Lessons from nine years of building Aruga

As Aruga celebrates its ninth birthday, co-founders Donna Kramer and Adam Brunes sat down with B&T Australia to reflect on nine years of building a business, backing great people and helping tell the stories of some of Queensland’s most recognisable brands, organisations and destinations.

Aruga has been operating for nearly a decade. What’s been the highlight so far? 

Watching our business grow up alongside Brisbane. When we launched Aruga in 2017, Brisbane was a city still explaining itself. Today, it’s one of the most exciting cities in the world and we’ve had the privilege of telling a small part of that story.   

Over the past nine years, we’ve worked with more than 500 brands. We’ve helped launch precincts, festivals, theatres, destinations, startups and ideas. We’ve celebrated openings, anniversaries, milestones and navigated the occasional crisis. It’s been a wild ride.  

But the highlight isn’t a particular campaign or client – it’s the people. Many of the team members who took a chance on us in the early years are still with us today. Watching them build lives and careers that are meaningful to them, in all the different forms that can take, has been one of the unexpected joys of building a business.   

Oh, and being named B&T PR Agency of the Year when we were still a toddler of a business, then retaining the title the following year. We’d be lying if we said that wasn’t a highlight!  

The PR and communications industry has changed dramatically in the last five years. What shift has impacted how you work the most? 

Probably the disappearance of the traditional silos.  

We launched as Aruga PR. In fact, for the first few years, that was literally our name. Then we dropped the “PR” because it no longer reflected the conversations we were having with clients. 

The media landscape has changed enormously, as has the way people discover, consume and engage with brands. While earned media remains the heartbeat of our agency, much of our growth over the past five years has come through content, social, design, events, activations and integrated campaigns. 

The really interesting shift in the past 12 months has been the rise of generative AI and LLM search. For a while, people wondered whether PR was under threat. Ironically, it’s had the opposite effect. Authoritative, credible, earned coverage has become even more valuable because it’s the type of content these platforms are increasingly drawing upon. 

In your duo, who’s good cop and who’s bad cop? 

Adam hates admitting this, but he’s definitely Good Cop. He’s physically incapable of saying no to people and would happily add three extra ideas to every brief “just in case”. Donna is the pragmatist. She’s solutions-oriented, decisive and has an uncanny ability to cut through noise. She’s the daughter of a military man after all!

Everyone knows Donna will get you off the starting blocks. Never leave anything with Adam to start. Equally, everyone knows Adam will do the final sweep before something leaves the building. It’s somehow worked for nine years. 

Aruga started as a PR agency and has since expanded into creative, content, design and social. What was the moment you decided to back yourselves to do more? 

There wasn’t a single moment. It happened very organically. 

Design is a great example. We initially brought a designer into the business simply to make sure everything leaving the building was the best possible representation of Aruga. Then clients started noticing the capability and asking if we could help them too. 

The same thing happened across almost every service area. 

We’ve never been particularly interested in defending silos. The best client relationships are the ones where people don’t come to us for a specific service. They come to us with a business problem and together we work out the best way to solve it. 

We’ve always believed in a “land and expand” philosophy. Start with a small project. Get to know each other. See if you’re the right fit. Exceed expectations. Grow together. 

How have you seen client needs evolve since starting Aruga? 

Clients are looking for partners, not suppliers. More often than not, they’re not seeking work they couldn’t technically do themselves. They’re looking for trusted sidekicks who can sit alongside their team, bring perspective and help navigate complexity. 

The other big shift has been governance. Brands operate under far greater scrutiny than they once did. It’s no longer enough to simply produce good work. You need to understand risk, reputation, stakeholder expectations and the broader environment in which decisions are being made.  

The world feels less predictable than it did a decade ago which means clients value judgement and adaptability more than ever. 

As an industry, what’s one thing you would change to make us all better? 

The amount of work we give away for free. 

The thinking that goes into a pitch. The strategy hidden inside a quote. The ideas, workshops and recommendations that happen before a contract is even signed. 

It’s extraordinary when you stop and think about it. 

If you need your wisdom tooth removed, you don’t ask five dentists to pitch why they’re the best person for the job. If you’re building a house, you don’t ask three architects to develop concepts before you’ve appointed one. 

Yet our industry does it every day. 

We’re as guilty as anyone and we don’t pretend to have the answer. But we do think we’d all be healthier businesses if we placed greater value on our thinking. 

If you had to describe your co-founder in three words, what would they be and why? 

Adam: DK is strategic, loyal and decisive. DK sees around corners. She has an instinctive understanding of people. She remembers the details others miss, senses what’s really going on beneath the surface and has an extraordinary ability to make people feel seen. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she backs, and when everyone else is still discussing the options, she’s usually already made the right call and moved us forward. 

 DK: Adam is joyful, sharp and generous. Adam truly lives at the highest frequency, finding joy in almost everything and usually the one making the room laugh. He has a rare gift for saying the most shocking things and getting away with it, because underneath it all he’s deeply kind, intelligent and properly funny. He cares more than he lets on and always reads the fine print but can switch that off when needed. Negativity doesn’t touch him; he rises above it rapidly. Adam’s deep focus delivers tenfold. Give him something rough and an hour later it’sa diamond. He loves to cook, host and bring people together, always thinking of the small details that make people feel seen and spoilt.  

When starting your business, what was the best piece of advice you received? 

People do business with people they like. 

It sounds ridiculously simple, but we’ve found it to be true time and time again. Capability gets you in the room. Relationships are what sustain a business over the long term. 

What’s one thing not on your LinkedIn profile? 

Adam: I’ve been invited to 22 weddings and somehow ended up emceeing half of them. 

DK: I’m a francophile with a fully planned month-long Paris holiday, built entirely from saved reels and YouTube videos. Bakeries, hair salons, butter brands shortlisted, no actual trip booked.  

Important last question: Do your parents really know what you do? 

Adam: Absolutely not. They’d confidently tell people I work in advertising. 

DK: We get invited to fabulous opening nights that Mum attends as my plus one. So as far as she’s concerned, I’m doing a fabulous job at whatever results in these posh nights out for her.  

This article was originally published on B&T Australia, June 2026.