When Bradley Firth stepped into the CMO role at Mountain Culture Beer Co in December 2023, he inherited more than a successful brewery – he took on the stewardship of a fiercely loved craft brand with deep roots in community and creativity. 

But Firth saw something more: A ceiling in the company’s growth trajectory and an opportunity to professionalise its approach to marketing without sacrificing its soul.

Effective marketing strategy 

In FY25, he led the development of the company’s first-ever formal marketing plan and budget. 

Firth says the company had been winning on word-of-mouth, social buzz, and an incredibly loyal base. But it needed to scale that magic. 

“Our marketing has been built on organic growth tactics like word of mouth, products, festivals, email, awards and a category leading social media profile. An incredible foundation that had started to reach a ceiling. Even though we had been voted the #1 craft beer two years running [and recently won it a third time], the mainstream craft beer drinker had never heard of us,” he admits. 

Grounding his approach in data and customer insight, Firth built a brand strategy aligned with sales and developed a full-funnel marketing campaign – produced entirely in-house on a shoestring $25k budget.

“We first installed brand tracking to get a level and define objectives. We looked at all the available sales data and purchased more where appropriate. We then surveyed our loyalists, founders, customers + employees. We built a brand strategy complete with target, position, objectives and brand codes. We planned a year-long budget that worked hard to grow both our brand and sales.” 

Essentially, he says the team realigned trade marketing support and built a cohesive GTM plan that focussed on the key areas and periods for growth. 

The results? Brand awareness jumped from 8 per cent to 13 per cent – and reached 15 per cent among the core 18–44 demographic – while sales soared 38 per cent year-on-year. Mountain Culture bucked industry trends by growing in a declining category. Notably, in key markets like Dan Murphy’s and pub venues – critical to the light craft beer drinker – growth hit 55 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively.

Discerning decision making

It’s safe to say Firth is unafraid of making tough calls. Case in point: Shifting trade marketing resources away from the historically dominant indie off-premise (independent and small group bottle shops) channel to better align with target consumers. 

Even with the indie off-premise audience already loving the company, Firth realised the next wave of growth lay elsewhere – with newer, curious drinkers in majors and on-premise venues. 

“Historically our trade marketing spend has been weighted towards the indie off prem accounts. These accounts over-index on the hardcore craft drinker and have been the biggest factor in Mountain Culture’s growth,” he explains. “In FY25, we strategically redirected our trade marketing resources towards the two channels that our target [18-44-ear-old light craft drinker in Syd/Mel/Bris would more likely a) visit and b) be prepared to try something new. The two channels = the majors and Indie on-prem.”  

To test his theory, Firth rolled out a dedicated trade marketing program with Dan Murphy’s alongside a wider brand campaign. The results were immediate – 38 per cent year-on-year growth overall and a standout 55 per cent spike during Q2, a key trading window.

“We also invested in our on-premise trade marketing program, the idea being someone would most cheaply be able to try Mountain Culture as a new customer in the form of a single schooner. This channel is performing at +80 per cent year-on-year.”

But even success demanded scrutiny. When Firth dug into the numbers, he found that while the majors delivered strong volume, they were eating into profitability. In response, he rebalanced the spend again – refining the mix between revenue-driving and margin-friendly channels.

“We have since changed our trade marketing ratios to reflect what we believe is the right balance across all channels again between revenue + profit,” he says. “This is something we review monthly and continue to test and learn from.” 

Business influence

Over the past 12 months, Firth’s role as CMO has evolved well beyond the traditional bounds of marketing, playing a central role in shaping the business’s strategic and operational direction. 

“Our business has undergone an evolution over the last 12 months that has meant the CMO role has expanded beyond marketing,” Firth explains – and that expansion has been both broad and deep.

He’s been instrumental in onboarding a new operating system across the company, ensuring it gains traction not just at the leadership level, but department-wide and business-wide. His influence has also been felt in critical structural decisions, including sales leadership. This saw Firth involved in identifying then proposing a bold interim solution – appointing the trade marketing manager to lead sales. He then worked with both the CEO and interim head to “rebuild our sales strategy from the ground up.” This included goal setting, performance tracking, team growth, hiring, and driving profitable sales.

On the commercial side, Firth has partnered closely with the CFO to improve visibility of profitability by channel and SKU. “One output being our price increase plan for this year,” he says. “We meet on this multiple times a week, and are building a road map with our sales director for implementing these changes with customers.”

Indeed, his innovation influence is equally pronounced. Working with the Product Innovation Manager and Head of Production, Firth has helped refine the Limited Release Beer program, a high-margin line that’s now growing at the same pace as the Core Range. He also helped bring a major new product to life.

“From idea, to recipe, to testing, to distribution and more,” Firth says. “This product was released 2 weeks ago and has tripled our sales expectation.”

Beyond those headline achievements, Firth has contributed to planning brew volumes, reviewing data systems, aligning budgets, revamping supplier relationships, and strengthening customer and relationships. Notably, he played a key role in securing the company’s first investor and brand ambassador, Pat Cummins.

Data-driven decision making

Firth isn’t just fluent in data, he’s made it central to how Mountain Culture makes decisions. 

In late 2023, he led the introduction of brand tracking across the business. While the initial aim was to measure brand equity and inform marketing strategy, the data quickly proved valuable well beyond traditional brand work – driving short-term sales, new customer wins, and long-term growth planning.

The insights unlocked new market opportunities. “It showed 45% of our customers are under 44 – 10 per cent more than competitors,” Firth explains. That data helped sharpen marketing targeting, but also proved persuasive when pitching to youthful venues. It was key in winning over the Oxford Scholar, now Mountain Culture’s biggest customer in Victoria.

