Gareth Davies.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Gareth Davies, Managing Partner, Amplify Australia
For both Amplify and myself personally, 2024 was a year of optimistic, future-focused exploration.
Since launching Amplify in Australia in 2018, I’ve been in awe of how the talented individuals within our business are constantly challenging the status quo of brand experience and pushing beyond the boundaries of what a small independent agency is expected to deliver.
From the experiences we created and the stories we told with our remarkable brand partners, to our internal initiatives and business practices, the consistent themes over the last year have been ones of hope, wonder and a commitment to securing a better future. Against the backdrop of a year of economic uncertainty and global conflict, these themes feel all the more significant.
Inspiring a better future during major cultural moments.
Our year was punctuated by some of the biggest local and global cultural moments in the LGBTQIA+ community, sports and the arts.
Amplify marked the third year of our partnership with Canva for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, designing and producing a parade float and performance that invited everyone to “Design the Future”, celebrating the power of visual communication to inspire positive change.
In May, we launched our first collaboration with Samsung for Vivid Sydney. Samsung: Chorus of Light was a large-scale, interactive light installation that harnessed generative AI to translate visitors’ hopes for the future from their own language into the universal language of art. This co-created, evolving installation celebrated the power of technology to connect people across cultural boundaries with over 344.7k+ visiting the experience IRL.
This was swiftly followed in July by our work with Nike for Paris 2024. This saw us localise Nike’s global “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” platform to create a reactive social and OOH campaign that recognised Nike athletes who were competing and inspire the next generation of athletes. Executions included featuring The Matildas in Nike Pacific’s first anamorphic billboard and a large-scale lighthouse projection in Emma McKeon’s hometown of Wollongong, marking her record breaking sixth gold medal win.
Creating the future through our internal initiatives.
Helping brands build engaging worlds and memorable narratives is our constant mission - we want to empower them to explore creative technology through rapid experimentation. Building on these efforts, this year, Amplify unveiled FUTURES, a dedicated innovation practice designed to assist brands with navigating and using emerging technologies for creative storytelling and immersive experiences.
We are at the dawn of a new era in space exploration and this time Australia is a key player. The coming decade will offer marketers opportunities to reach new audiences and build brand equity by tapping into the cultural conversation surrounding space exploration. So we explored beyond the horizon, raising awareness of the ‘global space renaissance’ among brand marketers. Together with The Australian Space Agency, we educated and inspired connection and collaboration between the space and marketing industries through industry panels, as well as our own intimate event featuring Australia’s first astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, and a dedicated insights report on the subject.
The future of our business and practices.
This year, Amplify Australia doubled down on our global ambition to expand our offering and evolve the definition of brand experience. Whilst we continued to deliver world class physical experiences with Google, Canva and Samsung, we’ve also proven our expanded creative and production capabilities with content and OOH campaigns for Nike, Afterpay + The Iconic and Netflix. With the expansion of our capabilities came the expansion of our geographical footprint, with projects taking us beyond ANZ into markets across the APAC region.
After becoming a Certified B Corporation across all our global offices in 2023, we have been able to continue improving the impact Amplify has on its people, the wider cultural landscape our work exists within and the planet we live on. It has always been important to us to think and act responsibly. This is why everyone at Amplify is committed to adopting considered and conscious decision-making when creating campaigns on behalf of our clients, with the goal of moving culture forward with a positive and long-lasting impact.
So, what does the future hold for Amplify?
In 2025 we aim to continue to operate throughout APAC and around the world, creating and producing culturally connected campaigns and experiences for audiences across the region.
Specifically, we’re excited to see the steps we took and commitments we made during 2024 positively impact our business in 2025.
As the end of the year approaches and the uncertainty shows no signs of relenting, the need for experiences and stories that inspire hope and optimism for the future will be more important than ever. In 2025 we hope to see more brands investing in providing moments of joyful escapism and connection to audiences of all kinds.
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