Paint Juicy CONNECT, brand partnerships and event activations
Advertise in MackayBe in the Room When Mackay Sings the 80s and 90s Back
Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects!
Plenty of ways to advertise in Mackay squeeze your message in between other things she's doing: driving, scrolling, unpacking the shopping, checking the roster. A Paint night turns that around. She has booked a table with her sister and her best mates, she has three hours, a blank canvas, a drink, and a host about to get the whole room singing a chorus she last belted out with the windows down on the way to the beach. In the last 24 months, 229 guests have spent a night out with Paint in Mackay, and two more singalongs are already scheduled for March 2027.
Paint Juicy CONNECT is how a business gets into those nights without spoiling them. This page covers Mackay only: the nights, the region and the ways in. The bigger picture, and every rule we play by, is laid out on the Paint Juicy CONNECT hub.
No. 01
Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects!
In Mackay that line is close to literal. Picture one table on a Friday night: a nurse off a run of night shifts, her sister home between swings, a school friend and a workmate who swore she couldn't paint and is now arguing about the colour of a sunset. Different rosters, one night they all managed to line up. Paint connects them to each other, to the songs of their youth and to a canvas worth hanging. CONNECT makes your business one more thread in that night, beside the good feelings rather than in front of them.
No. 02
Mackay's Paint record, night by night
We don't need to guess whether Mackay likes a big night out. Here is what Paint has run in town, straight from our own sales records, counted to 10/10/2026.
- Saturday 03/05/2025: an 80s and 90s paint and sip.
- Friday 12/09/2025: a 70s and 80s paint and sip.
- Friday 20/02/2026: Movie Magic paint, sip and sing.
- Thursday 06/08/2026 and Friday 07/08/2026: an 80s and 90s singalong, two nights back to back.
Across the 24 months to 10/10/2026, those five public nights brought 229 guests through the doors. Locals find what's coming next on the Mackay paint and sip events page.
What the record tells a Mackay advertiser
The 80s and 90s carry this town. Three of the five public nights were 80s and 90s rooms, and the theme opens the next Mackay pair as well. If your brand or your story belongs to those decades, this is your crowd.
Mackay will come out on a Thursday. The August pair started midweek, so a sponsor isn't locked into Saturdays.
Back-to-back pairs are becoming a Mackay habit: August 2026 ran two nights in a row, and March 2027 does it again.
Two March 2027 nights, already locked in
An 80s and 90s singalong on Friday 05/03/2027 and a 70s and 80s singalong on Saturday 06/03/2027 are both already on sale. Their listings and canvases are set, but the moments inside each room are still open, so talk to us early while there's runway to plan them properly.
No. 03
Mackay through a media planner's eyes
Before you put money into Mackay advertising of any kind, it helps to understand who calls this place home and what pays the bills. These figures come from the ABS Census and Mackay Regional Council's own economic profile.
Coming to a room near you
What a Paint night actually looks like
Real moments from Paint nights. Same energy, Mackay's room.
No. 04
Five ways a Mackay business could turn up on the night
The full CONNECT menu runs from audio and screens to tastings, gift bags, artwork and street crews. Here's how a few Mackay businesses could stack it, as scenarios, not past clients.
No. 05
Advertise in Mackay without shouting over the noise
You've probably had this argument with yourself. A radio package costs real money, and you're up against every other Mackay business on the same station. TV feels like a league you'd rather not pay to join. And the last boosted Facebook post collected a pile of likes without adding a single sale. None of that is you being fussy.
Now think about where those ads land. Radio is music and words, heard on the dawn drive to site or the trip home after a hospital shift, under the road noise, the navigation voice and whatever is happening in the back seat. The feed is a thumb flicking past your post on smoko. Both can earn their place. Neither lets her try what you do.
