3. Connect with a local artist

Who is creating a buzz in your local area? Is there a local artist, performer or photographer that hails from the area where your Centre or property is located? This is a great opportunity to use your space to showcase their work and talent. Supporting your local community is key to gaining greater engagement, this will also encourage new and repeat visitation and longer dwell times. An activation showcasing their work and your space is the perfect combination for community engagement.

4. Engage local influencers

Have you just had a recent renovation or had a new retailer open up? There is no better time to undertake an activation and no better way to increase community engagement than to engage with local influencers. They already have an established audience that is immersed in their content and this is an opportunity to have them immersed in yours.

5. Tie your brand to stories that resonate

Your activation doesn’t always need to be directly related to your brand, often the best activations are those that are a little left of centre. Those that create a story that resonates, yet is cleverly tied to your brand is a great recipe for creating an impactful activation that leads to a whole new level of community engagement. For example, there could be an organisation seeking to raise awareness of their cause, providing your space for their activation ties their story to your brand, resulting in new visitors, greater exposure and engagement with your centre or property.

6. Promote Social Good

With the social media take over, we live in a time where awareness and emphasis on social good is paramount. People want to feel like they are a part of this movement and this tip will have an incredible impact on your community engagement. Imagine your property filled with adorable guide dog puppies or an educational and fun school holiday activation that has kids making puppets using all recycled and reusable materials. An activation centred around social good ticks all the boxes for creating successful community engagement!

7. Make it last

How amazing is it when you create an activation that continues to generate an impact long after the physical activation is finished? This is exactly what you can do when you incorporate a digital online component into your brand activation. This elevates your community engagement and carries it over to your online presence. Introducing an online component allows the community engagement that was generated at the activation to continue to be amplified, creating longevity and keeping your brand top of mind long after your successful activation is completed.

Our immediate response was to create a hub of activity, full of all the fun attractions you dream of finding on your lunch break, but, sadly, rarely do. We saw food and music, bright theming, places to sit and interact, entertainment to interact with, things to photograph and things that simply make you smile. And designed in a manner that is open enough to be inviting but contains a check-in to allow the client the opportunity to engage with the audience upon arrival.

But lead-time is always a consideration for the event designer, and in this case, it was a major consideration because we had just two weeks to develop the idea, book all operators, plan the activation on site, promote it and staff it. First up, lucky we know lots of people in the food truck business and could sort catering in a matter of days. We have also had significant experience managing high impact events designed to create immediate engagement, so we could assist the client with communications and strategy, including eye-catching poster and flyer design. We also contributed to discussion on tactics to engage local retailers to ensure they were promoting the Equiem platform and supporting the event despite the competing food vendors on the day. And, as the project was an event activation in Melbourne, we could raid our giant warehouse of props, furniture and other crazy things and provide the client with low cost plinths, display units and a giant eye-catching inflatable bunny that could be seen for miles, becoming a beacon for the activation throughout the precinct.

Once attendees had registered for the event and enjoyed a short conversation with one of the Equiem team about the benefits of the new platform, they were free to wander ‘The Hub’, select from the range of global cuisines while listening to the live music, playing ping pong or watching the slammin’ break dancing demos. The experience was shared, fresh and up-beat – much like the Equiem product itself. ‘The Hub’ was designed to be a place where people dwelled and interacted, and judging by the people hanging back to soak up the last of those urban vibes well after their allotted lunch break – even for a Friday! – it was a successful outing for everyone.

Equiem creates virtual communities, and they were completely satisfied that we had made a community at ‘The Hub’; one that will have an enduringly positive effect on their brand in the mind of their audience going forward. They signed-up two-thirds of their yearly target in one day, and food truck operators were happy with their takings. Colour and fun lifted the mood to the point that we were eagerly asked to confirm when the next iteration of ‘The Hub’ was coming to town. And all on a limited budget and with very limited time. Opportunities are everywhere – let us help you find the next one possibly hidden somewhere in your business.

