What Does Seven Years at Bolster Look Like?
Busted ARIAs, COVID livestreams, custom KFC burgers, and so much more.
It's a bittersweet moment in this month's newsletter as we bid farewell to Hugo Dean, our beloved Content Lead, who has been with us at Bolster for nearly seven years. Beginning life as a junior producer/party planner/jack of all trades, Hugo — or Dingo, as he’s more affectionately known — quickly became the driving force behind some of our most impactful campaigns. Below, you'll find Hugo’s own words, highlighting his favourite projects and moments during his time with us.
After just shy of seven years working in Bolster’s creative and content team, I am doing something truly groundbreaking and moving to London. I know it might seem like a bit of a rogue move for a creative professional from Melbourne’s inner-north to relocate to London, but I’ve never been one for following the crowd.
I have had the most incredible journey since coming on board as a contractor to organise the launch party for LNWY.co — a custom publication Bolster launched with Laneway Festival — in 2017, and I want to say a huge thanks to all of the people, both within the agency and beyond, who have given me the chance to collaborate on some truly amazing projects.
Succinctly reflecting on my highlights over this time has proven challenging, but I thought, in true digital-content style, I’d put together a listicle touching on some standout projects from my journey. So strap yourself in, and let’s saunter down memory lane together one last time before I fly the coop.
Alta & Touch Sensitive Reimagine ‘Lay It Down’
Somersby & LNWY, 2018
One of the first major brand campaigns that we delivered on the short lived, but much loved music publication LNWY.co was ‘Musical Shares’ — a content series presented by Somersby that brought two artists together for a day in the studio reimagining one of their tracks. We had incredible artists across the board but a true standout was seeing Melbourne-based electronic duo Alta collaborate with Touch Sensitive to rework his funky house banger ‘Lay It Down’. Seeing what some of the country’s best artists could create in such a short amount of time was truly eye opening and set the tone for many encounters with talented people for years to come.
Reuniting Matt & Alex For The ARIAs
YouTube Music, 2019
YouTube Music challenged us to drive hype for their partnership with Australia’s highest profile music awards and we stepped up to the plate. We reunited beloved triple j breakfast hosts Matt Okine and Alex Dyson to continue their tradition of crashing the ARIA Red Carpet before presenting the ARIA for Best Music Video.
To build anticipation for the reunion, we brought together an incredible production team to create hilarious parodies of ARIA nominated music videos that we then teased out across social media. Despite almost drowning in the whirlpool of music licensing, bending my uncle’s treasured ARIA during an on-set mishap and filming an iconic parody of Empire Of The Sun’s ‘Walking On A Dream’ that never saw the light of day, this project will forever remain close to my heart as a true standout suite of content.
Client Liaison’s Couch Party Live From Lockdown
KFC, 2020
In May 2020 our industry was turned upside down and Melbourne was teetering on the cusp of the world’s longest run of lockdowns. It was all pretty grim but among the negativity we managed to build a new partnership with KFC and produce one of the best livestream music performances of the pandemic. At a time when people were desperate to feel the energy of a live gig once again, we partnered with Client Liaison to do the next best thing — deliver a full production show live to Facebook from the band’s studio.
We styled the space like a living room complete with obscure Australiana props, Colonel Sanders bobble heads, a full footprint live performance set up and Harvey from Client Liaison’s dog Trudy. It was a journey into the weird and wonderful world of Client Liaison with all the secret herbs and spices that you’d expect from KFC.
Despite the internet connection dropping out mid-stream and us having to improvise by connecting to an iPhone hotspot for the remaining 45 minutes, the production was a huge success and earned a four star review in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Lime Cordiale Live From Nitmiluk Gorge
Tourism NT & TikTok, 2021
After the success of our KFC live stream in 2020 we were hungry for more, and my word did we bite off a big mouthful with this one. When Tourism NT asked if we had any ideas on how to showcase the best of the Top End to young Australians hungry for domestic travel experiences, we put forward an idea that sat right on the precipice of possible.
We wanted to team up with an artist playing at Darwin’s BASSINTHEGRASS to make the journey south after the festival to perform a livestream performance in the stunning Nitmiluk Gorge on Jawoyn country just outside of Katherine. We weren’t sure if it could happen or if any artist would be keen to make it work but fast forward a couple of weeks and there we sat watching the sun set over the gorge as Lime Cordiale performed a full band set streamed live directly to TikTok. This job was truly breathtaking and I’m so proud of how the team came together to bring this project to life.
The Peking Cluk Burger
KFC, 2022
What happens when you bring together KFC and Peking Duk? No, this isn’t the start of a low-brow joke. We had the pleasure of working with the country’s rowdiest duo to put together a bona fide festival just after lockdowns eased in the summer of 2022. After what seemed like endless planning and reschedules, we finally were able to pull off KFC’s Feastival — a day of tunes, chooks and revelry on Sydney’s Cockatoo Island.
We put together an epic lineup including Baker Boy, Thandi Phoenix and Ebony Boadu to perform alongside Peking Duk and soaked up the sun as music lovers from across the city partied together for what felt like the first time in years. To cap it all off, we worked with KFC and Peking Duk to develop a truly unique custom menu item dubbed ‘The Peking Cluk Burger’ — a hoisin dipped fried chicken fillet on a delicious slaw in a brioche bun. The tunes were hot and the chicken was tasty on this project.
Becca Hatch Sings ‘Blessed’ In Simlish
EA Games, 2023
I will never forget the mingled joy and frustration on Becca Hatch’s face as she grappled to sing her track ‘Blessed’ in Simlish — the ridiculous imaginary language from The Sims. Becca was a lifelong player of The Sims and we were lucky enough to deliver a campaign that paired her up with her dream brand to record a song that would feature on the game’s radio station.
It was a perfect blend of talent, brand and creative that resulted in fantastic outcomes — but that didn’t make it any easier for Becca to rewire her brain and sing ‘Blessed’ in what is essentially glorified gibberish. Alongside her gifted producer Tentendo, Becca spent a summer re-learning her own song and then managed to perform a flawless rendition of it live in-studio. Becca’s love for the game and care for her craft set the standard for us all on this campaign and the end product wound up receiving an ARIA nomination for ‘Best Use Of Australian Music In An Ad Over 2 Minutes’. A complete dream for all involved.
Promoting Sun Safety With JK47
Laneway & Cancer Council Australia, 2024
One of my final jobs at Bolster involved collaborating with one of the country’s best rappers to breathe new life into the Cancer Council’s iconic ‘Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide’ jingle. This old ditty has become synonymous for sun safety with a generation of Australians but it needed a new lick of paint to resonate more with younger audiences.
We tackled the brief to revamp this track with a truly innovative approach that wouldn’t have been possible in previous years — a collaboration with our trusty new friend AI. Inspired by The Beatles’ releasing ‘Now And Then’ we used new software to isolate the musical stems from the original jingle then provided them to JK47’s producer Jay Orient to create a genuinely banging hip-hop beat. JK47 then dropped two verses that can only be described as ‘extreme’ on the UV rating. The track provided a through-line between Cancer Council Australia's partnership with Laneway Festival and their wider summer marketing activity. It’s also been living rent-free in my head for the past four months.
So there you have it, a bunch of highlights from seven years that will be incredibly hard to top. Thank you so much Bolster for giving me the chance to grow and learn on the job. Thanks to all the friends I’ve made along the way. Thanks to all the talented musicians who keep our lives inspiring and interesting every day. See you all on the flipside! — Hugo