How do you turn a men’s grooming start-up launched from an Auckland flat into one of Australasia’s fastest-growing community-led brands? In this punchy keynote, Two Dudes co-founder Tomas Tappin shares how the brand built cult-like fandom through purpose, humour and genuinely talkable campaigns. 

From breaking the Movember fundraising record in 2025 (generating $146,000+) and donating 10% of profits to men’s health, to a headline-grabbing collab with Budgy Smuggler supporting Testicular Cancer and celebrating the launch of Two Dudes into 2,000 Woolworths and Coles stores across Australia, Tomas unpacks the power of community-first growth.

He’ll reveal why the DUDE GREEN rebrand became an inflection point for the business - and how that momentum is now fuelling a major Australian retail expansion into thousands of stores.

Key Lessons for Brands

• Community creates momentum - building a loyal fanbase by making customers feel part of something bigger.

• Purpose drives earned media - campaigns supporting men's health generated conversation, PR and cultural relevance money can't buy.

•  Brand personality matters - humour, honesty and boldness helped Two Dudes stand out in a traditionally bland category. 

• Big moments change trajectories - the DUDE GREEN rebrand, Movember, and Budgy Smuggler campaigns became growth accelerators, not just marketing activity.

About Tomas

Tomas is a Co-Founder of Kiwi start-up, Two Dudes. They are changing men's health one bathroom at a time with natural grooming products for men. The purpose driven business started as a side hustle. It was built on a foundation of direct-to-consumer eCommerce, and has now expanded into over 3,000 retail shelves across New Zealand and Australia. 
 
Prior to launching Two Dudes, Tomas was an eCommerce Lead at HEINEKEN Asia Pacific, rolling out digital sales platforms across Singapore, Vietnam, and New Zealand.

Co-presenting with Daniel Talbot, Group Business Director & Innovation Lead, TRA

Solo living is becoming a more deliberate and visible life choice. As more people delay relationships, start families later, or choose to stay single, traditional assumptions about “the household”, “the
family” and “the carer” no longer hold. Yet many brands still design products and services around these outdated models.

This creates a clear opportunity for brands to better serve people who are financially and emotionally independent, without treating them as incomplete or waiting for a future family structure. The opportunity is twofold: empower solo lives by recognising independence, choice and autonomy, while helping people create meaningful relationships, rituals and support networks on their own terms.

In this session, The Research Agency’s Daniel Talbot and Laura Mulcahy will present the findings from TRA’s latest research, exploring what this cultural shift means for brands. Discover how brands
can better reflect modern lives and leave with practical insights into one of the fastest -growing consumer segments, and the opportunities it presents for innovation, relevance and growth.

About Laura

Laura Mulcahy is Head of Culture Practice at TRA, with well over a decade of experience across cultural foresight, consumer insight, and strategy. Across nearly a decade in the US, Laura worked in
global insights and senior trend forecasting roles for Nike, shaping brand, design, and business decisions worldwide. She is passionate about decoding cultural and societal shifts to uncover the deeper motivations behind behaviour, identity, and expression. Laura brings a breadth of experience across sport, fashion, retail, youth, and lifestyle categories, with particular strength in cultural analysis, foresight, and brand relevance.

Jeremy Wells and Mike Lane are two of New Zealand’s most recognisable media disruptors and masters of turning sport, chaos and comedy into cult fandom. 

In this fast, funny fireside chat, the Alternative Commentary Collective founders unpack how they built one of NZ’s most engaged audiences by speaking to younger men in a way mainstream media never could. 

From the early Beige Brigade days to today’s full ACC ecosystem spanning podcasts, live events, social, commentary and community, this session explores the power of humour, authenticity and belonging in modern media. 

Expect war stories, laughs, sharp insights and practical lessons for brands trying to build relevance, loyalty and cultural cut-through.

Lessons for marketers:

• Build communities, not audiences

• Humour creates memorability and shareability
  
  

• Meet people across an ecosystem, not one channel 

• Authentic storytelling beats polished corporate messaging

About Jeremy

Jeremy Wells is one of New Zealand’s most recognisable broadcasters.  A founding member of The Alternative Commentary Collective, he's an  accomplished ball-by-ball cricket commentator and fan favourite. He's also the co-host of Radio Hauraki Breakfast, and TV personality currently fronting TVNZ's Seven Sharp and Taskmaster.

Wells first broke into television in 1997 on MTV, before rising to national fame as “Newsboy” on Mikey Havoc’s cult radio and TV shows.  His satirical credentials were cemented through hosting the long‑running TVNZ series Eating Media Lunch, as well as The Unauthorised History of New Zealand and the wildlife parody Birdland.   Across his career, Wells has become known for blending cultural critique with a uniquely Kiwi comedic sensibility.

Co-presenting with Kelvin Soh, Founder & Creative Director, DayMonthYear

Jayden Klinac didn't set out to build a marketing strategy - he set out to solve a problem. What followed was a masterclass in challenger brand building: no big budget, no traditional playbook, just a product designed to change behaviour and a brand built to earn its place in culture. 

From Laneway Festival sellouts to national recognition, ANEW proves that when your values are baked into the product, the marketing takes care of itself.

What you'll take away:

• Why designing for behaviour change is more powerful than designing for awareness
• How to use cultural moments and event activation to build brand equity on a small budget
• What "product as media" looks like in practice - and how to apply it to your brand
• The mindset shift that turns purpose from a campaign into a competitive advantage

About Jayden

Jayden Klinac is the Founder and CEO of Anew®, modern bottled water built for the next generation of consumers —packaged in a bottle made entirely from plants, independently proven to have zero microplastics, BPA, and PFAS and filled with natural mineral water. Drawing on 15 years in biomaterials, he is dedicated to redefining how the world drinks and rethinks packaging, helping businesses and consumers choose better without compromise.

