Reminder – because of your membership YOU get a ticket to this month’s Unlock conference, and Compass too. Here’s how

Tim Burrowes

October 7, 2025 4:14

Reminder – because of your membership YOU get a ticket to this month’s Unlock conference, and Compass too. Here’s how

Welcome to a Tuesday update just for our paying members.

Today: A reminder to come as our guest to Unmade’s Unlock and Compass events. Plus, quite a down day on the Unmade Index.

Your Unlock ticket, unlocked

Unlocking the answers: Ben Liebman, Vanessa Denis, DiDi’s Tim Farmer, Neil Ackland and James Griffiths

This note is only going out to Unmade’s paying members. Thank you as always for your support. It’s a quick reminder that we have a couple of events coming up for which you’re entitled to a complimentary ticket. Simply enter your voucher code MEM25 at the checkout to get your ticket.

First, there’s Unlock, which takes place in Sydney on October 30. We announced the main program today. Unlock is our returning event covering how marketing takes place outside of the nine to five, exploring how brands can shape culture, customer experience and connection across the 24-hour economy.

The event kicks off with a keynote, “Legacy x Live” from Tropfest founder John Polson telling the story of how he teamed up with Sarah Murdoch, Peter V’landys, Rich Weinberg and Bryan Brown to bring back the beloved film festival.

“How DiDi turned data into dancefloors” sees DiDi ANZ and Universal Music’s creative agency Bring unpack the DiDi Kick Ons campaign, a series of after-hours music pop-ups that turned late-night mobility data into cultural moments. The case study will explore how the partnership re-energised Sydney’s nightlife, boosted venue footfall, and shows how marketers can think like artists to create experiences, not just ads.

Rounding out the program, a panel titled “Does Sydney have a brand problem – and can brands help fix it?” will bring together Matt Jones, Four Pillars Gin co-founder and chair of Business Advisory Panel for the City of Sydney and Alice Ellis, Time Out Australia’s editor-in-chief.

The pair will debate whether Sydney’s brand challenge centres on a lingering reliance on the “sun, surf and Harbour” narrative, combatting the perception that the city shuts down early, or the need to rebuild local engagement and confidence to fully realise the potential of its 24-hour economy. The discussion will also examine how media narratives could drive the city’s cultural identity and economic growth.

In a session discussing how brands can build trust in the age of overwhelm, Neil Ackland (ex-Junkee, Ooh! Media), Ben Liebmann (Understory, formerly Noma) and Vanessa Denis (Martin Place Precinct) will examine how brands can move beyond discoverability to become curators and trusted guides for customers.

The session looks at food culture, placemaking and storytelling as forms of cultural curation that help audiences navigate choice and increase discretionary spending.

Also joining the program is a session, Connected After Dark, which explores how brands can engage diverse audiences and unlock growth in Sydney’s 24-hour economy, unpacking the intersection of media, placemaking, and brand impact. The discussion will examine why marketers must look beyond the 9 to 5 to capture share of voice, share of spend, and long-term brand recall, and how out-of-home media plays a pivotal role in driving cultural visibility, wayfinding, and vibrancy at night, with learnings from up and coming cultural precinct Burwood. The presentation features Essie Wake, chief marketing officer, JCDecaux, and Lucy Fisher, head of brand for convenience retailer 7-Eleven.

The event takes place at the Sydney Masonic Centre. For anyone else, tickets are $450. But not for you. You’re special.

All points of the Compass

And a reminder too, to join us for our end-of-year winddown at Compass, which comes to all six states throughout November.

Yes, it’s a panel in a pub – an entertaining conversation about the key industry issues, that then becomes a podcast.

An we’ll also be taking the opportunity for you to be the first to hear our big plans for 2026 now Unmade is part of Mumbrella Media. That will include news on our plans for the Mumbrella Awards and Mumbrella360.

For anyone else, tickets are $149. But not for you. You’re special.

Unmade Index: Aspermont mislays a comma

The Unmade Index had another sluggish day on Tuesday. After a slow Monday thanks to public holidays in several states, the pace was still slow today, with most listed media and marketing stocks trending downwards.

Most notably, resource publisher Aspermont saw its market capitalisation fall back below $10m, to $9.5m.

It was also a bad day for Vinyl Group which lost 4.3% to land on a market capitalisation of $121m. The loss-making Vinyl is now trading close to its lowest point in a year. Three months ago, Vinyl Group put what it labelled as a price sensitive announcement to the market promising it would unveil a new AI-led publishing model in September – but then did not do so.

Among the broadcasters, Nine (down 1.2%) and Southern Cross Austereo (down 1.7%) both lost ground, while Seven West Media improved by 1.4%.

The Unmade Index closed on 484.4 points, down 3.9 points for the day.