Brand strategy, 30 years experience
Dayne Smith is an independent strategist based in Wellington, New Zealand. Often searched as Flying Lizard, his skills focus on helping business owners establish clear brand strategy for best business marketing methods. This page outlines how his thinking was formed, how he works today, and the experience that informs his point of view.
How Dayne Smith Works Today
Independent critical thinking.
As Dayne Smith, my work today centres on delivering strategic thinking with originality delivered directly to business owners.
I develop a business’s brand strategy, implementing design, advertising and media services. Unlike an agency model, I work directly with business owners, eliminating potential conflicts of interest. This focus on decision-making ensures marketing is directed by a well-thought-out system.
Strategy before spend.
Across decades of commercial work, a consistent pattern has appeared. Marketing often starts too early, and strategy arrives too late. My work corrects that sequence. Position, message, and intent are decided first, so creative, marketing and suppliers can be briefed once and work can compound rather than reset.
My approach is grounded in master-level brand frameworks developed by Marty Neumeier, David Aaker, Jean-Noël Kapferer, and Ries and Trout. I am a big believer than David Ogilvie‘s principles and follow the great Jim Rohn ‘just ask‘ approach.
Mentoring and advisory work.
Alongside client work, I am recognised as a Brand Strategy Mentor with Business Mentors New Zealand. In this role, I support owners at points of change, growth, or uncertainty, applying the same strategy-first discipline used in my private practice.
Foundations and Formation
Early design and typographic discipline.
My career was grounded in a trade, traditional design and typography beginning in 1989. Working at Green Island Design and Print, I learned the discipline of typography, layout, print production, under an experienced trade compositor of 50 years. This foundation shaped how I think about clarity, hierarchy, and communication.
Formal study and early commercial grounding.
Alongside practice, I completed formal study at the University of Otago, focusing on branding, graphic design, and marketing communication. This period connected academic thinking with commercial application and set the base for later strategic work.
International and Complex Work
United Kingdom experience.
In the mid 90’s, I worked in the United Kingdom, my entrepreneurial mind took shape, trading as Flying Lizard and contracting to design agencies across London, Greater UK and Scotland. This period exposed me to international standards, fast-paced commercial environments, and the demands of working across sectors and cultures.
I honed photography skill, news paper layout & copywriting, advertising by working in these mediums. As the digital age progressed, I acquired new skills in emerging mediums and formats. My understanding of social media began with a posting with an early Google team in London.
I helped entrepreneurs build their brands, and witnessed business failures and triumphs due to strategic planning.
Agency and large-system environments.
In the late 90s, I progressively worked my way up to senior lead and creative head roles at agencies like OgilvyOne and Cato. I also undertook complex corporate strategic engagements including working with bid teams and infrastructure-scale communication projects at EDS.
These experiences deepened my understanding of brand strategy as a business asset rather than a creative exercise and demonstrated how large agencies collaborate with their teams to produce successful work.
Building and Refocusing Flying Lizard
Building a multi-disciplinary practice.
After returning to New Zealand, I established Flying Lizard in Dunedin early 2000. Over the following years, the business grew into a multi-disciplinary studio offering branding, marketing, and production services, employing up to ten staff.
Refocusing on strategy and craft.
Following the covid period, I made a deliberate decision to step away from scale and management and return to core strategic work. This shift led to a focused practice centred on brand strategy, advisory work, and delivering implementation of marketing as one-to-one engagement with owners.
In addition to offering my services, I provide mentoring to businesses. I’m also writing a series of workbooks designed to help founders and owners originate the elements of their brand stratgey, guiding the reader through master level strategy framework to remove that ‘staring at a blank page’ issue. This can then be used by services and professionals who provide execution. This means the strategy remains at the founder’s level and isn’t diluted by downstream strategies created to suit service providers.
Selected Work and Contribution
Representative organisations and sectors.
My work has spanned private enterprise, public organisations, and civic projects in New Zealand and overseas. Engagements have included work for councils, museums, tourism bodies, infrastructure projects, professional services firms, and consumer brands.
Selected sectors include:
- Public and civic organisations
- Professional services
- Tourism and place-based branding
- Consumer goods and retail
- Infrastructure and technology
People, teams, and stewardship.
A consistent thread through my work has been the development of people. I have mentored staff, supported career progression, and served in advisory roles where clarity, judgement, and experience were required rather than scale or spectacle.
Perspective
Ongoing learning and adaptation.
A strategy of a brand sits at the intersection of business, culture, and communication. As tools and technologies change, the need for clear thinking remains constant. I continue to study, adapt, and refine my work, grounding new methods in established strategic principles.
Personal context.
I am New Zealand-born and live in Wellington with my family. Outside of work, my interests include Calligraphy, Drawing, Tai Chi, Bonsai, and developing my family. These disciplines reinforce patience, attention, and respect for craft, qualities that carry through my professional work.
Do not abandon the contrasts and contradictions that make something unique and compelling at the first instant, just to fit in. Those edges are the point. Dayne Smith.