Company: The Audacious Agency
Company Description: The Audacious Agency helps businesses to enter awards. Their mission is to help business owners shine the light on all they do, using decades of experience in PR and branding, to educate and guide entrepreneurs to leverage awards to stand out and be well known, well paid and wanted.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Startup of the Year - Consumer Products Industries
 Nomination Title: Wild Dough, Melbourne, VIC Australia
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since 1 January 2020, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Wild Dough creates playdough that is safe, natural, and designed to keep little hands busier for longer. Founder Mel Haque was working for one of Australia’s biggest banks on such high profile projects when she created Wild Dough in 2020. On maternity leave with her second child, she was going a little stir crazy because she was used to the high flying corporate world. Mel started a secret project to keep her mind active and her first child busy.
Through a haze of mum-overwhelm, she created super-soft scented playdough for her 2-year-old daughter, buying herself free time to work. She worked on the recipe to create something softer and resistant to drying out, so little ones could play independently for longer. Wild Dough’s mission is to give other mums the tools, education, and products to facilitate exciting sensory experiences for their children, whilst claiming sometime back for themselves.
Wild Dough is available from 50+ retail stores across Australia and USA, selling direct to customers via online channels, and supported by warehousing in Australia and USA. Additionally Wild Dough has partnered with the Australian Government to supply Wild Dough to all families with 3 year olds who attend government funded school.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Wild Dough launched in 2020 with a small batch of 1.7kg, made a home in Mel’s kitchen while she was on maternity leave. Nervous about telling others, even her husband, about her new venture, she kept Wild Dough a secret. The product was an instant hit, selling $1000 of product in the first week. For a low cost product, this infused Mel with confidence that Wild Dough was the product parents wanted. When Mel started Wild Dough, she wanted to create a safe, toxic free product for little ones. Wild Dough uses flour, salt, water, vegetable oil, corn flour, cream of tartar, food essence to scent, and food colouring or cosmetic grade pigment powder to colour.
By late 2020, Wild Dough turned over five figures. By the end of the first year, was a six figure business and moved into the US market.. Mel was producing, marketing and delivering by herself, by the second year, she secured a manufacturing premises and took on staff to help manage Wild Dough’s growth.
Wild Dough has kicked some huge goals over the past two years:
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Secured a manufacturing premises
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From 750 jars per month in 2020 to 10000 per month in 2022
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Developed systems to enable high production capacity - output from 90kg per day in 2020 to 1500kg per day in 2022
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In 2022, close to 100k units sold with sales are nudging ½ million
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Won silver Roar Awards and AusMumpreneur award for the best handmade business in 2021
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Wild Dough was born because Mel was frustrated by how quickly generic playdough dried out and was often too hard for little hands to play with. Mel having her hands full of a newborn and trying to soften the playdough for her daughter was a regular occurrence, interrupting the flow of play. By perfecting the recipe, she has created an incredibly soft, non-drying, great smelling playdough, giving little ones hours of imaginative and sensory play.
Wild Dough is Mel’s way to give back to the parenting community. Despite being approached by outlets like Target, Mel’s fervent desire is to keep sales directly between the business and mums, ensuring the product is affordable and available to all families. Starting as a young mum with two little ones, Mel understands the importance of building relationships with the parents who buy her product. Her story is an integral part of the brand and the connection with her customers. Her customers love that Wild Dough started in her kitchen, and it’s not a faceless, soulless product in a supermarket.
Wild Dough extends a lot of two-way communication with its customers, with feedback and reviews from parents raving about how the product has helped them - from securing a little extra time for self-care, work, or see to a younger sibling. It takes a village to raise a child, and in the absence of “the village”, Wild Dough is determined to share the message of how important it is to support each other.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 183 words used.
Surviving COVID was an achievement, especially after her full-time role was made redundant, and lockdown restrictions prevented her team from packaging the playdough. There were challenges sourcing ingredients, but she persisted, experiencing incredible growth and securing a high value contract with the Australian Government in Victoria, who sought an Australian made supplier of modelling clay or playdough to provide products for subsidised kits as a gift for 3 year old children starting kindergarten. Within two months of securing the contract, Wild Dough had a $260k order to fill. Mel resigned from corporate life. Her proud husband took seven weeks long service leave to help her upscale the factory to fill the order. The attached support document gives you an in-depth insight into the amazing growth of this business, which started as a one mum's way of keeping her little ones entertained while she juggled work, and the challenges of lockdown. It includes more information on her start-up journey, awards won, and key media secured that has helped with the sales process. It also showcases her amazing financial growth over the past two years.
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