Check out this video to find out more…

Artfully nestled amongst the abundance of balloons was the first of several references to the Year of the Dog. As a brand experience agency, we are always looking for the opportunity to take the experience of an activation to the next level, usually leveraging the human touch or making a personal connection. Who doesn’t love dogs? Who doesn’t have a story to recall about a dog they love or loved? The strong and deliberate integration of the dog into the 120 Collins campaign was a clear indication of our desire to connect people to the activation and to each other, creating the ongoing community engagement that is so often missing in established assets.

The dog made its most heroic and memorable appearance on Wednesday at lunchtime when we arranged for the Victorian Guidedogs Association to bring a couple of their adorable Guide Dogs down for a meet ‘n greet with tenants, which doubled as an enviable opportunity for the Guide Dogs Association to raise awareness and much-needed funds. A love seat that we set-up in the foyer for the week as an always-on photo booth – complete with ‘dog face’ props! – was the perfect place to host the Guide Dogs and provided the exclusivity Equiem was looking for to drive sign-ups to their portal.

The attendance of the Guide Dogs added additional layers to the campaign as it enabled the client to integrate a key charity partner and create content for subsequent interactions. Beginning in 2018, tenants of 120 Collins Street will work towards raising the $50,000 required to train and make-ready a working Guide Dog. Internal campaigns around the Dog will raise money, drive attendance to the portal and ultimately develop a sense of ‘community ownership’, while photos and updates will track the Dogs progress as the story unfolds. The Chinese New Year campaign we designed and managed created much-needed awareness for the project and put a tidy $3,500 into the kitty.

Alignment of values with activation is key to creating a strong and enduring asset community. Moreover, the Guide Dog activation, the desk execution and the evergreen ‘love seat’ were seamlessly combined using shared styling treatments and signage design. Any guest to the building or tenant would have been impressed by the upbeat and original content that clearly had their experience in mind.

The Lunar New Year activation at 120 Collins Street achieved exactly what it set out to do – create a visual presence in the space and connect the building community through shared experiences. In the immediate, every person that interacted with the Guide Dogs walked away with a smile; the Guide Dog Association grossed over $3,500, and, one building tenant even donated extra to keep the ‘dog face’ props!  Visually, the desk arch was “even better than we imagined”, according to the asset manager, and whilst the overall appearance was tightly themed, it was also fresh and elegant and used just the right amount of kitsch to make it playful and a hit on social media.

Property development activations should not end with the asset launch. Over a long period of time events like Chinese New Year at 120 Collins Street sink into the collective psyche of the asset community and position it favourably in the mind of tenants. In order to develop and maintain this position, assets need to look at their event activation schedule as an ongoing concern and ensure they are making genuine connections at regular intervals throughout the year.

We also hung these fabulous mirrored gold shapes we had custom created for this display. The reflective surface brought in a dynamic light element that drew the eye right away.

And the final piece of the arch was a huge red acrylic sign we had custom made and lettered wishing everyone “Happy Year of the Dog.” That gold circle on the edge of the sign? It was an element added at the last moment when doing the design that ended-up tying everything together. It made the hour it took to perfectly place it on the signage worth it…(mostly.) It was also fabulous to remove with vim at the end of the event!

But that was just the welcome! To the right of the foyer we had an activation element. We turned a humble bench and images of adorable puppies into an interaction that entertained all week. Essentially, the bench became a photobooth with dog masks. The bench echoed the desk installation, with another gorgeous balloon arrangement and additional gold shapes. Again – all balloons and shapes were hung in traditionally lucky Chinese numbers. Next to the bench was a white side table with the dog masks we made of all different sweet pooches. A red ribbon around the vase holding the masks helped with the cohesion of the activation.

But we had one more weapon up our sleeves that challenged all the ‘screen faces’ wandering through the building…sweet, well trained, beautiful Guide Dogs.

The last part of our activation went live on the Wednesday. We had Placesettings come in with fencing and grass pods to create our little dog heaven. Guide Dogs Victoria came in with a great professional set-up – merchandise, themed tablecloth, and Barry, the donation dog, who also got a red ribbon collar.

