Spinifex created two immersive activations for the Avalon Airshow 2019 which utilised 360 Dome projection technology. The 15m Jasper dome was Australia’s largest negative-pressure dome projection screen- built especially for Avalon. This dome featured the character of Jasper, an animated little girl which the Air Force had already created and is using to get girls interested in STEM. The brief was to bring to life Jasper in a way that would allow large groups of children to experience the same thrill of flight as Jasper shows. Samara Kitchener from House of Kitch decided that a projection Dome could provide the framework for an immersive experience, especially if there was an additional layer of interactivity. Workshopping this idea with Samara, and four months later, we had a dome that featured 16 touch tablets that allowed the user to choose a jet design, customise it and then launch it into the projection on the Dome. The user was given feedback on how fast their jet had flown. The projection film featured Jasper running and playing through a stylised landscape while also stopping to interact with the jets being launched.
The second exhibit, the 5th Gen Edge Experience, delivered dramatic storytelling through a 360 projection within an 8m dome to demonstrate the power of RAAF’s transformation into a fifth-generation Air Force. Spinifex and WGCDR Chris McInnes created a three-chapter script where the same incident is seen from three different viewpoints, demonstrating how the incident would take place in current-state in comparison with how it would be addressed in a fifth-generation Air Force. Perspective and angles needed to be made to work for viewing from below. Understanding how to draw focus to the important story points while keeping the rest of the dome activated was critical to success and Spinifex used a combination of green screen filming, CG environments, 3D models and motion graphics overlay to create a dynamic, filmic view of each scene.
Visiting delegations and guests included 15 service chiefs, 9 National Armament Directors and 24 Chief of Air Force representatives, from 30 countries.

​The brief was to bring the vision of a fifth generation Air Force to life and inspire people to be part of protecting Australia’s freedoms into the future. From inspiring kids with Jasper’s dream of flight and a future in aerospace, to inspiring people across Defence with the spirit of innovation, to inspiring our leaders with the incredible opportunities of a future which combines creativity with technology. No matter how different our audiences are we are all driven by human emotion, stimulated by colour and imagination, and awed by the incredible talent within us all. What a privilege to work on something at this scale, with the creative freedom, support of leadership at the most senior levels, and the opportunity to deeply collaborate with so many talented RAAF people and external partners. With all the metrics we have to measure success, the most telling metric was the wonder on people’s faces as they immersed themselves in our world.  

RAAF Plan Jericho: Highly Commended NSW Public Relations Institute Golden Target Awards!
 
Plan Jericho’s activation at Avalon 2017 was highly commended in the NSW Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) Golden Target Awards this week. The Golden Target Awards are the PR industry’s longest-running and most prestigious Awards. The entries are judged by a panel of public relations leaders and industry sector experts.
 
About the entry: Chief of Air Force's Avalon 2017 theme was: Plan Jericho is successfully leading the RAAF’s transformation to become the world's first fifth-generation air force through innovation and partnering with industry.
 
The campaign was about bringing Plan Jericho to life at Avalon 2017. There were three elements that were very special for me about working on this campaign.
 

1. The appetite for innovation and communicating differently. It is pretty exceptional to be able to work on an innovation platform with Air Force Plan Jericho. Sure, we used tools such as a life-size hologram to bring the Jericho vision to life in 3D at the Air Show; but I have a profound respect for the real innovations across the aerospace domain.
2. Story telling with tech leaders. This activation was about bringing storytelling, partnerships and technology together, a very rich territory. We had Saab displaying Jericho HoloLens innovation; BAE on acquisition sprints; Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Rockwell Collins spoke to various interconnectivity/situational awareness platforms.
3. The team work and people having your back. This was my first military experience. Working with people who have each other’s backs, and look after each other and those around them, was a first for me. There are remarkable people who dedicate their lives to the protection of our country and our way of life. Getting to know some of them, and having the opportunity to work with them, was more of an honour than any award.

 
More of what we did is here http://jericho3d.com.au/
 

TOP 3 LEARNINGS FROM PRIA VIVID IDEAS EXCHANGE 2017
By Samara Kitchener NSW President of Public Relations Institute of Australia and Founder & Director, House of Kitch Communications

Today I had the pleasure of opening the 2017 PRIA Vivid Ideas exchange: SHAPING HEARTS AND MINDS - BRAND PURPOSE, VALUES AND ASPIRATIONS. The sold-out event explored purpose as an emerging communications theme, attracting over 200 participants.

It was an inspiring panel, involving:

• Kieran Moore (Chair), CEO of Ogilvy PR Australia and CEO Public Relations and Public Affairs WPP AUNZ
• Luke Baylis, CEO & Co-Founder, SumoSalad
• Karen James, Founder, CEO & Author, On Purpose Hub
• Anthony Toovey, GM & Marketing Director Ice Cream & Hot Tea, Unilever
• Kristen Costandi, Public Relations Manager, ING Direct
• Wayne Burns, Director, The Centre for Corporate Public Affairs

The panel theme was - Brands are increasingly standing for social issues. We are seeing an intersection between brand purpose, values, consumer aspiration and consumption. Consumers are demanding purposeful brands that stand for something bigger. Have values and social capital merged with consumerism, or is this the new way to make real change?

