A rainbow-drenched activation that spread messages of empowerment and inclusivity whilst simultaneously lighting up taste buds at Melbourne’s colourful LGBTIQA+ Pride event.
This past weekend saw Melbourne host its epic annual Midsumma Festival. Once again, Because ANZ teamed up with AGL, one of the festival’s top-tier sponsors, to produce a truly bright and beautiful celebratory activation – The Rainbow Cookie Wall. The diversity-focused stall encompassed themes of empowerment and pride to increase awareness of AGL’s commitment to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community.
Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival has been the annual premier LGBTIQA+ Pride event in Victoria for over thirty years. Its Pride March is arguably the festival highlight, normally drawing more than 50,000 marchers and attendees to Fitzroy St. to celebrate diversity and inclusivity every year. Due to restrictions, however, this year the march was understandably capped at just 8,000 participants, but the unforgettable post-march celebration that AGL and other festival sponsors put on more than made up for it.
In previous years AGL and Because have produced some of the stand-out activations at the Midsumma Post-March Celebration. One of our most memorable efforts was the ‘AGL Pride Parlour’ – a hub of glamour where attendees could have their cosmetic dreams come to true with the help of our in-house make-up artists. This year we had to think a little differently to create a safe stand that still allowed AGLs values and commitment to supporting the LGBTIQA+ community to shine through. And so, the AGL Rainbow Cookie Wall was brought to life.
AGL’s amazing rainbow cookie wall
Inclusivity, diversity and progress for life are at the heart of AGLs values, so what better way to showcase that than heart-shaped cookies in a rainbow of colours, each carrying a different message of inclusivity?!
To bring the activation to life, we created a massive rainbow tassel backdrop complete with vibrant glowing neon signs to string the cookies up on. Each colourful cookie was iced with a unique message like “Shine bright” and “Proud to be me”, which encompassed AGL’s passion for inclusivity. The vibrant colours, a pumping playlist of LGBTIQA+ anthems, and prompts to come and enjoy a cookie made our activation hard to miss.
As participants reached the end of the March on Fitzroy Street, they began pouring in group-by-group with many making a bee-line straight for the glowing lights of the AGL marquee. With socially-distanced lines stretching right out across the Catani Gardens festival site, it was clear almost immediately that AGL’s activation would be a favourite amongst marchers.
With social media playing such a pivotal role in creating brand awareness, we placed great importance on ensuring the activation was an IG-worthy photo-op display. It worked! Our amazing AGL brand ambassadors were asked to take so many attendee photos throughout the day, we were actually blown away.
But it wasn’t all just fun and fanfare, it was also important to us that we communicated what AGL has done within the company to support the LGBTIQA+ community. So, in addition to the messages of inclusivity printed on the wall and the cookies, we engaged with marchers to tell them all about the fantastic work AGL has been doing to establish a diverse and inclusive workplace, like AGL’s Shine Network which focuses on providing a safe and inclusive environment for all employees – while also advocating internally and externally for gender inclusion beyond the heteronormative binary.
Through conversations with attendees and messages placed on activation signage, we also highlighted AGL’s Gold Employer status for LGBTQ+ inclusion from the AWEI Awards. 2021 is the third year that the company have been awarded Gold Employer status, and the fifth year they have participated in the AWEI.
The end result of AGL’s 2021 Midsumma activation was an unmissable, showstopping display which could be seen (and heard) from all corners of the Post-Pride March Celebration site! It both captivated marchers and created awareness about AGL’s diversity initiatives and general support for the LGBTIQA+ community. To say the vibes were high would be the understatement of the year! Combining tasty treats with dazzling colours in the name of inclusivity turned out to be a truly unique and special experience for Because, AGL and the thousands of Midsumma marchers at Catani Gardens. I’d say it was a very sweet success all round.
