Creativity is no fringe industry

Mixing in business circles, I hear some of my peers frame the creative industries as a nice-to-have but not a must-have part of our economy. Really? After the February and March we’ve had in Adelaide I find this attitude absolutely preposterous.

Kwpx has been using creativity to accelerate the growth of some of South Australia’s most well-known businesses for more than 30 years. Some of those businesses have doubled and tripled in size over that time. Being able to communicate why your business exists and is worth buying from is critical to your success and growth.

In 2021 kwpx won the Adelaide Fringe account and quickly went to work establishing a creative strategy that could help the organisation and event reach new heights.

In 2023 Fringe achieved the incredible milestone of 1Million tickets sold. Far be it from us to take credit for this achievement (you’ve only got to look at their ticket sale trend line to see they were well on their way), our role as the Fringe’s creative agency was to help the organisation align internally and get everyone singing from the same song book. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

This year we’ve sponsored a Fringe Award and were awestruck by the winner of the award for Best Film and Digital or Interactive, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats. What the work demonstrates is that ingenuity and innovation can reframe storytelling and deepen connections between an audience and author in incredible ways.

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats was a part of Electric Dreams, a mini festival within the Fringe that brought digital artists from across the globe to Adelaide to demonstrate how technology can be used in art. In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, was a virtual reality experience where audience members went in search of a UK rave in the year 1989. Sophie explained that the support from the audience about the piece came from its dual nature of providing viewers with both a “rave experience” and an immersive documentary, placing them directly at the heart of the UK in the 1980s.

Last year, another new client, Adelaide Film Festival recorded its biggest box office ever.

As well as featuring all the incredible films you’d expect, the festival brought a delegation of Indonesian filmmakers and actors to Adelaide as part of a new trade partnership between itself and Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. AFF will lead delegations to Indonesia over the next several years to strengthen ties between the South Australian and Indonesian film industries.

With Netflix, Binge, Paramount+, Amazon… and how many other streaming services all taking their monthly direct debits from my bank account I can wholeheartedly attest to the money people are willing to invest in creativity.

Whether it’s seeing the young DOP, who shot our latest campaign, have his work open the Adelaide Film Festival, or seeing a young actor from another commercial pop up on stage at a Fringe venue, we love how embedded creativity is in Adelaide’s DNA and how this place nurtures talent.

Kwpx believe creativity is the fulcrum of growth for this state’s many excellent companies. It’s certainly no fringe business.