Is exhibition the new promotional innovation? I know, that sounds like a mouthful, so let’s get straight down to the general jist. 2010 has marked a new era of the use of visual promotion and I reckon this is only the beginning…
Let me take you back to earlier this year. May, to be specific. David Cameron had moved into Number 10, our England team was geared up for what promised to be their best World Cup yet (a-hem) and London was hit by an elephant invasion. No, don’t adjust your computer screens, you read correctly. Picture the scene - I’m walking through Hyde Park when suddenly I come across a giant elephant decorated to look like a panda. Or a giant panda, shaped to look like an elephant, depending on how you look at it. Sitting next to it was a second one – this time donned trunk to foot in athlete’s gear (complete with headband, very fetching). As I carried on down the path I noticed a third and fourth – and it didn’t take long to discover that actually, these elephants weren’t just dotted around the park, they had invaded London. 261 individually decorated elephants spread across more than 100 venues in the centre of town, all designed to raise awareness of the charity, The Elephant Family.
Genius. 261 elephants, 261 talking points. From their eye-catching and quirky designs, to their proximity to every major tourist sight in London, to the fact that they were sodding great big elephants, you couldn’t miss them! Such a simple idea, such an immense amount of interest – I think it’s safe to say that it has ground-breaking potential and could spawn many exciting ideas for the future.
Trafalgar Square didn’t manage to escape the elephant invasion, but our peanut-loving friends could only play second fiddle to the Square’s own exhibition, known now simply as “The Fourth Plinth”. Last year, it was left to the hands of the public when they offered a scheme allowing people to exhibit whatever they wanted for an hour each, over 100 days. This year it has played host to more traditional artworks – a giant ship in a bottle, to talks of a huge Battenberg made out of bricks… so what next year? Could the Fourth Plinth prove to be an advertisers dream? It might not be in-keeping with Trafalgar Square’s theme, but in the ever-increasing commercial environment that we find ourselves – let’s not forget that Piccadilly Circus, a square popular purely for its feature of lit-up advertisements, is one of London’s biggest hotspots - it could be the next progressive step. Only time will tell.
Heading South of the river now, and onto one of the highlights of our sporting calendar – Wimbledon. Again, imagine this… you’re heading down to SW19, squashed like a sardine on a District Line train that you’ve probably waited at least half an hour for, all to queue up for three hours in the hope that you can catch a glimpse of your favourite tennis stars in action. The only consolation is the fact that there will be Pimms on tap. That was until some unnamed genius decided to transform Southfields station into its very own Centre Court. We’re talking Astroturf, court markings, gazebos - the works. American Express were the first sponsors, then HSBC… well, 2010 saw the station sponsored by ASDA and its strawberries. All of a sudden the atmosphere when you step off that sweaty tube becomes one of excitement, a buzz in the air, a spring in your step and excitement sweeping through you as you head down the road towards the fun-filled day that awaits you. (And I bet ASDA’s strawberry sales went through the roof too.)So what does 2011 have in store? None of these ideas were particularly new, but the past 12 months have seen them move onwards and upwards to the next step of creative sparkle. Who knows what next year could bring, but I sure can’t wait to see what’s coming soon to a London landmark near you…
