Project:
Kit Launch

Client:
adidas

The brief from adidas was to launch Manchester United FC’s official 2022/23 away kit, and to bring the magic of their iconic home-ground, Old Trafford, to Australia during their tour down under.

The centrepiece was a re-skinned Melbourne tram wrapped in Manchester United club colours and adidas branding. VIP fans boarded at a nominated tram stop and were surprised mid-journey by United stars Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay, who joined them for the ride to Federation Square.

The experience culminated at Federation Square, where thousands of fans gathered for the official kit launch hosted by club legends Andy Cole and Bryan Robson. Alongside the player appearance, an upside-down replica of Manchester United’s Old Trafford locker room was unveiled, a playful nod to playing football Down Under. Together, the tram design, the team’s visit and the kit launch combined to deliver an unforgettable, first-of-its-kind moment for Australian fans.

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba

Project:
Brand pop-up store, retail design

Client:
Rapha

Rapha redefined the cycling world through a distinctive approach to product and brand. They built a fiercely loyal global community online but had never translated that passion into a physical brand experience.

The brief was to bring Rapha’s disruptive spirit to life in a temporary pop-up store in Clerkenwell, London. Designed as a reward for their most dedicated fans, the space spoke directly to style-savvy, high-performance cyclists who live and breathe the sport.

The store was wrapped in Rapha’s rich storytelling. Walls and cabinets showcased cycling ephemera, while dado rails, styled like classic steel bike down tubes, featured photography from Rapha’s iconic Rouleur magazine. Customer bike racks were set at varying heights, each referencing legendary European mountain passes. A fitting room was built inside a real Citroën H Van, and a barista served some of the best coffee in London.

The Clerkenwell pop-up proved so successful it became the blueprint for Rapha’s permanent retail format for their Rapha Clubhouses, later rolled out across New York, Sydney, Japan, San Francisco and many more globally.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Antidote London

Project:
Experiential, Broadcast Integration, Hospitality

Client:
Mastercard

The theme of the Australian Open Grand Slam Oval was the Australian beach. So we created the most talked about Happy Slam brand experience and built a three story beach club house, equiped with its own pool. Priceless

Nothing was spared on the quality of this build, details including a real functioning pool, 3 story vertical garden in stair well, open sun decks, a back porch beach view (created with a 7x4 meter LED screen) and a roof top spa operated by ‘One & Only’. Lastly, given this is the Happy Slam we had lots of fun surprising and delighting lucky fans with random ‘happy moments’ including much sort after center court box seats and player meet experiences.

The Mastercard Beach Club served many purposes throughout the two week tennis festival; hospitality for International Mastercard C-SUITE guest, pool escape from the 40°c Melbourne heat for fans, Mastecard Payment technology showcase experiences, live music and entertainment and finally the destination of choice for media interviews and escape for the VIP of tennis.

The back porch of the club house ground level was actually an impressive 7m x4m high definition 4K LED screen, playing a lopped film of a beach, perspective matched to give the Illusion of a beautiful Australian beach day. It threw brilliant light into the space, but importantly it became a way to weave in Mastercard contactless payment technologies into the experience. We did this by calling out realistic and beneficial beach scenarios where Mastercard payment technology could be utilised. These included beach goers, surfers, joggers a SUP boarders purchasing ice creams using Kerv Rings and Mastercard enabled Fitbits, a lost wallet scenario solved with MasterPass, a series of Mastercard enabled tennis experiences with the Mastercard Fanbot, and finally various ecommerce services with Mastercard ChatBot.

👉 More Mastercard work: Ever seen a commentating trophy 🏆? 👀

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Octagon
🎥 Production: Milkmoney
🎬 Director: Ethan Mclean
👷‍♀️ Build: Republic

Project:
Collab, Content, Earned & PR, Event, Activation

Client:
Westpac

Westpac partnered with Budgy Smuggler to promote water safety and support the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service through the ‘Safe As’ swimwear campaign. Two iconic Australian brands came together to raise awareness and fund critical lifesaving work, with a limited-edition swimwear range and all proceeds supporting the rescue helicopter service.

