Behaviour change that creates commercial outcomes
They fail because the people required to deliver them don't change the way they behave. ClutchPlay finds the specific human behaviour blocking your commercial result and builds the strategy and actions to shift it.
The brief is right. The agency has delivered. The budget is spent. And the commercial result still isn't moving.
The rights are signed. The assets exist. The relationship is warm. But the commercial return isn't reflecting what was paid.
Leadership has communicated the direction. The organisation knows what's required. And still nothing changes.
The market is there. The product is right. The team is capable. Something human is getting in the way.
The stated problem is rarely the real problem. ClutchPlay diagnoses the specific human behaviour, emotional tension or systemic friction that is actually blocking the commercial result. Not symptoms. The root cause.
A precise diagnostic: what's getting in the way, why it's getting in the way, and what would need to change for the result to move.
Once the friction is visible, ClutchPlay builds the strategy to shift it. Not a communications plan. Not a culture program. The specific intervention — commercial, creative or organisational — that makes the required behaviour feel easier, more desirable or more permissible.
A behaviour change strategy built around the commercial outcome, not the brief.
Effectiveness is built in from the start, not retrofitted at the end. The measurement framework is agreed before the intervention is built. The commercial result is defined before activation begins. Renewal conversations are based on evidence, not relationships.
A commercial proof framework agreed upfront — so you know what worked, what didn't, and what to scale.
And what happened when it moved.
KFC had a loyalty problem that looked like an awareness problem. Australians loved the product but many felt reluctant to admit it publicly. The social shame around indulgence was suppressing participation in the brand.
The friction wasn't in the food. It was in the social permission to enjoy it. People were customers but didn't feel they could openly indulge. The barrier was emotional, not rational.
We built explicit emotional permission to enjoy KFC without apology. KFC actively fed the free spirit of Australians and rekindled their inner larrikin. For a nation that was feeling repressed and judged, it allowed them to embrace their indulgence without shame.
$3.20 returned for every $1 invested. More than $1 billion in compound revenue growth over five years. KFC overtook McDonald's as Australia's favourite restaurant brand.
Behaviour change mechanism: Social norm reframing
A beer brand that had lost relevance in a contracting category. Foster's positioning had stopped connecting with young British males. Without a role to play in their lives, there was a growing disconnect between the brand's projected identity and its audience's lived one.
British males were carrying the weight of an increasingly pressured life with little cultural permission to set it down. The friction wasn't the product. It was that they wanted emotional permission to enjoy what Foster's represented: a carefree, easygoing Australian attitude.
The strategy gave men permission to ease that anxiety through lightness, humour and a connection to the Australian mentality. Choosing Foster's became a small but genuine release. The brand became more than a beer. It became a symbol of emotional permission.
IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix. £32 returned for every £1 spent. 70% of Foster's brand sales growth over three years.
Behaviour change mechanism: Identity alignment and cultural permission
Despite decades of drink driving awareness campaigns, dangerous behaviour persisted. Awareness of the risks was near-universal. But that knowledge wasn't governing behaviour at the moments that mattered.
People don't make dangerous decisions in the abstract. They make them in specific moments; at the end of a night out, when tired, when the alternative feels inconvenient. Targeting the general population was the wrong unit of analysis.
ClutchPlay created a permissible alternative to dangerous behaviour, building the strategy around the specific human moments where risk decisions are made. Plan B gave people a face-saving, socially acceptable alternative at the moment of decision.
29% reduction in the road toll. Plan B became the longest running drink driving campaign in NSW history.
Behaviour change mechanism: Situational intervention at the moment of decision
Built a consulting practice from zero to 5% of agency revenue with 10X downstream client impact. Led the effectiveness culture that took Ogilvy to the world's number two effectiveness agency ranking. Revenue grew from ~$70M to ~$150M.
IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix for Foster's (£32 per £1 invested). IPA Gold for Save the Children. Built and led the planning function across some of the agency's most commercially effective work.
29% reduction in the road toll via situational intervention. Plan B — the longest running drink driving campaign in NSW history.
Led strategy across CUB, Woolworths and News Ltd. Built the planning capability and commercial rigour that underpinned some of Australia's most effective work of the era.
A focused session on a live problem. ClutchPlay diagnoses what's actually getting in the way and gives you the clearest possible read on what needs to change. No fluff. Just sharp thinking on your problem.
Diagnostic clarity on the real constraint and a clear view of what the first move should be.
A defined engagement built around a specific challenge: a partnership that isn't converting, a strategy that isn't landing, a behaviour that needs to shift. ClutchPlay diagnoses the friction, builds the strategic response, and delivers a commercially actionable brief.
A behaviour change strategy built around your specific commercial outcome, ready to brief and execute.
Senior strategic thinking available when the problem surfaces, not when a consultant has a gap in the calendar. For leaders who want a trusted diagnostic brain on tap without the overhead of a full-time hire or an agency relationship.
Ongoing access to senior behaviour change thinking at the moments that matter, not scheduled in advance.
Fees on request. Most engagements begin with a Strategic Sparring session.
Founder, ClutchPlay
Gold Coast, Australia
Working globally
Toby has spent almost three decades working in some of the world's most commercially effective entertainment, advertising and consulting businesses; Sky, Droga5, adam&eveDDB in London and Ogilvy AUNZ.
Time and again, he's witnessed the same issues getting in the way of real change. The stated problem is rarely the real one. The default solution is to create more communication. And the difference between a strategy that works and one that doesn't is almost always human.
That's what he built ClutchPlay for.
ClutchPlay works with CEOs, marketing directors and senior leaders on problems where a strategy exists but performance is still being held back. It diagnoses the real constraint, prescribes the strategic move, and stays close enough to ensure the thinking holds when the decisions get difficult.
The pedigree is there. Toby has received The IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix. It is advertising's most rigorous commercial effectiveness award. The Foster's case proved the business returned £32 for every £1 invested. It still remains one of the highest ROI results in the award's history.
Most conversations start with a Strategic Sparring session — 90 minutes on your live problem. No deck required beforehand.
toby@clutchplay.au