How do you brand the ‘Russell Coight of accounting’?

Little Village Creative founder Carolyn Stebbing discovered Andrew Van De Beek was a lot different from the standard-issue accountant when they met on a Xero advertising shoot seven years ago. Andrew, an ‘ideas man’ entrepreneurial type who looks, dresses and acts much more like a craft brewer than a beancounter, has been involved in a number of ventures in recent years. All while holding down his day job as the owner of accounting firm illumin8, an innovative accounting firm he founded in 2012 with the ambition of “connecting on a human level to help our clients kick goals with both feet”.  

In 2020, Andrew approached Carolyn and her team to create the brand for The Rumbl, an exclusive mini-retreat venture for accountants where they can connect and learn from each other. Two years later, Andrew told Carolyn that he was starting a podcast with Aly Garrett, the owner of All In Advisory. A podcast featuring the unguarded conversations accountants have with each other after a few drinks. 

“The idea was that Aly and I would broadcast the kind of – ‘Why did you do this? How did you ever manage to pull off that?’ – conversations that accountants, and business owners more broadly, usually have in private.”   

Andrew, Aly, Russell, Bill and Ted

For the non-Gen Xers, Russell Coight is a comically inept Bear Grylls character that Glenn Robbins first unveiled in 2001. Bill and Ted are two idiotic but well-meaning teenagers first played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in 1989. While Andrew and Aly didn’t want to suggest they were bumblers, they did want to get across the idea that listening to their podcast could be as entertaining as watching a great comedy TV show or film. Partly for reasons of alliteration, they also wanted to convey the idea they would take readers on an educational adventure, just like Russell, Bill and Ted had. “We wanted to get as many A’s in the title as possible and the adventure idea allowed us to go with “Aly and Andrew’s All Aussie Accounting Adventures,’” Andrew explains.   

“There were no lofty goals for Aly & Andrew’s All Aussie Accounting Adventures,” Andrew says. “As it turned out, it got 10,000 downloads in its first year. We’ve also got a lot of interest from sponsors, as well as some business and speaking opportunities. But to be honest, Aly and I just had a lot of laughs talking about our businesses with each other. We began recording and broadcasting our discussions in the hope other business owners, especially accounting firm owners, would find them informative and entertaining.”

Andrew and Aly wanted anyone scrolling Spotify or Apple Podcasts to understand their show would be a pleasurable listen. “There is a stereotype of what accountants are like and therefore an expectation about what a podcast featuring two accountants talking shop would involve,” Andrew explains. “We wanted to convey that each podcast episode was like going on an exciting adventure. Carolyn and her team were handed the job of working out how to represent that visually.” 

All aboard

“The words we kept coming up with when trying to nail down the brand identity were, ‘playful’, ‘conversational’, ‘storytelling’ and ‘experiential’,” Andrew says. “We wanted to make sure there was zero chance people would see the visual branding and think, ‘This will be a couple of boring middle-aged guys talking about blockchain technology.’”  

Through the expert deployment of quirky fonts, a light-hearted colour palette and unusual headshots, LVC’s designer Jena memorably illustrated Andrew’s vision of “a couple of Aussie larrikins setting out on an adventure”.

Final tips

Many people launch podcasts, but very few manage to attract an audience. 

Andrew has one piece of advice for those looking to follow in his podcasting footsteps: if you’re going to do something, do it right.

“On a micro level, that means things such as investing in good microphones to provide listeners with quality audio,” Andrew says. “At a macro level, it means things like spending a few dollars on quality branding.”

Of course, these investments don’t guarantee success. But they make it more likely. 

“Aly and I already had a huge amount on our plates before the podcast,” Andrew says. “If we were going to be devoting our scarce time and energy to getting together to do a podcast, we wanted to do everything possible to encourage people to download it. So, it was a no-brainer to spend a few dollars on making sure we had a solid visual representation of what the podcast was about to use on the website and social media pages.”

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