The campaign launched in the first week of summer at North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club with a media event and public activation. The beachside experience included photo moments, a chopper ice-cream cart, and Budgy Smuggler giveaways, capped off by a dramatic helicopter mock rescue with the crew wearing the new swimwear to drive home the water safety message. We even put a pair of Budgy’s on the choppers’ bum.

The event featured NRL and NRLW stars Millie Elliott and Jarome Luai, North Bondi Nippers, and speakers including Westpac CMO Annabel Fribence and Shane Daw from the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service. Live crosses on The Today Show helped amplify the campaign nationally.

As a final touch of true community participation I arranged for the Bondi Salties, the swim club I founded in 2013, to buy a pair of swimmers and swim the bay in style on the day.

👉See other collabs i’ve done with Budgy Smugglers👀

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba
👙 Collab: Budgy Smugglers

Project:
Award design

Client:
Google

The YouTube awards are awarded to the creative agency, media agency and client behind the most watched ads on YouTube within Australia. 

I designed and produced the physical awards – 3D versions of their play lozenge logo, moulded from clear resin blocks.

Working with an artist who specialises in clear resin, we created 20 1kg 3D YouTube lozenges (the play symbol logo), each with an embedded key frame from the featured commercial.

Each award came in its own box: an extruded YouTube play symbol / triangle. The boxes were finished in rubberised PU (texture ping-pong bat material) which gave them a wonderful feel.

Inside, each was individually foiled with the recipients details, and the award itself was set into a velvet flocked rubber housing.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Fabric / Ogilvy & Mather

Project:
AR fan experience

Client:
Transport For NSW

The Things You Miss is an AR experience that brings to life on-road scenarios that quickly become life-threatening when driving distracted on your phone. This was a second year extension to the successful 👉Swans Red Road campaign 👀

Using our striking 33-metre Red Road at the SCG as a canvas, Swans fans could win prizes simply by playing a little concentration game.

Fans scan a code and were encouraged to walk the 33 metres using their phones to navigate, they. As they walked, they got bombarded with distracting phone alerts; Swans’ TikTok posts, AFL Fantasy League updates, Swans group-chat banter, calls from coach Coxy, they even got tagged by Chad Warner on the gram.

Every time they were distracted, virtual obstacles appeared in the path; kangaroos, bouncing footies, the Swannies bus, a lollipop man, and Nick Blakey “The Lizzard” made a cameo… as a lizard.

At the end of the game, fans were asked a simple question to get their prize:

“How many metres do you travel blind when glancing at your phone for just 2 seconds at 60 km/h?”

The answer to which was written on the road they were meant to be focusing on as they walked. 33 metres… in case you hadn’t been paying attention. Get Your Hand Off It.

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba
🤖 Digital Build: FutureLabs

Project:
Activation

Client:
TOYOTA

We recreated a life size local footy clubhouse for Toyota, full of footy passion.

Fandom was rewarded in numerous ways with footy activities. It featured a centre circle bounce experience; the harder you bounce, the more you win, manifesting on a digital scoreboard.

Within we featured footy nostalgia; the walls adorned with local and professional AFL jerseys, flags and photos as well as trophy cabinets filled with footy memorabilia going back through the years.

Over the four days we had AFL and AFLW player appearances, taking part alongside fans in the clubhouse action. Fans also had the opportunity to get up close to the official AFL Premiership Cup and take photos.

Finally we hosted daily footy sausage sizzles – every local club has to have a post match BBQ! (also raising over $2,000 for charities).

Toyota’s reason for existing though, was to share the great things they’re already doing at all levels of footy. Our club walls celebrated the top performing local clubs in the Toyota Good For Footy Raffle - a raffle that’s allowed local clubs to raise over 1 million dollars this year alone, with all funds going directly to local clubs.

