EMF WORLD / ISSUE 04

Looking back at live experience pioneers Glue Society and my top 5 projects of theirs from the past 20 years

The experiential part of most campaigns is still an afterthought - something added after the idea is already figured out. Australian art and directing collective Glue Society flipped that model. The physical moment often sits at the center of their work, and everything else - content, digital, amplification - is built around it.

I’ve long considered them pioneers in the “experiential” space. I worked with them briefly in the mid-2010s at Resource LA, and many of their projects from that time still feel like a blueprint for how live experience should be approached. They weren’t designing “activations.” They were creating public experiences - simple ideas that turned physical environments into storytelling devices.

That approach matters now more than ever. Audiences are harder to reach, and marketing is easier to ignore. An unexpected real-world idea still stops people, and when it’s captured well, it’s the kind of thing that spreads fastest on TikTok.

Here are five of my favorite projects from Glue Society:

Nissan Leaf - A World Without Petrol (2012)

For the 2012 Nissan LEAF launch, Glue Society created an art installation in Sydney and Melbourne featuring 40 repurposed, non-functional petrol bowsers (gas pumps) transformed into creative sculptures to showcase a future where electric vehicles make traditional fuel stations obsolete. Gas pumps became mini golf holes, instruments, fortune tellers, pie warmers, and gum ball machines. For me this one remains the gold standard for using a live experience to tell a story in a creative and immediately legible way. I also love how they made it interactive through integration of visual art.

ANZ - GayTMs (2014)

Their most famous project. The ANZ GAYTMs transformed standard ANZ bank ATMs in Sydney into elaborate, handcrafted works of art to celebrate the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. The ATMs were fully functional, featured screen makeovers with messages like “Cash out and proud,” and dispensed rainbow-colored receipts. Simple, well-executed, and effective. It turned a mundane errand into a joyful, shareable celebration and replaced corporate coldness with vibrant, handmade artistry. A great example of a brand partnership that felt genuinely supportive to the community and simultaneously humanized a major bank.

History Channel - Unforgotten Soldiers (2013)

For the Australian War Memorial and the History Channel, Glue Society placed life-size sculptures of contemporary soldiers in ordinary public settings — sitting on benches, standing on street corners, waiting at bus stops — so that passersby would encounter them unexpectedly and be prompted to reflect on the lasting effects of service and trauma. The live experience was the core idea, not an afterthought. Broadcast content was produced around the installation to capture real reactions, extend the storytelling, and amplify the message beyond the physical locations. A great example of how a simple but emotionally resonant real-world idea can generate content.

NRMA Car Creation (2012)

Glue Society built a fully functional concept car entirely out of the parts most Australian insurers typically excluded from standard policies — roof racks, alloy wheels, metallic paint, air conditioning units. Over 30,000 parts from dozens of different car models, assembled into a single drivable vehicle. Instead of explaining a policy detail through traditional advertising, they put a physical object into the world that made the point instantly. People could walk around it, interact with it, and immediately understand what they were missing. A jigsaw puzzle with an engine — and proof that even the driest brief can generate something worth encountering.

Hot With The Chance of a Late Storm - Melted Ice Cream Truck (2006)

For Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney, Glue Society created a surreal public artwork featuring a life-size ice cream truck seemingly melting into the pavement under the heat of the sun. The hyper-real sculpture showed the vehicle slumping and dripping into colorful pools, turning a familiar symbol of childhood nostalgia into a striking visual metaphor about climate and changing conditions. Positioned along the coastal walking route, the piece surprised visitors and quickly became one of the most talked-about works in the exhibition. Documentation and media coverage then amplified the work, allowing the sculpture to reach a broader audience through film, photography, and press.

Putting live experience at the center of a campaign isn’t new. In a lot of ways, Glue Society operates similarly to Banksy - placing something into the real world and letting the public do the rest. The difference is they’ve been doing it on brand briefs.

As digital channels multiply and attention becomes harder to earn, that instinct is more valuable than ever. A well-executed physical idea doesn’t just exist, it travels.

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