The Smart50 2023 Marketing Award winner: Untitled Group

Making waves in an industry that is seeing a massive resurgence post-COVID, it should come as no surprise that this year’s Marketing Award winner at The Smart50 Awards is Untitled Group.

After taking out last year’s Resilience Award, the independent promoter has shown it truly has its finger on the pulse of Australia’s music and events scene; it has transformed itself into a marketing powerhouse.

What began as an idea to host the first Beyond the Valley festival has since grown into Australia’s largest independently owned music and events company. It has  left an indelible mark on the industry with a stellar portfolio of groundbreaking events, including Pitch Music and Arts, Wildlands, Grapevine Gathering, For the Love, Sun Cycle, and Ability Fest.

As an incredibly tenacious company, Untitled Group had to think laterally and become a more adaptable, engaged operation to thrive in a changing marketplace.

“We noticed that camping festivals, which offer an immersive experience, were still seeing strong ticket sales,” says co-founder Nicholas Greco. “The unique nature of the camping format set these events apart and allowed attendees to enjoy multiple days of entertainment at a relatively lower cost. Understanding that people were making last-minute decisions due to economic uncertainties, we shifted our focus to strategies that sustain momentum throughout our campaigns.”

Untitled Group’s 2023 Beyond the Valley Festival could stand on its own as a reason for winning the Marketing Award. Its campaign slogan, ‘There’s no place I’d rather be’, combined out-of-home advertising with a mysterious twist: a phone number for people to call. The result? Thousands of callers singing the lyrics to one of the festival’s headliners, RÜFÜS DU SOL.

“When consumers called, this built our database,” Greco said. “This tactic saw our highest-ever sign-up for the company while rewarding those early adopters (brand loyalty), which eventually drove sales and fostered a sense of belonging for those who signed up.”

In a Smart50 sweep, Untitled Group claimed The Marketing Award as well as taking the number one spot as the fastest growing Australian SME for FY23.

Back to The Smart50 Awards 2023.