A summary of three key insights from the panel discussion follows.

1.    From purpose values flow

Karen James led the discussion with the point that “Every company needs to know why they exist – purpose is more meaningful than mission – it is an active verb from which we can dream big.”
Karen made the point that “embedding purpose can be more challenging for big corporations. New organisations have an opportunity to create with purpose from the start”.

Sumo Salad is a great example of purpose at the core describing themselves as delicious fast food that fuels your body with real purpose, not crap. Luke Baylis is driven by a purpose of changing the way the world eats for the better. “We are about democratising healthy food and making it accessible for all Australians; serving 8 million nutritional meals a year.

Luke reflects that “It is a challenge going from a small start up to a large scale franchise based business - you need to constantly re-establish why you exist as a business. We are selling an ideology of being healthy; not a product. The dish washer in Darwin needs to feel it.”

2.    Purpose is a social licence to operate, but it needs to be embedded

Wayne Burns emphasised that “Companies are now doing a lot of what governments can’t or won’t do. Purpose is a social licence to operate. Values are how we apply our purpose. Companies don’t only live in an economy; they live in a community – they need to speak out when it is in their interest.”

“You have to operationalise your values and make it part of your decision making process. The hard arsed management of those values makes them real. Purpose is about how you make decisions. CSR fails when boards and senior management fail to live their values.”

Anthony Toovey, passionately spoke about how Ben & Jerrys as an ‘activist brand’ was founded on the principle of making social change. “We talk about issues because it is something that we have to talk about. We communicate to our fans in a way that makes it a bit more digestible, and a little bit fun. But when we take something on, we don’t do it lightly.

“Ben & Jerry’s worked with Australian Marriage Equality on our ‘Love comes in all Flavours’ campaign for over a year before even putting out a social media post.”

“If you get into the purpose journey because everyone else is, it won’t work. There needs to be a genuine interest in what you are doing…. Purpose is a responsibility we have as a big corporation; big business has an obligation to this planet and society”, said Anthony.

Kristen Costandi talked about ING Direct’s Dreamstarter program, which is about building long term partnerships and helping entities with purpose thrive. “For us, purpose is a slow burn. You have to build up your proof points and story. It’s what you do, more than what you say.”

3.    It’s as much about culture as it is about structure

Kieran Moore posed the question “How do companies set themselves up to embed purpose?”

Wayne Byrnes kicked off by saying that “Public affairs is the keeper of the tools for social licence to operate. The optimum set up is to have the head of corporate public affairs sit on management team and directly report to CEO. Direct access to CEO is critical to offering socio-political views”.

“Australians have been apathetic, but we are seeing a new generation of CEO now. There are expectations about social footprint and commercial footprint”, said Wayne.

Luke Baylis said that “Purpose for me needs to start with grass roots. Our purpose inspires people to stay connected with the business. Sumo Salad sees the people we bring in to the business as the guardians of our purpose.”

Anthony Toovey expressed that “It is not about structure, it’s about culture – in Unliver, everyone owns sustainability – for it to be authentic, it needs to be part of the culture.” 

Anthony also made the thought-provoking point that brands with purpose grow a lot faster with purpose than without – “Our brands that are active on purpose are growing 50% faster than those which aren’t.”
Kristen Constandi highlighted that purpose needs to permeate structure, culture, and decision making. “For it to work, it has to be authentic and throughout”.

Kieran Moore made the point that “Diversity in decision making is incredibly important. For purpose to work, we need to build frameworks in business that see diverse opinion shaping and reflecting on the purpose”.  

In closing....
​
Vivid Ideas is an annual celebration of innovation, creativity and community. Today’s panel sparked a lot of interest and discussion on delivering brand value while making a positive contribution to the community. Thanks to the stimulating panel and to those of you who participated. We hope that we have ignited a purpose spark that will go far and wide. It feels fitting to end with a quote from Gandhi - “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” 

Last night, I MC’d a panel for a PRIA event, hosted at Nova Entertainment, on creativity and getting a brand’s story into culture.

I often think about culture in terms of its impact on how we behave and the decisions we make. We are all social beings and incredibly influenced by each other and those who we respect. As communication professionals, much of what we do is in the realms of creating, adapting and changing culture; impacting on people and society as a whole.

Communications is about inspiring hearts and minds, shaping the agenda and contributing to culture. It is about storytelling, capturing imaginations, generating buzz, talkability and trends.

We had a fantastic panel, bringing a range of perspectives and stimulating ideas to the night. I have summarised just some of their insights and thoughts.

First up we had Andy Milne, Head of Creative Services at NOVA Entertainment. Andy is a natural born story teller. He started out talking about how cavemen were the original story tellers – painting their tales, and then went on to talk about a blog post he had read - referencing Johnathan Haidt’s thinking that the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor. He gave a great example (Wason Selection Test) - a puzzle that can be solved by fewer than 10% as a logic puzzle, but by 70-90% when presented as a story puzzle. Andy used some really creative examples such as late night radio shows to make a real difference to driver fatigue campaigns.