Most importantly, Guide Dogs Victoria organised five beautiful dogs and their friendly handlers. Two of the dogs were GDV ambassadors, and three were young pups in training. They were all such lovely souls and represented the amazing work Guide Dogs do.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to convey the joy in the foyer that day. Each person who even caught sight of the set-up walked away with a huge smile. Those who came in forgot about the future dry-cleaning bill and embraced the dogs fully. We had people in full suits hugging, snuggling, laying down next to, patting, and kissing each of the dogs.

I kept it professional as much as I could, but, I was right there on the floor with the dogs and visitors in the foyer. To my sweet dog, I still love you the most, but Valentina stole my heart.

GDV sold $1,000 in merchandise and raised nearly another $2,000 in donations. Our contacts at GDV were very happy with the outcome and we can’t wait to work with them again. You can donate to them at any time or read more about the amazing work they do.

To be honest, everyone was thrilled with the event. Yes, we filled the brief, but the joy the dogs brought on Wednesday was incredible.

So we’ve got evidence that Waste Warriors at Kellyville Village succeeded in connecting children with worthwhile environmental practices as well as the right side of their brains. What it also did was connect them with their local community via workshop experiences and group reward incentives – an outcome that we anticipated, but certainly not in such strength.

Workshops aimed at school-aged children, regardless of content, will always involve kids sharing and even making friends, to lesser or greater degrees. The difference with Waste Warriors was the completely organic and undefined nature of the outcome – there were no paper instructions, no piece to follow piece, no clearly defined ending; therefore, every kid was an inspiration, or the inspired, and that often led to kids liking, sharing or even asking one another for where they got a particular sculptural material from. It was a competitionless existence and being around other mini creators was a fantastic way to enhance the experience.

But even before the very first piece of foam or styrene was attached to a length of dowel, we sought to build a Waste Warrior army from the kids that would attend the brand activation. The mechanic simply dictated that kids write their name and school on a sheet at the workshop, with the school who ‘produced’ the greatest number of attendees scoring themselves a nice cash prize to put towards a green project. We targeted schools in the PR campaign, seeing the prize as a worthwhile exchange for eyeballs. The number of entrants at the end of the two weeks was satisfactory, but what was really pleasing was the unexpected degree to which the local winning school supported the prize fulfilment by featuring it at their school assembly and in their weekly newsletter. The school even chose to acknowledge several of the kids whose names appeared on the sheet, and in doing so, created a thought-leadership culture out of young people and placed an invaluable spotlight on the issues at hand. Communities within communities can rarely be made; they need to form organically and find their own voice. This is when they are at their greatest strength.

Waste Warriors is truly a community engagement event for this generation, and its parents. We pride ourselves on work that is smart, creative, fun and helps kids appreciate themselves, each other and their world. Like their parents, we take this responsibility very seriously.

The objectives of the activation were unchanged from last year. From a top-line point-of-view, Cancer Council use Brand Activation to create awareness of the day and its specific role in raising much-needed funds for cancer research and support. This particular project had a secondary objective with a more strategic longer-term goal; that is to attract a younger audience through digital interaction and storytelling. Aware that this a slow burn, we were resolute that building on last year’s experiential Hashtag Wall with even more opportunities to personalise and share was a more effective option than completely changing tack or going too niche.

Despite the size and popularity of the Hashtag Wall – where fans posed with themed props and then uploaded the image to their social media channels – I really loved the Message Wall. Now, I have the luck of having never come in contact with cancer either through family or friends, so I obviously can’t speak with true authority, but I can say that I was really moved by the honesty of people and the positivity they showed in the face of such adversity. The messages were beautifully devoted and I think this made the experience of reading them by people like myself so much more poignant. All I can say is thank you to the people of Melbourne for honouring our activation with your messages. This why we do Experiential Marketing.

The Growing Wall also relied on people-strangers, really-to come into being. Passers-by were invited to add a mini-daffodil to the installation, transforming it from not-much-more than a cage on a giant wall to a living, growing embankment of beautiful colour and hope as the days passed. City workers were able to see the Growing Wall literally grow in front of their eyes. Not only do these amazing installations make great make visual content for digital channels, but it is this type of personal experience that younger audiences are familiar with and seek. It’s a crowd-funded world these days and people recognise what is, and what is not, authentic. They are then far more likely to put their name to it when it delivers authenticity.

