Australia Day Live Concert

ACT and regional publicity and creative development

Client The National Australia Day Council

The brief

Earlybird was contracted by the National Australia Day Council to undertake the promotion of the annual Australia Day Live Concert in the Canberra region though a series of PR activities and an advertising and promotional campaign.

Our work

Our team worked with the National Australia Day Council and other event stakeholders to develop a PR and marketing strategy that would deliver greater awareness and buzz around the event in the media and position the Australia Day Live concert as a ‘not to be missed’ event in the hearts and minds of target audiences in Canberra and the surrounding region.

As part of our strategy, our team put together a calendar of key milestones at which we undertook PR activities targeted at local and regional media outlets. Some examples included a special announcement around the 20th birthday Wiggles performance, and the targeted promotion of each artist appearing at the concert to local media as they were announced.

At the same time we worked within a tight budget to develop and implement an advertising schedule that would provide the best value for money and exposure for the event. This included negotiating agreements with media sponsors and best possible placements for paid advertising that appeared across print, television, outdoor, radio and online mediums.

In 2011 our involvement in the project also required our team to implement a refresh of the Australia Day Live design concept that ran through all advertising material and event collateral. The final result was very well received and is a concept that will be reused for the event campaign over the coming years.

Onsite at the event, our team was responsible for managing and accompanying talent to feature on two outside broadcasts and managing schedules for fan signings.

Results

The result of our promotion was 30,000 bums on grass at the event—all punters who came along to enjoy the concert and celebrate what it means to be an Australian. Media coverage in the lead up to and during the concert was significant and saw an increase from previous years. The new creative campaign was very well received and gave the concert a look and feel that was in line with the overall creative vision of the producers for the event.