Queensland Music Festival taps Bigfish for a rebrand and its first ever TVC
Queensland Music Festival is exploring new territory in 2021, turning to Brisbane creative agency Bigfish to help create an advertising campaign for its new Queensland Music Trails (QMT).
In a first for the festival, it has released a TVC sport starring Aussie larrikin/actor Aaron Gocs, with the campaign not only promoting the festival and associated music trails, but also to encourage Aussies to travel around Queensland.
QMF CEO Joel Edmondson tells Mumbrella that the move was deliberately to create “market differentiation”.
“We’re trying to establish a brand that says something about Queensland that transcends any one event.
“The nature of the product we are selling is interlinked with Queensland’s identity, so we’re asking people to go and have an experience on the road that’s as much about discovering the state as it is the music event.”
For Bigfish, it was about showing that the Queensland Music Trails and QMF are about more than just a music festival.
Founder and head of creative, Sheldon Lieberman, explains: “This year is just the beginning. They will thread far and wide, all over Queensland’s metro and regional areas, connecting new audiences to local communities and the land that surrounds them.
“The music is the soundtrack to this connection. That’s where we started.”
The spot has a feeling of a tongue-in-cheek state body tourism ad, and it could be set to shake up the way that marketers and PR promote music festivals in the future. The campaign also uses the tagline ‘Should Be Pretty Good’.
There was always an intention to market Queensland more broadly, says Lieberman.
“The QMTs are about discovering the far reaches of Queensland, getting in the car, road tripping, exploring. The music is still the destination but there’s so much to experience along the way.”
In addition, Queensland Music Festival has rebranded as simply QMF. Edmondson says the move was to make it easier for people to differentiate between QMF as a parent company, and the actual music events it holds.
“The big challenge for the company historically has been, when you’re calling yourself Queensland Music Festival – and that’s an event that happens every two years, but you’ve got a whole lot of other programming – it’s very hard for people to understand what you are.
Liberman adds: “The organisation also does a lot more than run a festival. It helps Queensland communities design solutions to social, cultural and economic challenges.
“So we moved away from the word ‘Festival’. We did however want to keep the connection to this long-standing brand, thus the move to the acronym.”
The campaign is rolling out across cinema, TV and socials, predominantly in Queensland.
Credits:
Client – QMF
Project – Queensland Music Trails
Agency – Bigfish
Art Director – Niqui Toldi
Copywriter – Niqui Toldi + Scott Eather
Creative Team – Sheldon Lieberman, Niqui Toldi, Dave Byrne & Scott Eather
Director – Tim Potter
Producer – Nicole Ferrier
Camera Team & Lighting – Owen Smith & David Aponas
Colour Grading – Jim Henry
Editor – Jim Henry
Art Department – Pip Comino
Sound Operator – Tristan Atkins
Marketing – Mel Tickle, Matt Langler
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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topics
Bigfish
Joel Edmunson
QMF
QMT
Queensland Music Festival
Queensland Music Trails
Sheldon Lieberman
