Elastic turns Sydney Water’s Easter Show activation space into an alien world and wins best stand

Sydney Water scooped Best Stand at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show after transforming its activation space into an immersive alien themed world designed to make water education fun, interactive and unmissable.

Led by creative agency Elastic, part of IVE Group, the activation invited kids to step into the role of scientists and become part of an extraterrestrial research mission, learning about the water cycle through play and discovery.

The stand’s centrepiece was a UFO hovering above a stylised Australian landscape showing how the water cycle works. Visitors could then walk through to the craft’s command deck, where a series of interactive experiences helped turn a sometimes complex topic into something exciting and engaging.

“Great creative isn’t just about looking good.” says Samantha Holder, Creative and Strategy Director at Elastic. “It’s about giving people a reason to stop, stay and feel something. The aliens gave us a way into the story that worked for a five-year-old and their parents in equal measure. Curious, fun and genuinely surprising.”

Sydney Water’s brief was to increase engagement and improve water literacy across a broad family audience. With more than 900,000 attendees across 12 days, the challenge wasn’t just attracting attention, it was also making sure key messaging stuck with people.

The stand combined physical and digital elements, including a gesture-activated LED experience wall, the Rain Rush water game, a working dam water station, illuminated wastewater specimen displays and a digital quiz with personalised results. Each interaction was designed to reinforce key messages around the water cycle, conservation and wastewater.

The experience also incorporated Sydney Water’s partnership with The Wiggles, introducing a new water cycle song into the alien world and strengthening its appeal for the youngest visitors.

IVE Group delivered the activation, handling fabrication, production and national logistics to bring the concept to life, with NXT Interactive building out the creative technology. Brand activations are a fast-growing part of Australia’s experience-led marketing landscape, and IVE’s integrated capability is what made an activation of this scale and complexity possible.

Experiential marketing works best when it doesn’t feel like marketing at all,” says Nathan Richman, Managing Partner at Elastic. “What we built for Sydney Water proves that when a bold creative idea is backed by execution at scale, the results go well beyond the event itself.”

The result was one of the most popular stands at the show, with long queues running daily.

More than 30,000 merchandise items were distributed throughout the show, reflecting the volume of visitors attending the stand. More than 13,000 people engaged with the interactive experiences, while quiz completions reached 220% above target, with an 83% completion rate. The activation also captured nearly 10,000 data points to inform future campaigns.

The stand earned Sydney Water its first Best Stand win at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Commercial Exhibitor Awards (Home & Lifestyle Pavilion).

“The Easter Show is a key moment for us to connect with the community,” says Chriss Mikhael, Senior Marketing Advisor at Sydney Water. “This year, we created something families actively sought out and engaged with in a truly meaningful way. To win Best Stand reflects what happens when education and creativity work together.”

Client: Sydney Water
Creative Agency: Elastic, part of IVE Group
Production: IVE Group
Creative Technology: NXT Interactive

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