Earlier this year Atlantic Lottery hosted "Step up to the Plate - Générosité dans votre assiette" a luncheon here in Moncton in support of the Food Depot. During the event, they featured this video to help paint the picture of the wonderful facility and the important work the food depot does.
Razor worked with Botsford Productions who generously donated their time to produce this video.
Or: how we made two giant 8' blue lottery balls crush some cars.
About a year ago Lotto Max was launched in Canada. Razor Creative was fortunate to be asked to help play a part. The Lottery wanted something in this region to create some buzz and excitement on launch day.
Our idea was to create the illusion that a giant Lottery Ball had fallen out of the sky and crushed the vehicle of an unsuspecting person in both Halifax and Moncton. Many of you may have seen seen the displays (you couldn't miss them).
What you may not know is the story behind the project. Shortly after the event, we started to create a video that told the behind the scenes of how it all came together. We didn't really have a script so Rich and I just sat one afternoon and started talking, and this is where we ended up. It's been a busy year, so we just got around to finishing it.
Thanks to Dan, Jean-Marc and the team at Botsford Productions for all their help with the project and video.
Here's some more behind the scenes details on how it all came together.
When we were awarded the project and had creative approval, we only has about 10 business days to execute. So we needed a plan - and a partner. Working with Hansen Signs of Moncton we figured out a way forward.
1. Weld a steel frame together 2. Cover it with shrink wrap 3. Spray with foam insulation 4. Scape and sand to get a perfect ball shape 5. Prime and paint 6. Apply branding decals 7. Get vehicles and crush their roof 8. Install and secure the balls 9. Industrial shrink wrap car and ball together 10. Deliver
Here's the directions we shared with our supplier - Hansen Signs on how we thought the balls should be built.
We needed a couple of suitable vehicles. We looked on Kijji and found a couple of beauties being sold "for parts":
A nice Nissan Sentra:
Canada's best selling Mini Van - the Dodge Caravan
The two wire frames
One frame covered in plastic:
Close-up of the one of the balls in production
In the shop - getting ready for foam
Smoothing out some rough parts
Sanded - with the some of the dips filled in with crack filler
Sanding down the ball
Having a coat of paint applied
Max decal being applied
One of the finished balls
In the shop and ready to go
We even did up custom license plates for each vehicle (the spelling mistakes are on purpose as these are spoof plates)
The Hansen Boom truck about to inflict damage
Operating the controls
Doing some damage
Smashing the roof
Getting the van ready
I must say how impressed I was with how well built the van was. It took considerable effort to crush down the roof. We own a much newer Caravan and I know I feel safer driving it knowing how solidly constructed they are.
Feeling like the King of the world
Rich trying to drive the car
We used an overhead crane to lower the balls into place.
Getting the car for Halifax up onto the trailer.
Strapping the ball into place - we had to make sure it would stay and not roll away.
Getting close to being ready
We brought in a campany to shrink wrap the car and ball for the trip to halifax. These are the guys who wrap boats for shipment. When they were first contacted about the job, they thought we were joking.
Nicely wrapped and aero-dynamic
In place in Halifax
Moncton installation
The final result: the other side:
Winners of the first major Lotto Max prize in front of the display in Riverview
And finally, once again, a HUGE thanks to everyone at Atlantic Lottery. None of this would have happened without you.
Sure, you could just buy a "carrying solution" for the new square iPod nano, but where's the fun in that? Wired shows you how to turn your old wristwatch into a nanowatch -- just take the old strap off, and use the nano's clip to attach it all together. Of course, it depends on your old watch strap, but even if yours doesn't work quite as well as the one that Wired uses, I'm sure a weekend with some Crazy Glue and a few spare parts would probably do it right.
Brian Chen is exactly right -- Apple should totally get behind this nanowatch thing. Add some apps and a camera to the nano's little square touchscreen, and that'd turn it into the real Dick Tracy product. I think it'll take a while (Apple likely doesn't want to fragment the iOS line too much too quickly), but I think that, as more applications pop up for a small touchscreen device like this, we might eventually see Apple unlock a little more possibility with it.
Stephen Brander is a thinker, ponderer, marketer and writer of stuff. He is a co-owner of Razor Creative, a Moncton-based advertising, marketing, branding and design shop serving world-class clients in New Brunswick, Canada and around the world.
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