Scape Student Living activates ‘You Had To Be There’ platform with Bondi pop-up event, via Noisy

Scape Student Living partnered with Noisy to create a surprise pop-up event in Bondi featuring DJ Ben Gerrans, promoting their ‘You Had To Be There’ platform. The event sold out quickly, emphasizing the importance of real-life experiences in marketing.

The announcement:

Scape Student Living has partnered with music and culture-first agency noisy to deliver a surprise activation in Bondi, transforming the brand’s “You Had To Be There” platform into a live cultural moment.

The campaign centred around a last-minute pop-up performance by Australian DJ Ben Gerrans, converting the rooftop of North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club into a one-off sunset party overlooking Bondi Beach. Designed to feel spontaneous and discovery-led, the experience prioritised social-first storytelling and real-time audience participation over traditional advertising formats.

Announced mid-week, free tickets were released on Friday morning, with registrations reaching three times venue capacity in just over an hour. Attendees were instructed to gather at Bondi Beach at 5:45pm before the location was revealed live, prompting crowds to move collectively toward the rooftop venue – reinforcing the campaign’s core idea that the experience could not be replicated online.

“Bringing people together in real life, around music, culture and community, is central to Scape. Partnering with noisy on moments like this reflects the experiences we want our residents to feel connected to and a sense of belonging, from beach days to rooftop sunsets, because these shared moments matter just as much as the courses they’re studying,” said Rosalind Lill-Lusby, GM Brand, Marketing & Communications, Scape at The Living Company.

Scape is swiftly becoming embedded within Australia’s youth culture, amplified through noisy’s owned media platforms and creator ecosystem. noisy delivered end-to-end campaign execution, including creative strategy, event production, content capture, creator coordination and distribution across its owned channels LINES and Whatslively, alongside reporting and post-campaign analysis.

Harry Wilson, Managing Director of noisy, said, “Brands are increasingly recognising that culture moves faster than traditional campaign timelines. Surprise-led activations allow brands to participate, rather than interrupt. By creating a moment that genuinely rewarded showing up, people felt part of something real, and that authenticity drove engagement.”

Media planning for the activation was led by Kaimera, with support from the Scape brand marketing team.

Ella Dalton, Senior Content and Marketing Manager for Kaimera said, “In a scroll-first world, content determines whether a moment scales. Our job was to make sure what happened on that rooftop was captured and distributed in a way that felt native, immediate and culturally fluent – extending its impact well beyond Bondi.”

The campaign highlights the growing role of experience-led marketing in building cultural relevance, demonstrating how live moments can drive both real-world participation and scalable reach.