We felt slightly nervous on Monday 17th October. It was the launch of the brand new Scottish Children’s Lottery and we had our fingers firmly crossed that we would win the weather lottery!
We were part of a high profile event, sponsored by STV, to promote the launch of this new lottery. The Scottish Children’s Lottery will be raising funds for children across Scotland and it was important to everyone involved that the launch day was a huge success.
We had five, giant inflatable Lottery Balls ready to float up the River Clyde in Glasgow that morning and STV were standing by with their cameras. We needed the wind to be kind to us. Real lottery balls might bounce but we wanted these 3m branded inflatable Lottery Balls to bob gently along on the river. Thanks to careful planning and luck with the weather, the huge, branded inflatable balls looked stunning.
We often get requests from clients and agencies to make giant inflatables of all shapes and sizes and we know that inflatable balls of this size roll around. Which is great for a push ball but definitely not what you want for a floating giant Lottery Ball! Especially not one that’s going on a journey through Glasgow.
Our client was Fluid Branding. They contacted us and asked us to help them launch the Scottish Children’s Lottery with this memorable event. We took the artwork from the client and got to work on the design. Clients often tell us they value our attention to detail when it comes to getting the artwork “just right”. We do this by hand-painting the artwork for the best depth of colour, scaling the design around the shape and making use of as much space as possible.
When we got our brief from Fluid Branding and Scottish Children’s Lottery, we loved their idea. They wanted us to inflate 5 giant lottery balls and then tow them up and down the River Clyde. Everyone wanted to get maximum publicity for the event. It helped that the main sponsor was STV but we still needed to create a newsworthy spectacle. The plan was excellent. However, our challenge was to keep the inflatable balls stable on the River Clyde. Just to make life more interesting for us, the giant balls were to be towed behind a high powered speed boat.
It was essential for us to find a way to keep the inflatable lottery balls stable. Luckily, Mark had an inspired idea. We set each inflatable ball on an inflatable ring, a bit like the inner tubes water skiers use. These worked really well at stabilising the balls providing the speedboat didn’t go too fast!
We really were extremely lucky with the weather. Our day started at 5.00 AM and finished at 8.00 PM and we had rain on and off during the day. Importantly though, it kept fine while the balls were being inflated and deflated.
The event was a great success and the organisers were delighted. There is nothing like towing branded giant inflatable balls up and down the River Clyde to get social media networks buzzing! Best of all, people who saw the giant inflatable lottery balls on the river then signed up to the Lottery. At least 30% of the proceeds will go to local causes so it was a big win for Scottish children too.
STV were delighted with the response to the inflatable balls and that meant our client and we were thrilled too.
Emma from STV said:
“On behalf of David, Jamie and I, we just wanted to thank everyone for such a great execution on the day. From set up and through until de-rig everything went so smoothly.”
And Kyle from Fluid Branding said:
“Great feedback from the client. I just wanted to thank you guys personally for everything. Please pass this thanks on to both Martin and Rob as well. You guys represented us very professionally.”
So if you need inflatables for a big event or publicity campaign, give us a ring on 01295 278600. We know what we’re doing!