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba
🛠️ Build: Republic
🤖 Tech: Futerlabs

Project:
Office interior design

Client:
British Olympic Association

The brief here was to bring the BOA brand to life in their new office space.

The BOA brand was losing relevance and had become a little disconnected from the athletes. In the run-up to 2012, the BOA wanted to refresh their brand and re-energise their staff. We created a positioning that would reconnect the athletes and inspire the BOA staff to emulate their Olympic spirit: Better Never Stops.

This was then brought to life at their new London offices on Charlotte street.

Thirteen original Olympic torches were sourced and placed along the perimeter of the office reception. Using Gebler Tooth Architects we designed a mount which was a physical graphic device used to highlight a BOA ‘Better Never stops’ story. Stories were picked from records, all telling of a moment in which the BOA had made a difference in each of the Thirteen showcased Olympic games.

To showcase all the British sporting NGB’s (National Governing Bodies) which the BOA supports, we created a installation wall of take-away postcards, each representing a different Olympic and/or Paralympic sport. The cards were printed as black halftones on a heavy weight reflective gold stock. Each card included a brief description of its respective sport.

When viewed from a distance the 42 box display creates a Union Jack.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Antidote London

Project:
Activation, Social Content

Client:
QBE

The Challenge:
QBE had been principle partner of the Sydney Swans for 33 years. Whilst 52% of fans were aware of the QBE brand only 17% were considering buying their insurance products and only 3 % held a product with QBE.

Research showed that whilst fans were more than familiar with the logo, they had little connection to the company. There was little meaning in the partnership.

The Idea:
Introducing QBE Swans Flash Fabric.

The worlds first Australian Football jersey that reflected car headlights – getting Swans fans home safely after the game.

We worked with chemical engineering experts to bring washable, reflective paint into Australia for the first time. Then we created the flash Lab. A fully self-contained booth; dropped into the stadium for Swans home games. Our booth ensured thousands of fans had their beloved team shirt upgraded from a reflection of their passion to a lifesaving reflection of car headlights.

This became our 1st manifestation of QBE’s new partnership platform ‘The Fabric of the Swans’

The Results:
Fan awareness of the QBE brand had claimed to an all time high go 69% (a 33% boost). Consideration of QBE products rose to 26% (and increase of 53%) and sales spiked with Swans fans more than three times as likely to hold a QBE product (up to 233% from 3% to 10 % of people).

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Octagon
🎥 Production: Milkmoney

Project:
Activation

Client:
Westpac

Westpac’s Catch & Keep flipped the usual NRL rule on its head. Instead of throwing the ball back, any fan who caught a match ball from a conversion, penalty or kick into touch could take it home. The idea quickly caught on, driven by in-stadium signage, giant inflatable Westpac ball blimps and the 👉 Art of the Catch content series 👀, which became Westpac’s most viewed content ever.

For season two, we were briefed to keep educating fans about Catch & Keep, this time outside the stadium before kick-off. We created a reaction-time ball drop challenge that gave fans the chance to win prizes.

The activation was a hit, winning 2025 NRL Best Precinct Activation of the Year at the 2024 awards.

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba

Project:
🎰 PITCH – Campaign, content, social, experiential, precinct design, earned, PR

Client:
Adidas

We won. Then we lost when the client pulled the project.

We were on track to break the internet.

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba
🤖 Digital Build: FutureLabs
🎆 Ariel tech: Remarkable Media
🛠️ Build: Little Mill

Project:
🎰 PITCH – Olympic House Experience

Client:
ASICS

Brief:
Conceptualise, build and manage two ‘Houses’ for ASICS at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The ASICS House & Support House.

Insights + Strategy:
ASICS is about championing everyday people,leading a healthy, positive and balanced life.
Balance is relative.
Olympians are not everyday people.
They live an extreme life (even more so at The Olympic Games).
Before they compete, they need extreme focus.
And ASICS knows athletes.
So we will create a space to disconnect and focus on the task ahead.
A place of mindfulness, peace and escape.
A House of Preparation.
But if…… Balance is relative. And the Olympic Experience is more that just 9.58sec on a track.
After they compete It’s a celebration of a lifetime of effort.
And ASICS knows Athletes.
So we will create a space dedicated to letting their hair down. A house of joyful abandon.
A House of Release.
Two states of Purpose. One Brand.
Two states of mind. One Athlete.

