My Brilliant Career: The Year Australian Brands Discovered Substack

Have Aussie brands finally caught on to Substack?

The popular subscription and long-form text platform has gone noticeably under the radar for major marketing and PR agencies, who have struggled to find a way to equip the platform. This is because Substack positions itself as a platform which is able to overcome other social media’s shortcomings, with affordances directed more towards everyday creators, allowing them to create paid subscription services which restricts the need for branded and sponsored content. 

This also means Substack has been difficult for brands to break into. How do you convince a platform based on self-expression and long-form authentic content to let brands have their say?

This week, both Netflix ANZ and Kulani Kinis have decided to take on the challenge, utilising the people behind the keyboards and bringing them to the forefront to share their personal stories and ambitions.

Kulani Kinis launched its official Substack publication called “Confidentially, Kulani” on August 28, 2026, a behind-the-scenes space sharing ‘’brand secrets, office group chat stories, and unfiltered thoughts’’. Kulani Kini’s branding has always successfully incorporated their own staff into their campaigns, feeding into recent findings by Forbes which revealed that content shared by employees (EGC) gains 8x more engagement than brand content.

This focus on authenticity means Kulani Kini’s customers feel as if they are on a level playing field with staff, while the tagline ‘’you’ve made it into the office group chat’’ promises that you are getting an insider look, like you could be friends or peers with their fashionable and athletic staff. The promise to share their ‘’deepest secrets’’ is especially poignant; the unique and personalised marketing campaign breaking through the standardised noise on Instagram and Tiktok. 

Netflix ANZ has also mobilised a team of Substack writers for the release of their new adaptation of My Brilliant Career, publishing essays from a diverse group of Australian writers, including Bri Lee, Zara Wong and Rachael Akhidenor.

My Brilliant Career is based on Miles Franklin’s 1901 bildungsroman, about a young working-class girl whose dreams of being a writer are derailed by the demanding workload of lower-class rural Australia, a fate that can only be diverted by getting married and becoming a working mother. The book’s main character, Sybylla Melvyn, resists all expectations, chasing freedom and creativity over romance, responsibility and family. 

With classic book lovers having been burnt by Netflix’s adaptations before (if you’re an Austen fan you’ll know exactly what I mean), Netflix ANZ must have known they had to step up their game to win back their book-loving audience. The campaign leading up to A Brilliant Career’s release involved a luncheon, a nationwide search for Australia’s next great screenwriter (The Next Brilliant Career), and the participation of a team of Substackers publishing personal reflections on non-linear careers, creative independence, and modern work culture. This campaign was uniquely situated to take advantage of the media platform, as Substack has given a voice to women around the world, breaking down the gatekeepers and barriers that usually exist in sharing long-form content and making a living off of it.

Other brands should watch closely to the success of these campaigns, which could suggest that there is an untapped appeal amongst 16-30yr old women for long-form content and authenticity. Do platforms such as Substack offer something traditional social media has struggled to provide?

What makes these campaigns interesting isn’t simply that brands have discovered Substack. It’s that they have begun to understand what makes the platform valuable in the first place. Neither Netflix ANZ nor Kulani Kinis are using Substack to offer sponsored content or syndicate messaging from other platforms. Instead, they are borrowing the language of the platform; of women sharing their authentic thoughts and feelings on the world, and letting them build up connections, creating a space where audiences are treated not as passive consumers, but as spaces where people can enter into the conversation, with the brand as the epi-centre.

These early experiments by Netflix ANZ and Kulani Kinis will be helpful in providing an idea of future marketing trends and what young women are requiring from brands.

Ruby Harris | InsideOut PR Coordinator