Day Three of This Way Up: Going Out with a Bang

For the final time in 2023, Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art yesterday brought together advertising industry titans for the This Way Up Festival of Creativity.

Billed as creativity’s breeding ground for worthwhile opinions, the creativity and advertising festival united local leaders and emerging talent with some of the world’s most renowned and disruptive innovators.

Kicking off day three of proceedings was Nathan Lennon, co-founder of Hawke's Brewing Co., who’s remarkable journey was the subject of the session ‘Hold my beer: How authentic storytelling can maybe, just maybe, keep your stupidest ideas alive.’

Nathan, a former creative director at Droga5, captivated the audience when recounting his experiences convincing the late, former prime minister Bob Hawke to go into the beer business together.

The morning session continued with an entrepreneurial panel moderated by Dentsu ANZ strategy partner Graham Alvarez-Jarratt, featuring CLUTCH Glue co-founders Annabel and Lucy Hay, Givewrap co-founders Hans Christian Berents and Michelle Tirtabudi, and Flavedo founder and CEO Emily Perrett.

The afternoon session belonged squarely to the advertisers, opening with a discussion on Indigenous collaboration, featuring Cox Inall Ridgeway GM Yatu Widders Hunt, and freelance copywriter Yaraman Thorne.

The pair offered a unique perspective on some of the nuances, misconceptions, and challenges associated with First Nations People in the advertising field, particularly copywriting.

Yaraman spoke highly of D&AD Shift, a Sydney-based, free, and industry-led night school for self-taught creatives, in which he has participated.

“There are great Indigenous creatives out there, but really you guys need to advertise to us a little bit better,” Yaraman said on the subject of recruiting Indigenous talent.

“Let us find you.”

The final keynote, delivered by Orchard New York CCO David Kolbusz, turned out to be an event highlight, as he relentlessly and humorously peppered the crowd with the question, ‘Why?’.

His presentation, titled ‘David Kolbusz Fixes Everything That’s Wrong With Advertising in 35 Minutes’ was a crowd favourite, and offered insights into creativity, craft, and creative leadership.

The Festival closed with a party to honour the recipients of the week’s AWARD Awards, at which Bear Meets Eagle on Fire was named individual agency of the year, Special was named agency network of the year, and Scoundrel was named production company of the year.