The set-up for Daffodil Day was indeed gruelling. A late, cold night. An early, freezing and wet morning. (Did I mention that the weather was poor?) But honestly, all of that did not matter when we stood back and looked at what we had created, in partnership with our friends at Alive Events. All of those nasty grey clouds were soon forgotten when that bright and hopeful yellow filled your eyes and heart. I can see why Daffodil Day is such a favourite for a lot of people, and why it is so important that it continues to grow. Working with clients on strategies to change and develop a brand is one of the more rewarding aspects of working in a brand events agency. We look forward to working with the Cancer Council for many years to come and we’d love to see you down at Fed Square next year, adding your personal touch to one of the experiences that relies on you to come to life.

From a moonlight cinema, interactive customised games to an edgy digital fashion parade, we activated various locations of the Shopping Centre, creating unexpected experiences to engage and excite an array of shoppers.

One of the locations ENGAGE transformed was the recently renovated fashion destination, the ‘Galleria’. We highlighted this space and sparked interest and visitation to the Centre by transforming the space into an inspiring art museum. We gave the local community an opportunity to be inspired and educated. We created a community engagement event that enhanced the spirit of the local community and their celebration of the iconic Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Festival. We sprung into Spring and produced three oversize flower installations to hang in the void of the ‘Galleria’. Referred to as the ‘hanging gardens’, the void consisted of an extraordinary flower installation that resembled a different Orchid native to the Toowoomba region.

The grand flower installations were handcrafted from the talented paper engineer Benja Harney from Paperform. 250 kilograms of delicately cut paper was crafted into monstrous masterpieces that resembled Anemone, Allium and The Black Orchid of Queensland which brought life to the Shopping Centre, sparking interest from the community and even the local media!

As an experiential agency, we created more than just an incredible visual piece, we created an experiential activation that wowed shoppers as they passed through each magnificent floral installation with informative stories popping out from the balustrade or from the food court tables as shoppers dined. The Shopping Centre activation took shoppers on an unexpected and inspiring journey where they learned about these unique Orchids and the story of Allan Cummings, the botanist who discovered the Flora of the local Darling Downs region.

Another of the latest attractions since the redevelopment is the new outdoor café and dining precinct, “Central Square”. Central Square will become a thriving community space where shoppers can dine by the running creek bed and absorb the serenity of the shady trees. Food courts with cold sterile lighting are a thing of the past! We wanted to enhance Toowoomba’s’ sense of community and belonging by hosting a stylised moonlight cinema complete with modest yet personalised ‘Grand Central’ burnt orange deck chairs.

This activation developed into a community engagement event. The moonlight cinema enticed shoppers to venture out to discover the new precinct and enjoy the social community hub. The activation was charming, warm and welcoming. It was GC’s way of thanking the shoppers for their patients during the redevelopment. We ensured this Shopping Centre activation was genuine and reflected GC’s core values.

To complete the Shopping Centre activation, we brought the digital age to Toowoomba in the form of an interactive digital fashion parade, showcasing the new retailers of GC. In a futuristic and edgy style, shoppers could walk through and experience the fashion runway for themselves by walking side-by-side with life-size digital catwalk models. It was a great opportunity to involve the new retailers of the centre, and showcase GC as a fashion destination.

Throughout the various activations, ENGAGE and Alive Events Agency helped relaunch Grand Central Shopping Centre as a thriving social hotspot and a community destination in Toowoomba. Shopping Centres need to stay innovative and ahead of the times to keep up with the evolving shopper and their need for engaging experiences and social interaction. To achieve this, we ensured this Shopping Centre activation brought something different to each space, giving shoppers a diverse shopping experience. We brought education and creativity to the ‘Galleria’ and entertainment and community engagement to the ‘Central Square’ precinct. Overall, it’s an exciting and changing time for Shopping Centres, and the possibilities for revolutionising the shopping experience through Shopping Centre activations are endless!