Idea:
IN /YO:
Seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world.

Execution:ASICS house is split into two completely contrasting experiences, each one specifically tailored to the athletes’ alternate states of being during the games.

House of Preparation is an oasis of calm and escape. An experience exclusively reserved for pre-competition athletes, completely cut off from the distractions and noise surrounding them.  

House of Release is for guests of Asics and post-competition athletes. It’s their post-performance party zone - a place to let their hair down. To connect, bond and celebrate what is probably the most exhilarating, significant experience of their lives so far.

Everything we do falls into these two distinct experiences, unified by the thought that one can’t exist without the other, and the contrast between the two intensifies the beauty of each.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Octagon
🎞️ Film edit: alexvivian.com

Project:
🎰 PITCH – FIFA event design

Client:
FIFA

Brief:
Develop an overall FIFA Fan Fest™ strategy, individual event concepts for the FIFA Fan Fest™ at the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup™ in China, the 2022 FIFA World Cup™ in Qatar, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ (location tbc)and supervise the implementation of the FIFA Fan Fest™ in each instance..

Insights + Strategy:
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

The most memorable sports viewing experiences showcase the game and its fans in their purest forms while simultaneously allowing people to see and feel the match and their surroundings from a different point of view.

Our vision is to change people's perspective of the traditional football viewing experience and design an event that challenges long-standing conventions in both form and content.

Our desire is to playfully reimagine the FIFA Fan Fest™ into a multi-dimensional playground for traveling football fans that, while featuring FIFA matches, equally and interestingly celebrates the passions and interests fans share beyond the pitch like film, music, entertainment, local culture, technology, and art.

We envision the FIFA Fan Fest™ of the future as a place that encourages curiosity and exploration, persuades guests to stay longer and come back more often while feeling familiar and fresh every time.

Idea:
Its All In Play
Our theme "It's all in Play" gives us the freedom to think about things differently and playfully. It gives us license to reimagine how fans experience, taste, play, and watch football with their friends and family. The consequences of this new philosophy or perspective manifest themselves in a variety of ways:.

Execution:
Precinct Model:No more rectangles. Through continuous flowing paths our Fan Fests fans will move in new and interesting ways, everything encouraging discovery and rewarding curiosity.

Multiple screens:
Multiple viewing options. The game is multi-dimensional, so our experience should be too.

Time For Families:
Multiple precincts that facilitate a family experience.

Not Just Football:
A commitment to building an event that features more than just the action on the pitch.

Welcome To Qatar/China:
An opportunity for these amazing cultures to showcase multiple aspects of their heritage.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Octagon
🎞️ Film edit: alexvivian.com

Project:
🎰 PITCH – Olympic House Experience

Client:
adidas

Brief:
Conceptualise, build and manage the adidas Hub at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.Develop an activation strategy that captures the culture of Tokyo, whilst bringing the ‘Creator Sports Brand’ to life. Create a destination for consumers, media, VIP’s & athletes, that inspires co-creation. Consolidate transition to direct sales via adidas stores and online.

Insights + Strategy:
Release the inner child in a grown up’s concrete playground.Adidas will unite creators at Tokyo 2020 with an experience that challenges us to look sideways, be curious, seek and be rewarded.

Idea:
Urban Jungle:Today is your chance, a chance to discover something new.To change it up, let loose, and get in touch with your inner child.It takes courage to create, something unparalleled.Its’ an adventure, full of discovery.It’s raw. It’s wild. Creators know, It’s a jungle out there. And we’re calling all creators to unite, And find their tribein the Adidas Urban Jungle..

