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For some reason, "Adelaide is boring" is hitting us at all angles, from our social circles, unfriendly groups we run into on a night out, and more than ever, online - I'm looking at you, snarky comments on r/Australia.
But recently, Experience Adelaide has dropped the 'See It For Yourself' campaign, showcasing the sparkling nightlife and fun that I've been appreciating myself for so many years.
I've found that a night out in Adelaide can be chameleonic. One night, you're at a paint and sip, followed up by a Chinatown feed, before pouring yourself into iDarts or karaoke. Another, two rounds of espresso martinis can find you navigating crowds to see your friend's cousin's band play at the Exeter (Line Lonely played Friday night and they were fantastic), before slaying the night away at Mary's, chain smoking down an alleyway with drag queens and scoffing a burrito on the way home. The next week, you might tuck away into an unknown venue with friends to celebrate whatever is on the agenda for the night, seeing a jazz band play and meeting the members, to only end up on a private rooftop of someone's apartment watching the stars.
And I feel like the See It For Yourself campaign has intentionally tried to capture that magical feeling you get when you go out in Adelaide, ready to accept whatever the day or night has in store for you.
The campaign is one to focus on how brilliant our city is, and to encourage visitation and spend across within the CBD. The campaign uses cheeky language, like 'Adelaide is boring', 'Everything shuts early', and 'There's nothing to do in the city', plastered against imagery showcasing just how great Adelaide is.
A huge part of the campaign itself is the photography, which delves into the territory of high flash, high exposure, almost New York nightlife-like, Terry Richardson-esque style, that graced our Tumblr feeds and has shaped my love for the look ever since. The assets perfectly encompassed how it feels to be out on a night here in Adelaide.
I mean, just LOOK at this photography!!!
Funnily enough, the photography was crowd-sourced, with an email going out the Experience Adl subscribers asking for those who have been out and want to share their pics to send them across for inclusion in the campaign. I'm not sure if all of the photos are from locals, but it seems at least a fair few of them are.
The URL on all materials points to seeadl.com.au, which auto routes you to a child page of experienceadelaide.com.au, a brand run by the Adelaide Economic Development Agency, or AEDA (known for Adelaide Fashion Week, Winter Weekends, Adelaide Guitar Festival, and the like).
Through my Google search research, the media agency who led this campaign was Showpony. I've had the pleasure of working with Showpony as the key agency behind one of the state government campaigns I recently ran in my winter contract role, and they were an absolute delight and powerhouse to work with. The team was always there to help, the concepts and execution were flawless, and the people were lovely to collaborate with. An article covering the See It For Yourself campaign was covered by Campaign Brief, which delves a bit further into the creation of the campaign itself.
Says Michael Rossi, executive manager, marketing, AEDA: “Playing with a negative is always a risk. So authenticity was key. We wanted something that reflected the real Adelaide. When the team suggested sourcing real images, rather than shooting something for the campaign, we jumped at the idea.”
The only other absolutely huge campaign that I remember (and yes, you can judge me for still being obsessed with a 15 year old television show), was the season 2 Gossip Girl ads that went and still continue to go viral. These advertisements, like the See It For Yourself campaign, focused on the negative reviews that the show had received from season 1 and proceeded to enchant every single teenage girl who still had sneaking out of her bedroom window to go see some older boys on her high school bucket list. That girl was me, and probably part of the reason I resonate with the 2024 AEDA campaign. Very happy I could sneak a GG reference into this one.
The campaign, probably fairly, came under some scrutiny during this cost-of-living-crisis. A user on Reddit posted a picture of the posters in the CBD where someone had taken a paint pen to it, commenting on the current economic crisis. I've just spent like an hour and a half trying to find this picture/post and I cannot, so if anyone finds it, please message me and I'll link it here.
A song was also created to support the updated campaign; I don't think it was the slay they intended it to be, still, I commend their attempt.
I know that Adelaide isn't all about nightlife, although personally, I am. To gain a better idea of some of the day activities out there to explore, I adored @rosaria.rita.daniel's 24 hours in Adelaide reel, created in conjunction with @experienceadl - watch below.
I actually recommend that you sign up for their email newsletter (obviously if you had to choose one newsletter, subscribe to mine), for weekly updates for what's on in the CBD for the Type A personalities to plug into their calendars respectively.
So, this weekend, I urge you, like me, to head out and experience what our great city has to offer, and... see it for yourself. On the racket this weekend shall be espresso martinis, KBBQ, and suburban bars pre or post a mate's housewarming.
This article is purely my personal opinion and includes information from various sources. For any clarifications or to provide information that might change the way the information in this article has been presented, please contact me directly.