Our New Favourite Toy

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THE BIG KAHUNA ROTOMOULDER

THE BIG KAHUNA ROTOMOULDER – One of the biggest in Australia

Keeping our tools and toys as cutting-edge as our commissioned projects, the Big Kahuna team recently unveiled our newest pride and joy, The Big Kahuna Rotomoulder. We built this huge piece of equipment for members of the art and advertising community to create custom-manufactured, lightweight, hollow castings – a service usually provided by “industry” for those with eyes set on mass production.

Rather than limiting the pattern to suit the machine, the versatility of The Big Kahuna Rotomoulder makes it ideal for creating just one or two custom castings because the machine can be adapted to suit the pattern.  With a two-metre-by-two-metre steel frame and variable gear ratios, our huge piece of equipment is reportedly the largest in the Australian arts scene.

Australia’s premier contemporary artist Hany Armanious has already taken this new toy of ours for a spin. Best known for his innovative sculptural work, Armanious will be the sole artist representing Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2011 where his several rotomoulded castings will be centrestage. To have such a prolific and high-profile artist practically a BKI resident is a great honour. We’ll see you in Venice Hany!

Filling a mould before setting it a spinnin’ in the BIG KAHUNA ROTOMOULDER

[youtube=http://youtu.be/2Cs-5tMgoxE]

To enquire about how you can put this bad boy to use, email us – bki@bki.com.au.

Bursting with Philanthropy

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Client: Starburst & Camp Quality

Brief: Develop coloured goo that we could then inject into water bombs for Starburst/ Camp Quality TVC

Still from Starburst’s Camp Quality TVC

As premier commercial artists and industrial designers, BKI applies a professional eye to every single aspect of our projects. For Camp Quality’s Starburst-sponsored commercial, we turned that eye to the art of filling water bombs – or, more precisely, 5,000 water bombs with coloured goo.

In support of Camp Quality (the children’s family cancer charity), Starburst “donated their colour” transforming their packaging (featuring Camp Quality) to simple black and white plus a $100,000 check to help fund Camp Quality’s new high school performance program, the Teenage Alchemist.

Starburst’s Camp Quality packaging

Click here to see dozens of Camp Quality teens utterly destroy a pristine, white set with our goo-filled bombs in a matter of minutes. (Thankfully, we didn’t have to clean up in between takes!)


Helping Sensodyne Help More Australians Enjoy Ice-Cold Indulgences

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Client: Sensodyne (GlaxoSmithKline)

Agency: C4

Brief: Re-interpret the award-winning Sensodyne Chill Test campaign for smaller scale promotions

Sample of the in-store Sensodyne Chiller Units BKI custom designed & built

Having sensitive teeth is an issue BKI takes seriously. There are a lot of fantastic things that sensitive teeth can’t handle like ice cream, slurpees and cold beer. With that, Sensodyne is doing a great thing for mankind by providing a solution with their toothpaste that relieves the pain of sensitivity. In 2008, C4 approached us to help Bellamyhayden’s client Sensodyne get an edge above their competition and help Australians measure their sensitivity with a Sensodyne Trade Chiller Unit massive experiential marketing campaign in shopping centres around the country.

More information on the awards the Chill Test won…

The Sensodyne Chill Test engaged with customers at 20 Westfield shopping centres over the span of 20 weeks for total of 225,000 interactions.

The effort was such a huge triumph that Bellamyhayden (now merged with Naked) won the Grand Prix at the 2009 Media Federation Awards as well as the top award in the Food and Grocery category. Sensodyne was keen to capitalise on this success so C4 came back to BKI to create a smaller scale version of Sensodyne’s Chill Test that they could roll out in Priceline stores around Sydney.

BKI drew inspiration from the original Sensodyne campaign (a large igloo set staffed by four “toothfairies”) to imagine and create stand-alone, call-to-action units in a below-the-line strategy to encourage people to shop for Sensodyne toothpaste rather than their competitors at the store level.

Original Sensodyne Chill Test Campaign (left) and re-invented Chiller Unit

Bankwest’s Doris & Her Ducklings

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Client: Bankwest

Agency: St Andrew’s Australia

Brief: Create a character costume for Bankwest’s insurance happiness character Doris the Duck

Doris chatting with the ladies at Bankwest reception

Bankwest launched their insurance happiness character, Doris the Duck, late last year and St Andrew’s Australia approached BKI on their behalf to bring her to life. The brief was to create a Doris costume that could be worn for promotional events. Never one to create the stock standard, BKI put their stamp on Doris with modern techniques and materials on a tight budget.

In the end, we delivered a specialty piece with a neat solution for an immensely satisfying result. Doris is a large, cost-friendly character that is easily adjustable to different wearers – and quite spritely for a 10-foot tall Duck a l’Orange!


Some of the more technical details about Big Kahuna’s design for Doris

Doris pre-feathering (left) and getting ready for her big flight to Perth

Doris doing her thing at a Bankwest function in Perth

More photos of Doris…