Execution:
We’re building a space for creators to have fun above seriousness. A space to embrace their inner child, encourage playfulness, inspire creativity, and suspend inhibitions. We will capture adidas’ distinctive urban aesthetic, but in a child like way, with nods to Japanese culture. This is the Urban Jungle, a place for bold discovery.

Credits:
Film edit: alexvivian.com

Project:
Brand design, art Installation, precinct experience

Client:
Brookfield

In 2014, while Creative Director at Fabric / Ogilvy & Mather, I pitched Brookfield on the branding and placemaking vision for what would later become Brookfield Place Sydney.

We lost the pitch.

But deep in the deck was a free, slightly off-the-rails ‘extra’ creative idea. One of those ideas you include not because it’s asked for, but because you know you’d regret not saying it out loud.

What if the heritage-listed wooden escalators from Wynyard Station weren’t quietly archived or scrapped, but reimagined as a sculptural centrepiece. Suspended in space. A piece of industrial archaeology, an analogue kinetic sculpture.

It wasn’t requested. It wasn’t costed. It was just a random creative thought put out into the universe. In fact everyone in the team wanted me to take it out. Except the Fabric MD Lee Liversedge (he gets it).

Anyway a few years later, that universe answered.

In 2017, the sculpture Interloop by Chris Fox was commissioned by Transport For NSW and installed, using the decommissioned Wynyard escalators as a suspended public artwork. The final execution is genuinely beautiful. Elegant, restrained, and far better resolved than anything we ever pitched. Full credit to the artist for turning old infrastructure into something quietly iconic. It's a great idea 😉.

Seeing the finished work, it was hard not to notice the resemblance to a certain idea, on a certain page (page 91), in a certain rejected pitch deck to Brookfield from 2014.

It’s a unique idea on its own to suggest a feature piece art installation inspired by the old Wynyard station being redeveloped (of which three ideas were enthusiastically put forward), let alone the specifics of my idea; an up-cycled, suspended sculpture using the heritage listed 1930’s wooden escalator…

This isn’t about ownership, and it’s definitely not a crack at the artist. It’s more a reflection on how pitching works.

Clients receive huge volumes of unpaid thinking. Losing agencies often contribute just as much creativity as the winners. And occasionally, ideas escape the deck they were born in.

Most disappear. Some don’t.

I’m proud of this one. Not because it “won”, but because it now exists. A reminder that throwing in the unnecessary idea is always worth it. Even when you lose the pitch.

👉Take a look at Chris’s amazing work here 👀

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Fabric / Ogilvy Mater
🧑‍🎨 Artist: Chris Fox

Project:
Activation

Client:
Toyota

Lifting the Premiership Cup is the ultimate footy feeling, so our final piece in the 👉 Feeling It 👀 campaign for Toyota's AFL 2023 season, gave footy fans the chance to experience just that.

Feeling The Grand Finals was an experience at the MCG which gave footy fans the chance lift the 2023 AFL Premiership Cup, on a replica stage – the ultimate footy finals pic.

Fans who shared their trophy pic using #FeelinItFinals went in the running for Grand Finals tickets.

To land the 20 years of partnership Toyota was celebrating, we also created a perimeter fence covered with 20 years of trophy lifts. We even got players from every years’ photo down to our activation, so fans of teams beyond the Pies and Brisbane Lions got to get a photo with a legend of their team.

Finally we had the perimeter fence posters signed by the player legends in them, to be gifted to lucky fans who registered as prizes.

Oh What A Feeling

Agency credits:
🏭 Creative: Gemba
🎥 Production: Republic
🤖📱 Digital & Social: Polite Playground

Project:
Activation, AR Selfie

Client:
QBE

As part of QBE's 'Swans Story' campaign, we created a fan activation that appeared at major games.

'My Swans Selfie' used augmented reality tech to enable fans to take a selfie with their chosen Swans players. The takeaway was a photo and film for socials.

Agency Credits:
🏭 Creative: Octagon
🎥 Production: Milkmoney
🤖 Tech Agency: Zebrar