Event Produced by Alive Engage in association with Alive Events Agency.

With a brief to create a spring market, we did what we do best and embellished and fluffed out the definition of ‘market’. We created a multi-dimensional, hybrid event to surprise the attendees and create a memorable experience. “Is it a market?” “Is it an interactive art space?” call it what you will, but it’s a property development event that encourages community engagement, all in the disguise of a fun and memorable experience!

With a beautiful blank canvas to create an experience on, the ENGAGE team got quite excited about filling the role of the event designer. It’s not very often we get the opportunity to paint the walls and do whatever we want with a space!

We created a lush urban oasis in the midst of Melbourne’s concrete jungle. With a large clear marquee, an abundance of trees, and gorgeous crisp white geometric seating with pops of cobalt blue and soft mint to brighten the space, the fundamentals of the space were done. We wanted to create a space that would resemble the ‘Atrium’ one of the key building features and one of Yarra One’s points of difference.  Yarra One’s ‘Atrium’ will be a community hub for South Yarra residents. A space that will fill with warm light, creating a pocket of sunshine amongst the plant filled space. With limited gardens in the area, we wanted to highlight the rooftop and Atrium garden spaces that Yarra One offers its lucky residents.

But what do people want to do in this pop-up park? How do we create a community engagement event? That’s where we use our experiential agency skills to develop interactive elements to the event. We gave them an opportunity to engage and experience! Talented and quirky Melbourne artist Ellen Porteus created a wall mural that continued growing until the very last day of the event. She created an Instagram moment that encouraged attendees to interact, engage and also an opportunity to amplify the experience with friends through social media.

Just like Ellen, kids and (big kids) became quite creative and added their own ‘growing’ artwork to the space. Covering those once pristine white geometric blocks with playful drawings or words of inspiration; It was heart-warming (and heart wrenching knowing that we will need to clean the blocks afterwards!) to see the community being social and expressive at the community engagement event.

The ENGAGE team delved deeper and created yet another layer to the event.  We created a relaxed experience for guests to escape the cold concrete buildings and to enjoy spending time in the pockets of spring-sunshine that filtered through the Atrium-like marquee. Local hand-crafted market stalls provided guests with the opportunity to tantalise their senses as they browsed, tasted and tested! Attendees also received their own personalised fashion illustration from the talented Sarah Darby. A DJ highlighted the chilled, positive vibe of the event, encouraging people to sit amongst the lush trees, relax under the sun and enjoy the atmosphere and the delicious free food! From delicious Greek donuts, AllPress coffee to Vietnamese Bao and loaded fries with that New Orleans flavour, all of this free-food from Melbourne’s hottest food trucks, generated traction whilst the client generated a larger client database for the Yarra One development.

This property development event created awareness and portrayed the aspirational lifestyle of the future Yarra One residents! It gained attention with even the Mayor of Stonnington, Cr Jami Klisaris making an appearance to announce an official mural reveal. It was a space that engaged the community and ultimately was a rewarding and memorable experience. And all of this was achieved through focusing on ‘the experience’!

Here at ENGAGE, we are just a little bit attached to our suppliers… just as you are with your favourite hair dresser. You know they are reliable, amazing at what they do and are always able to squeeze you in the last minute. So once the fundamentals of the event were created – the large clear marquee, the jungle of plants, the power and AV – we were on our own and had say a temporary farewell to our fabulous suppliers and put trust in our new client, Eco World and their friendly contacts within the local Malaysian community. This was key to achieving a community engagement event. And when we say we engaged the Malaysian community…we mean it! From all of the volunteers, the MC, DJ, entertainment through to Diana Chan, 2017 Masterchef winner, on top of the local food stalls, this event was an authentic community engagement event! As authentic as the aromatic Nasi Lemak that was served all wrapped up in an adorable Banana leaf package!

