Continental Outdoor Media has erected a mammoth-sized billboard with approximately 6000 shoes to fit into the shape of a Doom spray can. The billboard was 20 metres high and nine metres wide, and the shoes were placed across 20 panels (with each panel weighing 400 kilograms).
‘Our brief from TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris was to demonstrate that Doom is by far the most effective way to kill insects, but that this demonstration could only work on particular outdoor sites.
We had to ensure that a billboard, made entirely of shoes, was perfectly placed; in other words, a highway hoarding would not have worked. We needed people to ponder the billboard. So we chose a site across from Wits University where foot traffic and ‘dwell time” was high,’ said Andrew Hinks, Continental Outdoor Media’s operational manager.
He noted that the outdoor execution was technically challenging, but the operations team pulled it off on a very tight timeline.
Continental Outdoor Media’s operations team manufactured joints, stronger than the structure’s steelwork, to fit between sections. ‘We had to fit the bone structure to the building by drilling holes in the core of the concrete floors dividing the floors of the building,’ said Hinks.
He added that the team then painted the shoes the colours of the Doom can – around 18 colours were used. ‘The trick was to get every shoe, with its specific colour, in exactly the right place, otherwise we’d have had to deconstruct the entire billboard!’
‘The power of outdoor advertising lies in its potential scale and the endless scope of innovation. With creativity and technical excellence, we proved that anything is possible,’ said Hinks.
To view the making of the billboard: http://youtu.be/JgK2MmJuen8
