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When Anchorage Capital bought David Jones in 2023 for circa 5 per cent paid by Woolworths Holdings less than a decade earlier, it was a $100m bet on customer data as much as flagship stores. The private equity firm’s thesis was simple but radical: get smarter, use the customer data trove to unlock buried value. That meant stripping back legacy systems and federating intelligence across the business. Two and a half years later, David Jones is on a path towards a business that looks more like a data platform with a luxury retail layer on top, though rooted in brand and curated customer experiences. If Anchorage’s bet pays off, the strategy could rewrite the playbook for how private equity values – and acquires and ultimately sells – old brands.

Two singing and dancing kiwifruit characters have helped Zespri International more than double sales in Australia over the past five years and lifted penetration of its SunGold kiwifruit products to 22.9 per cent. It’s the power of compounding creative, investing in distinctive assets, understanding your target audience and importantly, knowing when it’s time to trade up on health benefits to taste as an underlying communications platform, says the group’s local marketing leader, Janice Byrnes. Having received multiple gongs for its ‘Crazy Tasty’ fruit and the recent ‘Healthier Way’s pilot including at the recent Australian Marketing Institute Excellence Awards, she shares what’s it taken to bring the creative to life.