Next up was Richard Brett, Group Managing Director, Brand Marketing, Ogilvy Public Relations. Richard presented two awesomely out-there case studies on story telling at its finest. The first case study was the eBay world’s first fully shop-able virtual reality store. While the technology and idea were all incredibly impressive, the part of the story that struck the strongest chord was Thelma living in Broome, with limited use of her legs, who was able to have a virtual shopping experience. Once again, it is the human connection and story that we all seek out. The second case story was on the Dewars Scotch Egg Club – we will save that one for another day.

Kerry Turner, Manager Participation and Partnerships at NSW Office of Sport, was the first world champion athlete that I have ever had the pleasure of hosting on a panel. Kerry talked about the dawn of a new era in women’s sport, as Australia’s major sporting codes see engaging with women as an integral part of their future.

What was so interesting about Kerry’s talk was how sporting codes such as Rugby and AFL are successfully developing new cultures that embrace femininity in sports that have traditionally been very masculine. The photo of Rio 2016 Australian rugby seven's gold medallists with ribbons in their hair and nail polish said it all.

Kerry also spoke about the powerful role that sport can play in changing culture, and she presented the Racism. It stops with me campaign. It was a poignant moment as she reflected how at times sports has been at the centre of difficult cultural issues. She ended with her main passion point that women’s sport is a new opportunity to drive positive change through sport.

Emily Curlewis, Senior Manager, Consumer Marketing at PayPal Australia spoke about authenticity in communications, and how the real story has to be led from inside the organisation first. Emily gave some fascinating examples about how core to PayPal diversity and inclusion is, and how some major and costly business decisions have been made based on putting their values first.

Emily presented a lovely case study about a small business called Odd Pears who sell socks in mismatching pairs of 3. The PayPal Working Capital program helps fund cash flow for businesses such as Odd Pears – with finance decisions able to be made using data on the platform. Emily’s talk ran true to authenticity being central to any great story.

Stuart Wragg, Associate Partner and Creative Director at N2N Communications wrapped up the panel by reinforcing that as communication professionals we are fundamentally story tellers. What makes a good story has always been human connection, and an ability to connect with what matters to people. Stu talked about an Airbnb case study that involved a competition to win a night in the Airbnb Mardi Gras float. Stu spoke to the genuine stories that were at the heart of that campaign.

There were some great questions from the floor about courage, meaning, alignment and what scotch eggs really are. I think we all left feeling inspired and buoyed by the selfies we took with the Justin Bieber cut-out in the Nova Entertainment foyer.

Honoured to win PRIA Golden Target Awards - National Campaign of the Year, and Best Digital & Social Campaign for Primary IVF campaign - partnering with N2N Communications and Touch Creative

The Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) celebrated 40 years of excellence in public relations and communication at the Golden Target Awards (GTAs) gala dinner last night, at the Four Points by Sheraton in Sydney.

The GTAs honour the best individuals and organisations across 25 categories, setting globally benchmarked high standards of achievement for the Australian industry.

The crème-de-la-crème of Australia's community of professional communicators were recognised for the extraordinary standards of communication across campaigns, crisis communication, public affairs and more.

N2N & Primary IVF took home the night's highest honour for an individual campaign of the year, selected as the best from all winning entries. Samara Kitchener said "We are honoured to win the award. We were fortunate to be able to have such an authentic story to tell - the first bulk billed IVF clinic in Australia, as well as the close alignment of the team that worked so well together to deliver this outstanding result."

​​http://pria.newsroom.com.au/Content/Default/01-News-Releases/Article/Communication-Kings-and-Queens-crowned-at-the-Golden-Target-Awards-last-night/-3/27/9384

​It was early evening, peak hour, beautiful spring day. I left work in Surry Hills a little bit early as I wanted to see my kids and hear how my daughter’s speech competition had gone that day.
 
I was riding up Campbell street on a bike path wearing my favourite pair of black high top Converse sneakers with white laces. The laces slowly wound their way around the pedal and my foot was literally tied to the bike. I lost my balance, bike fell over, I put out my hand to break my fall. I thought I had come out unscathed until I looked at my hand which was covered in blood and had a deep gash. Some really nice people came to help me up, including a lovely guy that worked at Concrete Duck cafe who tied my shoelace for me. Next thing I was in St Vincent’s emergency getting 5 stitches in my hand. The nurses and doctors were great, and I feel truly thankful.
 
What I feel most thankful for is that this minor accident happened on a bike path, and so it was a minor accident. Had it been on a road it could have been fatal. Peak hour riding on Sydney roads at night is scary.
 
I am a commuter cyclist. I believe in it, I love it, I get an hour’s worth of exercise a day and it is the most efficient way for me to get around.
 
I am thankful that Clover Moore and City of Sydney Council had the foresight and leadership to build separated cycleways in the face of public criticism. I only wish that others could show the same leadership so my entire ride home is on a separated cycleway. I also wish that more people are able to enjoy riding home safely, and am grateful for the work of Bicycle NSW in advocating for better cycle paths.
 
I didn’t get to see my kids that night, but I did see them the next morning. I still get tears in my eyes as I think about how lucky I was to only have gotten 5 stitches.