Buy From The Bush
Grace Brennan launched the hashtag #BuyFromTheBush on October 16, 2019, to encourage Australians in cities to support rural businesses facing drought. Within weeks, it gained 80,000 Instagram followers, breathing new life into struggling businesses and showcasing the resilience of the bush.
Passionate about storytelling, community-driven change, and showcasing the talent and ingenuity of the bush, Grace and the BFTB team have since achieved remarkable impact for rural creators, makers, and small businesses. In 2020, they launched an online marketplace, providing a vital channel to market, and have delivered sell-out pop-ups in Sydney, such as Martin Place and the MCA lawn, connecting rural makers with city dwellers in an effort to help recover income loss to floods.
The Big Break, a social media pitch-fest for bush businesses, spotlighted rural innovation, with winners including a youth mental health app, an online mothers’ group, and a retail store/cafe in a tiny town. It reached 2 million people, attracted 4,000 votes, awarded $60,000 in prizes, and emphasised the ingenuity of bush entrepreneurs. In 2022, BFTB released an Impact Report, showcasing how digital tools and social impact initiatives can create lasting change in rural Australia.
RPR&Co. are delighted to have supported BFTB over the past five years, securing media coverage, facilitating interviews, managing media relationships, and coordinating press opportunities. BFTB’s impact has contributed to shifting perceptions of regional Australia, showcasing the beautiful products and creativity of bush businesses, and connecting them with a broader audience.
Beneath the Brim: Sarah Wheeler
RPR&Co. partnered with Sarah Wheeler and The Pancare Foundation to amplify her deeply personal mission: a 5500-kilometre trek across Australia with her beloved horses. Inspired by her late mother, Terri, who passed away from a rare upper gastrointestinal cancer, Sarah’s journey is both a personal healing endeavour and a campaign to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.
We worked closely with Sarah and Pancare, a national charity that raises awareness, supports families and funds research for upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, to deliver a successful campaign that resulted in substantial funds being raised.
Howdy
Howdy is the brainchild of Hunter-based entrepreneur Mia Ryan. In late 2023, Mia, while running a highly-successful horse business and studying full-time at university, saw a gap in the dating market to meet like-minded country singles. At the age of 22, she launched a first-of-its-kind dating and social networking app for rural singles to revolutionise dating in the bush. Unlike other dating apps, female-founded Howdy is made for country people in mind, with an innovative unlimited radius setting allowing farmers, ringers, agronomists, chopper pilots, bush mechanics, flying vets and anyone else who lives in rural or regional Australia to match with a special someone from all corners of the country, from Walkabout Creek to Woollahra, Bondi to Back O’ Bourke to Bunbury.
