As a Google Premier Partner & most awarded across 2023 and 2024.
Our Partnership with Akubra Hats
Akubra is one of Australia's most iconic heritage brands, with a 150-year history of crafting premium felt hats. Following a brand unearthing in March 2025, Akubra set out to build on its heritage while expanding its digital presence and ensuring the brand had multi-generational appeal, and connected with audiences beyond its traditional customer base.
Akubra partnered with Reload to accelerate the next chapter of its growth. The shared goal was to deepen connection with new audiences while staying true to the brand's heritage, broadening Akubra's reach and introducing a new generation of customers to the brand without losing the character that has made it an Australian icon.
1+
years
Working together
The Opportunity
As a trusted brand, with a loyal customer base, Akubra was well positioned to expand its digital footprint. The opportunity was to build on this strong foundation reaching beyond the existing customer base to engage new customers, diversifying the channels Akubra was active on, and bringing greater agility and real-time visibility to performance so the brand could move quickly against an ambitious marketing calendar. The 150-year anniversary and recent brand refresh created a natural moment to introduce Akubra to new audiences and celebrate its heritage.
Our Approach
Reload partnered closely with Akubra to deliver a media strategy that balanced immediate sales with long-term brand growth, built around three core pillars:
Balancing demand capture with demand creation: Reload significantly increased investment in demand generation and expanded Akubra into additional awareness channels including YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Pinterest to introduce the brand to new, in-market audiences while continuing to capture existing demand efficiently.
An audience-led approach to channels and creative: Creative and channel selection were tailored to resonate with Akubra's diverse audiences, pairing the right message with the right platform to engage customers while continuing to speak to Akubra's established community.
Seasonal strategic flexing: Activity was phased to scale ahead of key trading periods and the 150-year anniversary launch, aligning heavier investment with Akubra's highest-value shopping moments to maximise impact when it mattered most.
Our Results
The refreshed full-funnel strategy drove major year-on-year improvements in reach, engagement and revenue across the financial year:
- Converting awareness into consideration: Independent brand tracking (Tracksuit) showed Akubra at 80% versus a 50% competitor average.
- Expanded brand reach: Top-of-funnel traffic up 122% year on year and engaged sessions up 67% year on year.
- Grew quality, high-intent traffic: Paid channel add-to-carts up 267% year on year, reflecting stronger engagement from newly reached audiences.
- Scaled revenue efficiently: Overall net ecommerce sales up 30% year on year, delivered at a strong blended ROAS at 7.3x. Proving that broadening reach and audience drove growth without compromising efficiency.
- Google provided a strong ROAS: Google conversion campaigns delivered a 8.11x average ROAS