Jeremy Wells and Mike Lane are two of New Zealand’s most recognisable media disruptors and masters of turning sport, chaos and comedy into cult fandom. 

In this fast, funny fireside chat, the Alternative Commentary Collective founders unpack how they built one of NZ’s most engaged audiences by speaking to younger men in a way mainstream media never could. 

From the early Beige Brigade days to today’s full ACC ecosystem spanning podcasts, live events, social, commentary and community, this session explores the power of humour, authenticity and belonging in modern media. 

Expect war stories, laughs, sharp insights and practical lessons for brands trying to build relevance, loyalty and cultural cut-through.

Lessons for marketers:

• Build communities, not audiences

• Humour creates memorability and shareability
  
  

• Meet people across an ecosystem, not one channel 

• Authentic storytelling beats polished corporate messaging

About Mike

Mike Lane is the General Manager, founding member and driving creative force behind The Alternative Commentary Collective (ACC), New Zealand’s leading sports‑entertainment brand. Known for its irreverent humour, fan‑first energy, and uniquely Kiwi take on sport, The ACC has grown into a multi‑platform powerhouse.  For those old enough to remember, Mike was also the creator of the cult cricket-fan movement The Beige Brigade, a cultural phenomenon that helped redefine the modern NZ cricket supporter (and wider sports) identity.  At any sports match around the world, you can still see a beige shirt or an ACC Steady the Ship captain's hat, a testament to his prowess into tapping into a fan psyche. He's been at the forefront of cultural movements for two and a half decades.

Co-presenting with Jayden Klinac, Founder & CEO, Anew

Jayden Klinac didn't set out to build a marketing strategy - he set out to solve a problem. What followed was a masterclass in challenger brand building: no big budget, no traditional playbook, just a product designed to change behaviour and a brand built to earn its place in culture. 

From Laneway Festival sellouts to national recognition, ANEW proves that when your values are baked into the product, the marketing takes care of itself.

What you'll take away:

• Why designing for behaviour change is more powerful than designing for awareness
• How to use cultural moments and event activation to build brand equity on a small budget
• What "product as media" looks like in practice - and how to apply it to your brand
• The mindset shift that turns purpose from a campaign into a competitive advantage

About Kelvin

Kelvin Soh is the founder and Creative Director of DayMonthYear, an Auckland-based brand and design studio working at the intersection of strategy, creativity and commercial growth. Over a two-decade career, he has built a reputation for helping companies create brands that not only stand out, but build lasting loyalty and commercial value. 

His work spans some of New Zealand’s most recognisable consumer brands, including Boring oat milk, Stolen Rum, Triumph & Disaster, 42Below vodka, Burly Gin, The Gospel Whiskey and Anew® Water. Several of these ventures have gone on to major international exits, including 42Below (Bacardi) and Charlie’s (Asahi), shaping his belief that brand growth is less about reaching more people, and more about creating the kind of products and experiences people genuinely care about, return to, and share. 

This “fan-first” philosophy underpins his approach to brand strategy — focusing on creating products and experiences people come back to, talk about, and build identity around. Rather than optimising for broad appeal, his work centres on depth of resonance, designing brands that a smaller group of people genuinely care about before they scale. 

His work increasingly focuses on translating this thinking into real-world commercial outcomes — shaping not just how brands look or speak, but what they are, how they’re used, and why they matter enough for customers to return and bring others with them. 

Beyond consumer products, he has worked with emerging technology companies such as Hedera Hashgraph and Nillion, and partnered with cultural institutions including Artspace, Govett-Brewster and the Venice Biennale. A former publisher of Le Roy, stocked at MoMA and Tate Modern, Soh is a regular speaker on branding, creativity and business. He is also an itinerant creative and strategic advisor for STILL, and serves on the board of the Paererewā project.

About Susannah

Susannah was instrumental in guiding Vodafone’s evolution into One New Zealand, leading the team at the heart of one of the country’s most significant brand transformations. With over two decades of experience in brand and marketing—half of that immersed in the fast-moving world of telecommunications and digital services—she brings a sharp strategic lens and deep industry expertise. Susannah is known for building high-performing teams and cultivating a values-led culture where people thrive. She’s a firm believer that long-term success starts with a relentless focus on the customer.

Co-presenting with Laura Mulcahy, Head of Cultural Practice, TRA

Solo living is becoming a more deliberate and visible life choice. As more people delay relationships, start families later, or choose to stay single, traditional assumptions about “the household”, “the
family” and “the carer” no longer hold. Yet many brands still design products and services around these outdated models.

This creates a clear opportunity for brands to better serve people who are financially and emotionally independent, without treating them as incomplete or waiting for a future family structure. The opportunity is twofold: empower solo lives by recognising independence, choice and autonomy, while helping people create meaningful relationships, rituals and support networks on their own terms.

In this session, The Research Agency’s Daniel Talbot and Laura Mulcahy will present the findings from TRA’s latest research, exploring what this cultural shift means for brands. Discover how brands
can better reflect modern lives and leave with practical insights into one of the fastest -growing consumer segments, and the opportunities it presents for innovation, relevance and growth.

About Daniel

As Group Business Director & Innovation Lead at TRA, Daniel draws on a diverse background in market research, human-centred design, and strategy to surface the uncommon truths that shape people and culture. He has helped local and global brands turn insight into meaningful audience connection and purposeful growth.