We contain the noise. For three hours a Paint room belongs to the night, with real people in real seats; across Paint a typical public night fills a room of around 50, and the big ones push past 100. Follow one guest through it. Doors open and your name rides in on the Paint radio session between two songs she knows. Once she's settled, it's on the screen where the room has one and on the card by her glass. Midway through she might be brushing your scene onto her canvas, or trying your product at a demo bar the venue has signed off. She leaves with your gift on her arm, and a fortnight later she's at your counter with a voucher for something free that was chosen with her in mind. Paint covers a big footprint across Queensland and New South Wales, and CONNECT is a new way of meeting people that we're pioneering, town by town.
The full case sits on the hub under why we contain the noise, and the owner-sized version is on our small business advertising page.
No. 06
Mackay's soft spot for the 80s and 90s, and the brands that belong in it
Paint are peak nostalgia makers. Each theme is designed to pull a whole room back into the decade it loved most, and in Mackay that decade has mostly been the 80s and 90s, with a 70s and 80s room and a night of movie favourites thrown in. The opening riff of a 90s anthem rings out and a table of women who met an hour ago are suddenly word-perfect together. Nobody came to shop. They came to remember, and a brand tied to those years becomes part of a memory they're happy to keep.
Mackay is built for it. Council's heritage trail notes that Mackay was the fastest-growing town in Queensland during the 1930s, and the same trail still walks visitors past Art Deco buildings from 1937. If your business has decades of Mackay history behind it, you already own the kind of story these nights love. Picture a family jeweller that has been fitting engagement rings in town for generations owning the sponsored anthem at the 70s and 80s night on Saturday 06/03/2027, or a retro hits radio station, a throwback lolly brand or a vintage fashion store leaning into the 80s and 90s singalong the night before. Why that works, and which brands it suits best, is on the hub under peak nostalgia makers.
No. 07
Questions Mackay businesses ask
Our customers work FIFO and DIDO rosters. Will they ever be at a Paint night?
They can be. Mackay's nights have landed on a Thursday, three Fridays and a Saturday, and the back-to-back pairs give a swing worker two chances in the same week. An offer that stays valid for a few weeks matters even more here, because she might not be home again until her next break. Give it room to breathe and let the code tell you when she came in.
We're a resources or METS employer. Will it feel like a recruitment stall?
It shouldn't, and we won't let it. Presenting a night is about being known around town as a business worth belonging to, not collecting résumés between songs. There's no stand and no rep working the tables. Want to talk jobs? Give people a reason to find you afterwards.
Is early March a good time for a Mackay business to be seen?
It's handy timing. The pair lands in the first week of March, with the summer holidays behind everyone and Easter Sunday on 28/03/2027, so an offer that stays good for three or four weeks carries her right up to the long weekend. For a florist, a chocolatier, a salon or a boutique, that's a ready-made reason to come in.
Is it worth sponsoring both nights of a Mackay pair?
Often, yes. Both March 2027 nights fall on one weekend, so one delivery and one brief cover two separate rooms, and a code per night shows whether Friday or Saturday was keener on your offer. If budget only stretches to one, pick the theme that fits your brand best, 80s and 90s or 70s and 80s.
The Saturday night starts at 5pm. Does that change anything for us?
A little, and mostly in your favour. The 70s and 80s singalong on Saturday 06/03/2027 begins at 5pm, so guests head home while the evening is still young, with a whole Sunday ahead. For a café, a brunch spot or a weekend market stall, that's handy timing: a card in the bag can invite her in the next morning and stay good for weeks after, in case Sunday is already spoken for.
We've only just opened in Mackay. Is a Paint night a good way to say hello?
It's a friendly one. Council counts close to 11,000 new residents in a decade, and plenty of them are still choosing a café, a salon and a gym. A newcomer business can meet a whole room of locals at once, with an offer card that gives them a reason to walk in. Start small, learn what the code tells you, then build from there.
Your move
Get your Mackay business into the March 2027 pair
Mackay has turned out for Paint on a Saturday, on Fridays and even on a Thursday, and the next pair is already pencilled in for 05/03/2027 and 06/03/2027. Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects! Tell us what you sell, who your Mackay customers are and what you'd love them to do after the night, and we'll reply with a plan pinned to real dates.
Curious where else Paint is heading? Each state keeps its own live list of nights.
