Uncle Jack was founded in 2014 by three young entrepreneurs in Melbourne. Uncle Jack produces a ‘boutique’ range of watches, while aiming to be ‘the go-to’ for fresh and accessible watches. Their values are to be on the front foot and keep it simple. The company’s growth can be contributed to the excellent marketing and branding approaches that positioned Uncle Jack as a serious online retailer in Australia.

Uncle Jack embarked on a new campaign to design and market a watch that represented their home city and bring Melbourne to not only Australia, but the world. Their campaign involved using an iconic photo of Hosier Lane that was taken by Chris Cincotta from ‘Melbourne I love you’ (MILY), and printing it onto a watch band. The biggest part of the process was being able to tell the story of MILY, of Chris and Melbourne.

Uncle Jack planned several approaches to marketing MILY and positioning the new product in the market. The company decided to utilise social media influences and video marketing to tell the story of their great creation. They personally contacted their social media influencer target list to gauge their feedback on their design, and whether they would be interested in helping them tell the story of Uncle Jack, Chris and Melbourne. This resulted in more than 150 unpaid, willing influencers wanting to promote their new watch. They believed in Uncle Jack and their story, and wanted to share it with their followers. The process required extensive two-way communication between all parties to provide feedback on many elements including design, marketing and the story.

Uncle Jack achieved truly outstanding results from their marketing campaign. During the MILY campaign they achieved a social reach of 15 million, whereas their monthly average social reach is five million people. Through their marketing initiatives and collaboration with Chris Cincotta, the company has been able to successfully generate a large-scale and low-cost publicity campaign that reinforces their brand as a Melbourne-based grassroots business.