. "Review". Jun 24, 2007. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  5. Google BE Brands book review.
  6. "Reader review".
  7. Hammond, Simon (2009). CEO of Earth: A Ground-Breaking Guide to Building The Ultimate Brand. Australia: Wiley Books. ISBN 9781742169569.
  8. "Saxton Speakers Bureau". Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  9. "Moonee Valley Gala Lunch 2011" (PDF).
  10. "Open Space Plenary MECC 2013".
  11. "American Banker".
  12. "Open Space Plenary - MECC". 28 February 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  13. Commercial Radio Australia. "Keynote".
  14. "BDI".
  15. "Official website". Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  16. "Podium Rock NYC 2011".
  17. Vimeo. "OroraLive USA". Orora Ltd.
  18. The Canberra Times, Friday 4 June 1993
  19. The Canberra Times, Thursday 26 May 1994
  20. The Canberra Times, Tuesday 1 June 1993
  1. [Official website] http://www.hammondthinking.com
  2. http://podiumrock.com
  3. http://www.australianspeaker.com/speaker664-Simon-Hammond
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