The Economics
of Cool.
Learn Commercial Strategy, Creative
Direction
& Economic Philosophy.
The MBA of today.
Twenty years of practice
became a thesis.
In 2023, Robyn Wilson developed a proposal for a PhD exploring a single thesis: Quantifying the Economic Value of Cool and Utilising it for Social and Environmental Good. The name Coolnomics arrived naturally.
But the more she sat with the topic, the clearer it became that this thinking belonged outside the walls of academia, live in the zeitgeist and the market, not separate from it. She chose not to pursue the PhD.
- Published the Coolnomics White Paper
- Advisor for SXSW Sydney
- Secured three angel investors in the concept
- Built culture brands, including Machine Hall, utilising the principles
- Mentored young leaders from organisations including Sydney Dance Company
- Published the Resonance Report 2025 Australia Edition, purchased by major cultural institutions and brands
- Small businesses and organisations engaged Robyn to write their strategies and roll out their businesses, some launching to six-figure results and national coverage in the Australian Financial Review and Vogue
- Invited to guest lecture to the MBA program at UTS
- Invited to keynote major conferences
- Hosted Coolnomics Live, streaming weekly, covering zeitgeist reporting and interviewing thinkers in the space including Dr Joel Dinerstein, author of Origins of Cool in Postwar America
As the body of work grew, one question kept surfacing: what would make this most valuable to the world, now? Education was the obvious answer.
The most useful thing she could do was teach people how to understand the cool and the economics of their own ideas, so they could build things that were relevant, emotive, credible and commercially successful.
Agora Directory
The Coolnomics Agora is opening in stages over the coming month. Each wing facilitating a new layer of experience.
Wings 1 and 2 are open and teeming already. People are running their ideas through the Coolnometer. People are finding their seats at the first public lecture series.
Wings 3 to 5 open over the coming month.
Think of it as a tour: experience the richness of each intelligence space as it unfolds.
Robyn Wilson
built this.
Robyn Wilson is an Australian commercial strategist, creative director and the founder of Coolnomics®. The method began twenty years ago as a working practice - a way of holding creative direction and commercial strategy simultaneously, as one continuous act.
That approach has been tested across luxury retail, major cultural institutions, government-funded projects and management consulting. Tested across hundreds of ideas, at every stage of the Commercial Spectrum - idea, product, market, organisation and authority. Coolnomics is the formalisation of this knowledge.