Underneath the large clear marquee was a lush pop up garden of Magnolias, Bay trees and an abundance of citrus trees. We created a space that would be inviting and an escape from the concrete jungle of South Yarra. We printed large cut outs from quirky Malaysian Cartoonist Reggie Lee to characterise the playful side of the festival. There’s nothing more authentic then the community socialising over a laugh! Entertaining (and extremely messy) food competitions were a highlight of the event, and created an interactive layer that united visitors. Traditional Teh Tarik tea-pouring, poured more over the floor then into the tea cups, but when it brought laughter and created community engagement it was absolutely worth it! The Patong Ice Cream competition had older men giggling like young school girls, lifting the atmosphere of the property development event and creating a fun and silly environment for the community to get together and celebrate their culture. Even the ENGAGE team were surprised as the Malaysian acapella group started beat boxing in an unexpected, yet welcomed twist!

So, to answer our own question, the key to achieving a community engagement event is to include the community through as many aspects of the event as possible. We delved into the unknown, said farewell to our trusty suppliers and gave the Malaysian community a time to shine… and shine they did! Everyone involved in the event were all rewarded with the successful outcome and an even greater sense of achievement. It still never ceases to amaze us what can be achieved when the community get together!

Our beloved long-term client Grocon referred our expertise in community engagement and property development events to The Big Issue to organise a media launch for the recent funding for the Homes for Homes project. Homes for Homes is a non-for-profit organisation established by The Big Issue, Australia’s most successful social enterprise and iconic magazine. This Homes for Homes initiative in en route to creating the solution for a shortage in social and affordable housing in Australia. With Grocon also on board, this was a community engagement event that ENGAGE needed to get behind, and help in the way we do best… create and organise events!

Despite this property development event being one on the fun-size chocolate block scale, when referred by a loyal client, these are the events that are important to take on board to nurture our client relationships. So, with two weeks’ notice, ENGAGE set to work on this event that was to be held at ‘Greenwich Fairfield’, Grocon’s newest residential development. Did we mention the venue is still a construction site? (Try organising an event when the venue is changing every day!)

With hard hats and safety vests on, we began working through the varying challenges.  These constraints won’t stop the ENGAGE team! This is where we thrive, we see opportunities to be creative in more ways than just event design. This is where we get our ‘event geek’ on and flourish whilst finding creative solutions in budgets and time-management. It’s the little things that get us through the day… I didn’t say ‘fun-size’ for no reason.

To make these community engagement events a success, we look to our solid relationships with our suppliers. Having hosted a previous event at Greenwich Fairfield, we went straight back to our trusted marquee supplier and local catering company to achieve a sustainable, seamless event and most importantly happy tummy’s!

Throughout the media launch, the friendly and hospitable ENGAGE staff roamed the site with a devilishly delicious morning tea and freshly brewed Lattes to keep the attendees toasty warm, with a tickle and a kick of caffeine (brownies for breakfast, yes please!)

To dress up the construction site, the team at ENGAGE set up this property development event with lush green artificial grass to bring colour to the backdrop of hardworking construction workers in bulldozers. Large marquees enclosed the site with easels hoisting beautiful oversized renders of the development, almost turning the construction site, into an art gallery.

The set-up created a welcoming environment to the previously, purely functional construction site. The transformed site was ready to welcome the media and special guests such as Federal Minister for Social Services Christian Porter, Jeanette Large from Women’s Property Initiative, David Waldren from Grocon, and Sonya Clancy from The Big Issue, who all spoke about the approved funding and new Homes for Homes Initiative. With all attendees protected from Melbourne’s notoriously dicey weather, the construction site turn art gallery, ensured the media launch was a huge success.

ENGAGE consistently focuses on nurturing our supplier relationships, which enable us to build stronger relationships and have the success we do and had for The Big Issue media launch. A perfect example of this, was when our beloved client, had last minute changes, we could confidently reply with “Of course, leave it with us!” This is the beauty of nurturing relationships. It allows us to have the flexibility to then call on our trusted suppliers to make changes the day before or even the day of the event!  This results in a happy and harmonious flow from client to supplier where everybody wins… it’s the circle of “event” life!

With the help of ENGAGE’s reliable suppliers, we delivered yet another successful event, and what a great community engagement event to be involved in! Overall, due to our respect, appreciation and passion to look after our clients and suppliers we maintained a positive relationship with our client!