Tell us about Social Playground.
Social Playground injects fun into events, activations and life’s celebrations through innovative technology and memorable experiences that people feel inspired to share. We do this through our suite of photo, gif and video solutions, such as social photo booths, hashtag printers and live content feeds. We work on a huge range of events from brand activations to corporate events, conferences, weddings and parties.
What inspired you to start Social Playground?
In 2013, I returned to Australia from a stint in New York to discover that no one had heard of a hashtag printer. I’d seen the popularity of this amazing little machine that could print your photos from Instagram instantly – all you needed to do was hashtag a photo and you had a print out in a matter of seconds. The benefit for brands was the hashtag printer provided an innovative way to engage consumers at events, and provide a personalised take home memento from the event. I knew I had to bring this technology to the Australian market. Three months later I had designed and developed my own version of the software and launched the business with a press release and a handful of ex-clients and colleagues who I knew would love it. Six years later we’ve expanded our offering to 7 or 8 different products, we develop and license our software around the world and we work with clients to develop completely customised live digital experiences.
Tell us about your career and background.
My career has spanned 15 years in experiential marketing, PR, events and social media, working with some of the world’s biggest brands to drive engaging consumer experiences both online and offline. It was this experience that led me to build Social Playground as a business that bridges the gap between the online and offline worlds.
Describe a typical work day for you.
Every day is different! I work in the office 3 days a week and the other two days I spend home with my boys who are 1 and 4, sneaking in some work when they go down for a nap. This means I need to have an amazing team who are clear on what’s expected of them and work hard when I’m not there. Much of my time is therefore spent working with the team to track performance against KPIs, provide support and maintain quality control when I am in the office. I also work on marketing and business development, working with our amazing clients to book more events and generally just making sure all our processes are running smoothly. We place a big emphasis on innovation so I’m also always working on new product development or coming up with creative ideas for our clients and new ways to engage consumers or event attendees.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Jump in with two feet as soon as you can! Sure a side hustle is great for testing product to market fit but once you’re confident your idea has potential, make the jump to working full time on the business. I did this around the 3 month mark and the business took off once it was my sole focus. When you know your salary depends on it, you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the dollars are coming in!
Also I would suggest not to obsess over competition once you get started. Have a deep understanding of the market but don’t become obsessed with what your competitors are doing – there will always be copycats and competition. Focus on building a super clear market positioning and invest your time in constantly improving your business offering, rather than worrying about what others are doing.
Lastly, don’t try to do too much too soon. We attempted to expand to the UK and NZ very early on and while it was ok, it divided my focus on the Australian market. In hindsight, building the Australian market for 12-24 months and then looking to international markets would have given us more capital to expand and perhaps solidified our position in the Australian market earlier.
What’s next for you, and Social Playground?
Right now we’re focused on building up the custom side of our business. We have a solid offering with the hire of our turnkey products (photo booths etc.) and we love the events we get to be part of, but what gets my team and I really excited are the opportunities to work with clients on creative strategy right through to execution. Coming up with innovative ways to engage consumers and event attendees, and keep pushing the Australian industry forward on the technology front. After all, that’s where we started 6 years ago.
To find out more about Social Playground, please click here.
