Sydneysiders were cynical about all three, calling them somewhere for tourists in Uggs to buy opals, or where you took the relatives, not where you spent your own Saturday. Winning them over meant giving them a reason to come every weekend, not just when someone was visiting.
Changing a reputation is a long game. You don’t win it with one good festival, you win it every weekend, for years.
One always-on press office across all three, working the whole calendar and chasing the media Sydneysiders actually cared about, beyond the what’s-on lists and into the stories that shift a reputation. Lunar New Year and the school holidays at Darling Harbour, harbour swims and Nocturne at Barangaroo, jazz in The Rocks, each one put in front of the right crowd, in the right context.
Press office
One press office covering all three precincts, pitching the whole events calendar, from Lunar New Year and NAIDOC Week to Jazz Sessions, Nocturne and the school holidays.
Media relations
Each event taken to the media its crowd reads: parenting titles, First Nations media, food press, fitness and what’s-on.
Creators
39 paid creators in a year, plus contra visits, booked into month-long windows so shoots could move with the weather.
Event
Hero moments like the Cedar & Salt sauna pop-up at Barangaroo, with a free-session giveaway Time Out ran as a headline.
Reporting
Monthly reports on every precinct, tracking whether the campaign and perception messages made it into coverage.
The reputation it earned.
Pieces of coverage, against a target of 280
624
Reach for Lunar New Year at Darling Harbour
45M+
Pieces for Barangaroo, against a target of 40
175
Of coverage carried our perception messages
100%