Another standout finding: 8 per cent of Mountain Culture’s customers identify as Indian, far more than any competitor. This prompted a targeted campaign in high-density Indian suburbs and directly led to a deal with a national Indian restaurant chain.

The brand tracking also revealed surprisingly strong awareness in WA, SA, and Tasmania, despite limited distribution. Armed with that data, the team locked in new distribution partners, scaled brew volumes, and optimised the supply chain for long-haul logistics. “When we launched in WA 1 month ago, the beer had sold out before the pallets had made it to Perth,” Firth says.

Crucially, Mountain Culture now tracks 10 competitors in detail. That comparative data gives the team a unique edge when vying for scarce tap space. “When it comes down to many brands competing for one independent tap in a pub, we can show data in our pitch that proves we are stronger in that region, within that demo, or compared to that competitor,” he says. “This is proving a huge advantage against indie brands who are not tracking their brand effectively – or at all.”

Customer-first thinking

Even as Mountain Culture expands, Firth keeps the drinker – especially the light craft drinker – at the centre of every decision. His team regularly surveys loyalists and target customers, and aligns marketing efforts with the realities of how and where people discover beer.

“Within our size business, we have limited budget to spend on research. What we do have, goes into getting access to the sales data from our biggest customers like Coles Liquor Group or our brand tracking. Note: we still can’t afford to buy the data from Endeavour Group and this is after applying Mark Ritson’s generous rule for budgeting research.”

But for Firth, limited budget doesn’t mean limited insight. “The strength of a small business however is that we are far closer to our customers. At Mountain Culture this is more true than anywhere else.”

That closeness is most evident in the brewery’s loyalist community – affectionately named the Cult. “We send out a simple Google Form annually to conduct our qual research with the completion rate at 80 per cent,” Firth says. The team also polls Cult members about product styles, encourages reviews through Untappd, and goes beyond digital by inviting top-tier fans to drink and give feedback in person. “The top tiers of the Cult were the first to experience our new venue before opening it to the public. Free of charge of course.”

That same hands-on approach extends to Mountain Culture’s customers. “We invite all our tier A + B customers to free experiences with the brewery, which often includes brewing a beer for their venue. We hear in real time what their problems are and how we can help solve them.”

And before any national product launch, Firth ensures the team pressure-tests its appeal. “Whenever we launch new products, we send out test kegs under temp names to all these core customers so they can get real time feedback from their drinkers and pass it on. The test kegs of the recent new product launch have been in market since July last year, equating to eight months of refining the recipe before launching it nationwide.”

Commercial delivery 

Firth’s resourcefulness is a hallmark of his leadership. As CMO, he has helped transform the role from one focused purely on brand to a central driver of commercial performance across venues, ecommerce, national sales, and strategic partnerships.

Working closely with the group venue manager and venue managers, Firth has overseen a 5 per cent year-on-year revenue increase at the flagship Katoomba venue, reversed a decline at Emu Plains which is now growing 2 per cent year-on-year, and successfully launched the new Redfern venue, building a profitable business underpinned by accurate forecasting and strong operational discipline.

In digital, he led the redesign of the company’s website and the rebuild of its ecommerce program, resulting in a return to growth for direct-to-consumer sales, up 20 per cent year-on-year for the second half. 

His leadership in sales and marketing strategy has also been instrumental in building a robust go-to-market (GTM) plan with the Sales Director, now accounting for 70–80 per cent of the business and growing over 30% year-on-year for FY25. A key component of this has been targeted investment in brand growth, which has not only increased awareness but also lifted purchase rates – taking Mountain Culture ahead of key competitors at the lower funnel for the first time.

Firth has also worked hand-in-hand with the CFO to track channel and SKU-level profitability, helping steer decisions that increase margin and drive smarter growth. 

At the customer level, Firth has helped craft and communicate compelling proposals for tier-one clients, winning major group accounts including Solotel, AVC, and becoming Merivale’s top-performing craft beer. It’s a testament to how marketing at Mountain Culture now delivers tangible commercial impact.

People leadership

Firth describes his leadership style in three words: Strategic, creative, gritty. That grit shows in how he empowers his team.  By adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), Firth has introduced structure, communication processes, and templates that have measurably improved team alignment and performance. 

“We find the structure, comms processes and templates allow us to build a higher performing and higher engaged team. They are better aligned with the business as a whole, and directly with departments like sales,” he says.

The impact is showing up in employee engagement scores, which have improved significantly under his leadership.

Culture is also a deliberate focus. Firth believes the fun, irreverent tone of the Mountain Culture brand must start internally, and his team makes time to be creative and enjoy the ride. “We are a fun brand and this shows up when the people behind it are enjoying themselves,” he says.

That energy has led to the team going viral six times in one year, thanks to a balance of structured processes and creative freedom. “Even within a more structured department, we allow the team to follow their gut and try things and we regularly celebrate our success and work hard to keep the small business brewery vibe alive. Note: we also drink a bit.”

Each quarter, the team sits down for values-based performance reviews. There's recognition too: Firth has made it a point to elevate marketing alongside other departments by entering awards, with the team recently shortlisted for Best In-House Agency Campaign of the Year.

The team is young and still growing in experience, but Firth is investing in their development. “Two members started their MC careers behind the bar [now our marketing manager and videographer] and another came straight from delivering Domino’s [our illustrator],” he explains. The marketing manager has now completed Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Brand Management, the illustrator is being trained as a designer, and creative AI training is being explored for the videographer and content creator. 

This mix of grit, growth, and good times has created a distinct culture – one that’s both high-performing and unmistakably Mountain Culture Beer.