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‘Stories that Stick’: Adhesive founder shares details of agency rebrand and what’s next for comms
Independent PR and comms agency Adhesive has refreshed its brand, redefining its purpose to double down on storytelling. Mumbrella's Lauren McNamara sat down exclusively with founder and MD Mike Maurice to learn all about it.
When Adhesive celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2022, founder and MD Mike Maurice began having conversations with those around him about the agency’s next era.
What should it look like? What needs to be developed? Where can we innovate?
Recognising that the industry has changed, the agency has changed, and clients’ needs have changed, he knew he needed to look at the agency’s brand with a fresh perspective.
But in a post-Covid world, the ‘norm’ was anything but normal, so Maurice says it didn’t feel like the right time to make such big decisions. Instead, he sat back and listened for a couple of years, watching the dust settle.
But now, now feels like the right time. So, introducing Adhesive 2.0 – a refocused, reprioritised, reborn agency.
In an effort to double down on storytelling — which has arguably always been a big part of Adhesive’s journey — the rebrand hopes to sustain the agency for years to come.
“Storytelling brings to life, often in a very emotive way, a bunch of pretty ordinary and boring facts,” Maurice begins.
“Storytelling is the key to engagement. Earning attention is hard enough, but holding attention is even harder.”
Maurice says the first step was redefining the agency’s purpose – it’s the basis of the evolution. With very deliberate wording, a new purpose has been born: ‘Create Impact Through Storytelling’.
“We wanted to communicate our ‘why we exist’ in a way that is succinct, easy to understand, and relevant very broadly,” he explains. “We believe storytelling has, is, and will continue to be a powerful practice to make a positive impact both commercially and socially.”
The purpose can be broken down into three key steps: finding a story, earning it, and making it stick. Not everyone knows what their story is, or where to start. Some may have a story, but need to craft it in a way that will earn attention. And others simply need to hold attention, and “make it Adhesive”. Pun intended.
“We call this practice ‘stories that stick’,” Maurice continues.
Along with the new purpose comes a new culture code, as well as the final puzzle piece – the aesthetics.
In collaboration with Chris O’Doyle & Co and The Social Lab, Adhesive’s rebrand features new logos, wordmarks, and a new website.
“We looked to refresh with a more playful design that is reflective of our positive and fun outlook to life.”
With the brand refresh comes new focuses and priorities for 2025 and beyond.
While some argue ‘earned’ is getting bandied as part of an excited hype of expected resurgence, Maurice stresses that it never fell off the radar.
“It’s just been pulling different or fewer levers in its arsenal,” he says.
One lever within the earned discipline that has been used less is storytelling, and he says it’s no secret about that – brand storytelling is often the first thing dropped when budgets are cut.
“And I get it,” Maurice continues. “It’s easy for a guy who owns a brand storytelling agency to say don’t cut your brand budget.”
He’s noticed that, even for an brand storytelling agency, Adhesive has also moved into the window of performance marketing over brand.
“It’s ok to drop brand for a while – something has to give when there is a finite pot. But you can only do that for so long before it starts to have an effect. You have to come up for air at some point.”
As he starts to see vibration back towards brand storytelling – which is exciting for both agencies and clients – he has no doubt this expected resurgence of earned will happen – and Adhesive is now poised to lead it.
“People have been telling stories since the beginning of time and we will continue to do so well after you and I have gone. That need to be entertained and engaged won’t change,” he says.
What has changed, and will continue to change, is whatever is trending and the technology available to deliver these stories.
And that’s where Adhesive’s storytelling priority comes in to play.
While Maurice believes there’s going to be a lot of positive attention on the earned discipline in the near future with this resurgence, he says it’s dangerous for earned professionals to assume they can “simply rise with the tide”.
“As always, things change, develop, become more dynamic, and we should be energised by that,” he explains. “Earning attention is simply your right to play, it’s your table stakes.”
But the next step is holding that attention – how long can you actually keep someone engaged? That should be the focus now, Maurice argues.
“Earning attention is half the job. Holding the engagement is the other half.”
Adhesive is working on more things in the background, including a new AI tool, that Maurice hope will support the agency’s — and more broadly, the industry’s — ability to keep up with the changing tides.
“I can’t talk too much about that yet, but it is a significant investment from our R&D budget — the biggest we’ve ever committed — because I truly believe earned storytelling is coming back with a force,” he concludes.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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