Describe your creative process — how do you generate, refine, and select ideas for activations? How do you ensure they are both strategically aligned and executionally feasible

Our creative approach to retail is to hack the last three feet to find salience and meaning.  Every project that passes through our agency benefits from a holistic approach to creative and planning. That is considering the most relevant brand, consumer, and customer context rather than viewing any one component in isolation. We keep our finger on the pulse of the latest consumer trends, retail initiatives, audience insights and more to identify the most impactful opportunities to activate. Whether this is delivering the ultimate fan experience at the cricket, developing bespoke partnership experiences with on premise venues, or developing retailer first exclusive concepts.

Please provide examples of innovative BTL activations your agency has delivered in the past 2–3 years. What was new about the approach, and what impact did it have on consumer engagement or business outcomes?

Casamigos Margarita Truck: AU took over an existing brand asset for Diageo that was old, stagnant, and expensive to operate. We crafted a model with Diageo’s Events & Sponsorship team addressing all the pain points they had about a mobile asset and addressing the objectives Casamigos had as a brand, and the wants and needs of flagship On Premise Venues and Events across the country. Building a modest monthly retainer model this allowed a production team to work on the calendar plan of activity and work closely with the E&S team, venue and event contacts on activating Colin (The Casamigos Marg Truck) in as many locations and events as possible. With full visibility and control over the calendar of activity we were able to tap into other events and locations en route to the major events to ensure as much exposure, visibility and sales for the marg truck as possible whilst also being as sustainable and environmentally conscious on our movements across the country. We took on the risk of paying for the truck's storage (when not out on the road) from our own pocket as we believed in the model so much we backed its full success. This model is still in place across the current year. Previous year's results being 1: Zero Months in storage. 2: 40 Activation Days. 3: 71,500 Casamigos drinks sold. 4: 11,150 KM travelled along the Eastern Seaboard. 5: 11,115,000 OTS and EST with $2.95M OOH Value. 

Johnnie Walker Blue Room: AU were tasked to create an immersive luxury gifting experience for Johnnie Walker across OND to driver consideration, trade up and conversion in the most prominent gift buying months running up to Christmas. We addressed the brief by bringing an Aussie first activation for this brand - a pop-up luxury store front on the highest footfall street (Pitt Street) across Nov, Dec & Jan 2023-2024. Operating as a luxury whisky tasting experience and one stop shop personalised gifting solution. Driving $350K+ in sales, 5.2 million mass impressions, 10,500 engagements and 1,500+ JW ritual tasting sessions. Sales over this period from the pop-up store exceeded the total sales from the x5 top performing JW sales Dan Murphys stores over the same period. Data captured via all sales & ritual experiences to continue the conversation driving brand visibility, awareness and saliency. 

How do you collaborate with clients during the creative process. How do you balance bold ideas with client constraints (budget, timelines, compliance)

Brilliant question! We believe a great idea can come from anywhere and anyone in the team - not just someone with the word Creative in their title. Saying that, the best ideas nearly always come about when we collaborate with our clients. At the end of the day our clients are the experts in their brands, we are the experts in the environments in which to operate so when we brainstorm together, real magic can happen. 'Balance' of bold ideas with budget and timeline constraints is always an ongoing challenge but one we have plenty of experience in - what client doesn't want 'more for less'? As long as we are transparent across all parties involved, then we will land with a great result. A key learning is to be very honest and upfront about expectations at briefing and ongoing through the project process.

How has your agency supported new product development launches with creative activations? Please share examples where creativity helped deliver stand-out cut-through in a competitive category

We have supported many NPD's and have showcased a couple in the 'Past Collections' section.  Namely the Smirnoff Crush Launch, Imperial PHB campaign and the Sparkling work for Vinarchy

What creative trends or new consumer engagement techniques do you see shaping the next 2–3 years of BTL? How is your agency preparing to leverage them?​​​​​​​

Data is king!  Coming back to our accountability promise - every campaign for us needs to be measurable. Where we are constantly collecting data, this is treated like the start of a relationship, and this first party data is only growing in importance.  

We are also working very closely in the AI space to automate the roll out component of campaigns and execution (All media and retail touchpoints across multi customer groups etc.) in order to provide greater efficiencies and localisation.